Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-01

Wednesday. Then, on Thurs
day 2,t,o March an.n :. win wi S occur
major Importance special
and extraordinary meeting of the Dem
ecratic National Committee.
Possibly the expiring of this Congress
ought not to pass without repeating a
faint witticism once perpetrated at the
death of a preceding Congress by the
late Thomas r. Marshall, of Indiana,
then Vice President, and by virtue of
that post presiding officer of the Senate.
The customary formula for the Vice
Presidents announcement as Congress
ends its last day is, Il declare the Sen
ate adjourned sine die that is,
without date" Marshall, whose Hoosier
humor and common sense was accom-
panied by a schooling that included
Latin, varied the formula with impish
Antent, saying, II declare the Senate
adjourned sine Deo' without God"
Which witticism may serve the USE
full purpose of recalling some ancient
truths, including the one which says
that the world does not necessarily
grow worse. If, to much of the public,
the present Senate seems without
God"-why, so did the Senate of Tom
Marshalls day. Nevertheless, the coun-
try survived and enjoyed fairly happy
30 years after Marshall retired.
nlSVOrlc hOW FFe0Icte0s
II the present Senate seems to be
not favored by the presence OF God,
no do many predict that the session
Of the Democratic National Committee
next Thursday will lack the presence
Of at least that one of the gods whose
benefcent function is to promote peace
and harmony. 1t is predicted, indeed,
by the prophets of pesSimism that the
Democrats when they get together on
Thursday win have a historic row.
This forecast rests on the expectation
that the committee will try to arrive
ct formal party policy on prohibition
More narrowly, the provocative expec-
tation Is that the present wet officials
Of the party, MeSsrs. John j. Raskob
and Jouett Shouse, will ask the COM
mittee to go wet, and that the fight
viii consist of the drys opposing that
program
Preliminary cannonading for the con-
hict has already been heard. Hardly
had Chairman Raskob issued his call
for the meeting when the wet Demo-
Gratis and dry Democrats began to ex-
change dirty looks" Wet Democratic
Senator Tydings Of Maryland hap
pened to be making a wet speech in
the Senate Whereupon dry Democratic
Senator Caraway, of Arkansas. taking a
chip from the woodbox he habitually
carries on his shoulder, asked rydings
whether the wet sentiments the latter
was proclaiming were the sentiments
that Raskob and the other vets would
try to get the Democratic National
COMMITTEES to adopt at its meeting.
Raskob Held mistake"
There have been many similar ex-
changes Of premonitory turbulence. Dry
Democratic Senator Morrison of North
Carolina says that wet Mr. Raskob, as
chairman of the Democratic National
Committee, is a monumental mistake"
and implies that the chief business Of
the coming meeting should be to get
rid OF him. The principal Democratic
newspapers in the country, anticipating
that the coming meeting would be a
contest, tried to count the ranks of the
eombatants. The estimate was that the
representatives of rs states would be
dry, 20 wet and doubtful. These fig
ares, If accurate, would seem to COM
pose the elements for an evenly bal
hnced flght-long and bitter.
Nevertheless the present writer thinks
the Democrats may get through their
meeting next Thursday without fratri-
eide. without mayhem, murder or other
form of fatality. One realizes as one
says this that to predict a meeting of
Democrats will be unaccompanied by
controversy is to predict the abnormal.
It Is true the cleavage in the Demo-
cratic party on prohibition is wide and
deep; across the chasm dry Democrats
and wet Democrats glover at each other
with malevolence not equal by any
cleavage In the Republican party. It is
true that sooner or later the Demo-
krats are going to fight this question
put. And 1t is true that after the ulti-
mate fight the vets are going TO realize
She futility of their hope to overcome
prohibition through the agency Of the
Democratic party. All this, however,
k1ll wait until a considerable time after
Aext Tuesdays meeting.
Accord Is Possible.
For thinking the Democrats may get
Through Thursdays meeting without a
kow there are at least two reasons. In
The first place the Democratic National
Committee Is not Congress, nor the
Democrats in Congress. The National
Committee is organized on different
basis. As q consequence the personal
qualities Of the members Of the National
Committee differ from the personal
qualities of Senators and members OF
Congress.
The Democratic National Committee,
IKE the corresponding Republican Ma
eional Committee, is made up of two
members Zone man and one woman)
\
dependencies. They are chosen Except
In few States) by process which
does not include popular election. They
are chosen as a rule without going into
the mechanism in detaiD by small COM
nnittees made up of leading Democrats
In their respective States.
Members of the National Committee
are, in short, the type of person who
comes to the top through a mechanism
of committees as the expression of con-
fidence held in their good sense and
other steady going qualities by small
groups of their fellow men who have
been in close contact with them.
Have Common Sense.
Because members of the National
Committee are chosen in this way they
differ from the other sort Of leader who
arrives in the Senate or House or other
forum by the processes of popular cleo
ton. The members of the National
Committee as q rule are not orators
and do mot have the defects that go
with that quality. They do not enjoy
INDUCING in oratory for oratory's sake.
They do not get into oratorical rows
merely because a crowd is looking on
and for the delectation of the crowd.
They are able to see crowd or gall
eery without being thereby irresistibly
bmoved to make speech, preferably an
emotional speech. They are not sub
aect TO debauches Of oratorical auto
entoxication.
Members of the National Committee
are, In short, persons who can subor-
dinate oratory TO wisdom, controversy
20 common sense; who can refrain from
fighting for the sake of benefits TO be
gained by compromise or peace.
II is precisely the realization OF these
BENEFITS of peace that may enable the