Evening star., 1931-12-16
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Innocent bystanders at the Repub-
lican National Committee meeting in
washington thought it reminded them
little of people walking through
graveyard and whistling to keep their
courage I'D. Others. who claim to un-
derstand Republican psychology, COM
mented that G. O. P. parleys are al
ways Unconditional, even when the
party sun is shining 'Dogged" was the
temper in which the committee met.
according to one of its old and hard-
boiled members There was pretty
general consensus that, as Of today,
Republicans 1882 chances are gloomy
in the extreme. They continue to pin
whatever hope they have left on two
things-an improvement IN the times
and Democratic mistakes The enemy
errors on which Republicans count
can be made in two places, they say
first, in Congress- and, secondly, in
next June. There was one underlying
sentiment at the G. o. P. council Of
war, namely, that the supreme call OF
the hour, as Senator Fess put it, is to
sell Hoover" to the country. The ar
gument Is that amid their all-pervad-
ing crouch over depression. Republic
ans have committed the sin of selling
the administration short. They must
get on the right side of the Hoover
market If they expect to be saved
that's the sentiment that found wide
expression in committee circles.
-
Is the denomination of President
Hoover by his party a foregone con-
clusion? Ninety per cent of the men
and women who attended the commit
tee meeting agree that it is But there
was a stubborn minority which takes
issue with that theory. Their line of
reasoning is that there will be a nu-
cleus of uninstructed delegates at the
nominating convention. If times are
still bad and Republican prospects look
as discouraging as they do now, some
of these untrammeled delegates may
start a Drop Hoover" movement-so
the doubling Thomases have it doped
out Their argument will be that II
the party insists upon going to the
country in November with the President
at the head of the ticket, it will be
asking for certain defeat. A proponent
of this school of anti-Hoover thought
was asked where it would turn for
winning candidate He replied: ITO
Coolidge or Dawes" Coolidge could win,
he said on the bring ack-prosperity
issue. Dawes would command an in
vincihle combination of banking, big
business and farm support.
The New York Herald Tribune, whose
loyalty to the administration and Mr.
Hoover Is not to be doubted, has been
printing some letters from correspond
ents advoca ting the nomination of
To lie ~ !,
of New York as Republican candidate
for President next year. Presumably
"Jimmie's" boosters are of the wet
persuasion. Also they probably have
forgotten that it was the outraged
forces Of New York's dry womanhood,
under the embattled leadership of Ella
A. Bcole, that smothered his ambitions
to succeed himself in the Senate for a
third term In 1926.
Before Senator Arthur Capper left
Kansas for the new session of Congl ess,
a friend gave him a jug of apple cider.
His co-workers in the Capper building
noticed that he kept it on the outside
window ledge of his steam-heated office.
The Senator is a consistent dry. He
feared If he didn't plant the jug in the
cooler air out of DOORS its contents
might break the Kansas prohibition
law If not the Jug. So he took pre-
cautions to protect both.
x X
v. S. McClatchy of San Francisco,
spearhcad of the California Joint In
migration Committee finds in Japan's
conquest of Manchuria fresh justifica-
tion for opposing the idea of putting
Japanese on the immigration quota
basis I'VE see in current events In
Manchuria, Mr.. McClatchy writes this
observer, "a demonstration OF the thoc-
eughness with which Japan plans far
In advance her route Of progress toward
a fixed goal and takes ADVANTAGE of
every opportunity 10 make progress,