Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-02
The Political Mill
By G. Could Lincoln

Every time q Democratic or Repub-
lican leader boards train with plans
to make one or more speeches in any
part Of the country outside Of Washing
ton, D. c., the shout goes UP that the
national campaign is under way. AS q
matter Of fact, the campaign to elect a
Democratic President in 1882 started
as soon as the Democrats could get
their wind after what happened in 1923,
and the campaign to re-elect President
Hoover has been under way since before
that. The latest speaking tour to be
announced is that Of J5uett Shouse,
chairman OF the Democratic National
Committees Executive Committee. Mr..
Shouse Is to invade old Republican
strongholds in the West-Iowa, where
he Is to speak at DeS Moines April 2,
and California, where he speaks in Los
Angeles, and then in Washington, where
Mr.. Shouse will be heard In Seattle.
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The chairman Of the Democratic Elk
ecutive Committee is making q wide
swing around the Great West. There
Is not the slightest doubt but what the
Democrats will do their utmost to win
over the West in the election of next
year. They are looking for great things
in the East, where the Republican party
is badly split over the prohibition queS-
ton and where unemployment has been
great in the industrial centers. In the
East the Democrats are strongly united
against national prohibition as it is
now practiced. With the aid Of Re-
publican vets and those voters dis
gruntled because of business conditions,
they hope to carry some of these big
Eastern industrial States next year.
It is obvious that a wet Democratic
candidate for President, however, will
not shine so strongly in the West, so
the campaign is being directed and Will
be directed toward winning the West
to the Democratic standard on the
ground that the Democratic party Is
opposed TO the Smoot- Hawley tariff act
and the insistence upon the assertion
that the tariff act has been detrimental
to the farmers Of the country as well
as to the Industrial workers. The West
erners will be told that the @. 0. P. is
the party of privilege" working only
in the interests of the wealthy and
against the common people.
4 y +
II was only recently that another
prominent Democrat, Senator David I.
Walsh of Massachusetts, returned to
Washington from a speaking tour which
took him to Bethlehem, Pa; Natchez,
Miss, and Charleston, S. G. Senator
Walsh is q wet, but he Is not one OF
those advocating at this time making
the wet cause q party issue in the
platform of the Democrats next year.
It is obvious that ordinarily there Is
no particular reason for a Democratic
in the South, particularly in
and South Carolina. How
ever, the Democratic national organi-
zation sooner or later has TO convince
the dry States of the South that a
wet Democratic presidential nominee
from the North or West is not menace
to the prohibition cause for which the
States Of the South now stand.
On Jefferson day." April IL, the
birthday of Thomas Jefferson, there
will be Democratic meetings and
speeches all over the land. One Of the
largest and most important Of these
meetings will be the dinner given by
the National Democratic Club in the
Commodore Hotel In New York City.
Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt of the EN-
pire Stste and Senator Walsh Of Mas
sachuetts are to be two of the principal
speakers at that dinner. Gov. Roose-
welt still continues the outstanding hg-
ure In the race for the Democratic
nomination for President next year.
What he says at the coming Jefferson
day dinner will be observed with con.
siderable interest. Despite the fact
that Massachusetts, Democrats have
been for years strong supporters OF Al
fred E. Smith for the presidency. they
-. - CniF1y1Nrf
Gov. Roosevelt in the fight next year,
it Is believed.
The Republicans are not leaving the
field entirely to Democratic spell binders.
President Hoover himself, Is to make
eight or nine speeches within COM
paratiyely short time. While they viii
not be political speeches as such, never
theless they will give to the country the
views of the Chief Executive on i'm
portant subjects and will be widely
published. It was only q day or two
ago that Senator Dickinson OF Iowa
went on the nationwide hook-up OF
the Columbia Broadcasting Co. to dis
cuss why the Republican Party" Sen
ator Dickinson said in effect that while
the Democrats talked Of Thomas Jeffer-
son as the champion of human rights,
the Republicans had Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln, he insisted, did more to direct
the trend of the public mind toward in
dividual rights than any other American.
He described the O. o. p. as the party
of accomplishment"
1t Is not without interest that both
Chairman Shouse OF the Democratic
Executive Committee and Senator
Dickinson, in their speeches over the
radio, urged the voters Of the country
to look not to the more radical lead
erS at this time. Mr.. Shouse, speak
ing Of the ProgreSsives, referred to
them as o comparatively small group,
highly organized, whose purposes are
different from those of the Republic
cans - more patriotic, certainly less
selfish" But, he commended, this group
is largely q group of directors, dis
satisfied with things as they are but
frequently lacking constructive subSti-
tute. His appeal was to have the vo-
tiers turn to the Democratic party for
leadership.
Senator Dickinson took q rap at tie
Progressives, particularly Senator Nor
riS Of Nebraska, for urging that the
electoral college be abolished so that it
would be easier to break away from
political party ties. The Iowa Senator
declared that the country has always
thrived under a two-party system and
that it, along with the electoral COL
lege should be maintained. The chant
of the Progressives, however. Is that
neither the G. o. P. nor the party of
Thomas jefferson has advanced any
real constructive programs of legiSla-
ton to meet conditions as they exist,
and that the Progressives alone are put
ting forward such a program. At the
same time, the Progressives say there
is no chance of the organization Of q
new liberal party today. 1t looks, there
fore as though the fight next year will