Evening star., 1932-06-30
The Political Mill
By C.. Could Lincoln.

it, They have made repeal of national
prohibition a party issue. I'VE (the
Democrats favor the repeal Of the
eighteenth amendment" Just like that.
No euuivocation there. They stand as
the party of repeal. The Republicans
are the party of revision. Where do
the drys get off with such choice
staring them in the face? 1t does not
seem possible they will go to the Demo-
Gratis, even to spite the Republicans,
who have abandoned the ultra dry
cause. Their alternative Is 10 pacK
the Republicans as the lesser evil or to
put up a third independent party. The
chances are that they will much prefer
President Hoover. on the Republican
plank pledging the G. o. P. to retain
the gains" made under the eighteenth
amendment. to any Democrat who Is
likely TO be nominated standing on the
Democratic plank.
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Perhaps the Democrats have made a
mistake in going so far, though it is
becoming more and more doubtful as
the weeks go by whether there are any
last-ditch supporters of the eighteenth
amendment left in this country. That
is in sufficient numbers to amount to
anything in a national convention. 1t
does seem as though the Democrats
could have accomplished their purpose
just as well by adopting the minority
report on the prohibition plank.
pledging & definite repeal amendment
to be submitted to state constitutional
conventions. without attempting to
make all the dry members of the House
and Senate from Democratic states
subscribe to the declaration that I'VE
favor repeal of the eighteenth amend
ment" and also modification of the
Volstead act so as to permit beer and
wines. However, that is thing of the
past. The Democratic nominee for
President could, If he followed the pre-
cedent established by Alfred E. Smith
in 1928, send the convention message
after he shall have been nominated
saying that he does not agree with the
partys prohibition plank, but prefers
the minority plank If Roosevelt be the
nominee, he might find it more difficult
to carry the Western and border
States on the wrtnging wet platform
now adopted. However, Roosevelt Is
himself for repeal, as he has said, so
it would not help him much now to
come out for the submission plank, and
would probably hurt him in states like
New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode
Island, where he needs strength.
OF course, if the convention should
nominate Gov. Albert c. Ritchie Of
Maryland for President, the Maryland
Governor could ride along on the plat
NTrff1 arf4 fArt II DC
Ritchie's plank itself, and also Al
Smiths.
The Roosevelt leaders and the New
York Governor himself made no at
tempt to line up his supporters in the
Resolutions Committee in favor of a mere
submission of repeal of the prohibition
amendment, except perhaps in the sub
committee of the Resolutions Commit
tee. There a majority OF the platform
drafters favored the minority plank.
But when the matter was taken to the
full committee things got very much
cut Of hand and the Roosevelt leaders,
having an experience with the two
thirds rule issue in recent days, de-
clded that this was one fight they had
better keep hands of.
Henry H. Curran, president Of the
Association Against the Prohibition
Amendment. has doped it out that the
Democrats will benefit by adopting a
plank placing the party on record as
being willing to work actively for the
repeal Of national prohibition. Here is
the way he puts it:
There is obvious advantage of such
position in the II presidentially
pivotal States of Vermont. Massachu-
sets, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
York, New Jersey Pennsylvania. Ohio,
Indiana. Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan,
Wisconsin, wyoming, Arizona, Nevada
and washington.
These States cast 259 out Of 531
votes in the electoral collage. And
one Of them can be carried by either
party in this year of 1882. The senti-
ment for repeal in these States is so
strong that their vote in the Literary
Digest poll was about 80 per cent for
repeal, while their vote in the House
OF Representatives was 126 for the
Beck Linthicum resolution to 79
against, and the delegates from these
States to the Republican National
Convention voted 387 for the Bingham
plank against 1853 for the Hoover
cratic convention in 10 of these 18
States have declared fatty in favor of
repeal of the eighteenth amendment
these 10 States being Vermont, Rhode
Island. New York, New Jersey, Penn
Sylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan,
Wisconsin and Nevada.
This tactical set-up for the Demo-
Gratis gives them a practical political
reason for going the whole way by
pledging the party to work actively
for repeal instead of confining itself to
a mere neutral and -commital sub
mission of the question to the people 4"
There you have the wet argument
for party alignment in favor Of the re-
peal of the eighteenth amendment.
Probably the drys will have something
to say about this later. They have
been waiting until the Democrats acted
in convention on the prohibition issue.
promising then to make a decision re-
garding the two old parties.
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Wanted. a martyr to be thrown to
the Roosevelt lions. This is the object
of a search on the part of the anti
Democrats since they as
sembled in Chicago They want. in
other words, candidate WHO is willing
to offer himself as a sacrifice in the
stop Roosevelt movement. Obviously,
they say, the man who actually stops"
the New York Governor and prevents
his nomination is not likely to be nomi-
mated for President himself The last
ditch Roosevelt men will prevent that
1t is necessary, however, to have one
man behind whom the anti-RooSevelt
delegates can center If they are to hold
together long enough to prevent the
of Roosevelt. AL Smith
offered himself as the political sacrifice
in the stop-McAdoo campaign of the
allied candidates back in 1924. This
year Smith might like to offer himself
again as sacrifice to stop Roosevelt.
The trouble there, however, lies in the
fact that the other favorite son candi-
dates and lesser candidates would not
hand their delegates over to Smith.
They fear that would be the end of
their own aspirations in this conven-
ton. where it is unlikely that Smith
could command 200 delegates of his own.
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