Evening star., 1932-03-02

Continued From First Page)
may well, 1t is insisted, obtain a ma
jority vote of the convention itself.
The Republican group favoring re-
submission plank In the party platform
takes the view that the Republican
party cannot win in the coming nation
al elections if it retains the same posi-
.tion toward prohibition that it main
tanned in its platform in 1922 and 1924.
Its leaders, and they include many high
officials of the Federal Government
outside of Congress, believe that the
swing away from national prohibition
among the people has been so marked
in recent years, and particularly since
the depression set in, that a party
which proposes no change in existing
conditions cannot win.
Democratic Gains Cited.
They point, for example, to the re-
suits in congressional by-electionS to I'LL
House vacancies within the last year.
In Texas, in New Hampshire. in Michi-
gan, in New Jersey, Dem ocrats succeed
ed in these by-elections to seats held
previously by Republicans. And in each
instance the victor was wet, and the
Republicans who held these seats had
been listed as drys. except in the case
of Wurzbach of Texas.
They point, too. to the fact that the
dry element of the Republican party in
Ohio. which was the home of the Anti
Saloon League of America for years, IS
having great difficulty in finding an out
standing man to run for the Senate this
year against the wet Senator Buckley,
Democrat. who triumphed over his dry
ReDublican 0DD0nent in 1890
On the other hand, the Republicans,
who favor some change in prohibition
in Ohio have a candidate in the pres
ent attorney general Of the State, Gill
bert Bettman Bettman is expected to
be nominated, although he has made
no formal announcement of his can
didacy. He lives in Cincinnati, and
although he has not been so closely
identified with the wet cause as has
Senator Bulkley, he will, it Is predicted,
run as a wet.
Point to Hollister Victory.
The Republican vets also point to the
only outstanding victory the party
achieved in the by-elections to the
House last Fall, that of Representative
John B. Hollister of the old Longworth
district in Ohio. Mr.. Hollister ran as
by $4,000 votes, although the lote
Speaker Longworth only received 500
ma jority in 1880.
The Literary Digest poll on the
eighteenth amendment, showing a pre-
dominant sentiment in many States for
repeal of the prohibition amendment,
IS given, too, as an indication of the
change of sentiment among the people
Literary Digest polls in the past have
been singularly accurate in forecasting
political election results.
The Republicans firmly expect the
Democrats to nominate a wet candidate
for President.
With a wet candidate on the Demo-
cratic national ticket and President
Hoover running as the Republican
nominee on a platform that pledged
resubmission of the eighteenth amend
voters do?
That is the question which has been
agitating many of the Republican lead
ers who have considered the advis-
ability or -advisability of placing
referendum plank in the G. o. P. ma
tional platform.
Illogical, Vets Agree.
The vets in the party insist that 1t
would be illogical for the Republican
drys, under the set of circumstances
indicated. to vote for wet Democrat
for President or for wet Democratic
candidates for House, Senate and other
offices. They might wind up with q
Congress and a President who would
give them far more drastic wet meas
ures than would the Republicans.
On the other hand, it is contended
by the wet Republican leaders that If
the Republicans sponsor the dry cause,
with no referendum plank in the plat
form, wet Republican voters, feeling
strongly on the question, could, with
considerable degree of logic, vote a wet
Democratic ticket.
1t is admitted that fanatically dry
voters and their leaders might under
take to upset the Republican apple cart
If a referendum plank is placed in the
platform. But they are not believed
suffcient in number to Offset the Re-
publican losses at the polls If the G. o.
p. undertakes to make the campaign as
the dry party Of the Nation.
There are strong dry leaders among