Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-06-15
Something to Shout About.

Practically all of the color and the
excitement at Chicago is furnished by
the left-wing vets those ardent advo-
Gates of repeal" whose f1amboyant
banners and parades and monster mass
meetings for the time being led some
convention to suggest the possibility of
Q stampede" when. as a matter of
fact, nothing was more improbable.
Theirs was the excitement that spread
through the hotel Hobbies and seized
the spotlight in an effort to convince
the delegates that only one important
issue confronts the American people
today. and that issue is the ruthless
scrapping of the eighteenth amend
ment and all its works.
Their demonstrations, Of course, are
significant II only by contrast with the
picture four years ago at Kansas City
But most of the uproar is superficial
There never was much chance that
the clamor would penetrate beyond the
tightly sealed doors of the committee
rooms, where the actual work OF the
merely because the paraders may lose
their heads and the mass meeting ora
tors grow red in the face, 1t does not
follow that the responsible leaders of
great political party will lose theirs
and allow themselves to be swept OF
their feet by an artificially manufac-
tured tidal wave.
For the tidal wave at Chicago which
finds expression in the loud talk for
repeal and nothing short OF repeal is,
OF course, manufactured. That veteran
observer at conventions, Mark Sullivan,
is struck by the contrast between the
atmosphere he left in Washington ana
the atmosphere he found in Chicago.
Here the Congress, ct the close OF
long and painful session marked by
feverish attempts to do something that
would constructively combat the ef-
fects of an unparalleled national calam-
ity, is literally beseiged by strange
army Of ragged men whose real mis-
sion has been to present, with stark
and tragic realism. a picture of what
has happened to once prosperous
America. Thousands Of men are living
In shacks of tin or wood or cloth or
straw within sight Of the Capitol dome.
The atmosphere is tense, not SO much
with the expectancy Of what might
happen as with the painful knowledge
Of what already has happened.
But In Chicago the traditional
visitor from Mars would doubtless be
led to the belief that the one thing
wrong with the United States is the
eighteenth amendment; that the source
Of all iniquity moral and economic, is
the eighteenth amendment; that the
cure of every Ill lies in repeal of the
eighteenth amendment; that the repeal
of the eighteenth amendment would be
followed by prosperity. sobriety, tenn
perance in all things and the abolition
OF crime.
This wildly extravagant emphasis
upon one thing might be explained in
Chicago, as the underlying causes OF
the bonus march have been explained
in Washington. The crowds in Chicago
must have something tangible with
which to deal, something real and
understandable to shout about The
crowds cannot become enthusiastic over
schemes Of the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation any more than they can
shout themselves hoarse over the Gar
ner bill. They choose repeal of prohi-
billion, just as the veterans choose the
bonus, as means of lodging more
complex and abstract problems. The
hungry man in Chicago has probably
been led to believe that when prohibit
ton is repealed he will have food, just
As the wretched veteran on the Ana
costa fats has been led to believe that
when tine bonus is paid his troubles
will end and a new day will have
dawned.