Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-06-16

form by James R. Garfield. chairman
Of the Resolutions Committee. was fol-
lowed perfunctorily, if at all When
he reached the plank dealing with pro-
hibltlOn he vas interrupted by cat
calls from the repealers.
Wet demonstrations were staged be-
fore the meeting really got under way.
with parades around the floor of the
hall i'll which a dozen or more State
standards were carried. One banner
read: We want repeal-no bunk" In
the Illinois part Of the parade lorg
string of GROWERS" which contained
beer at the start. was carried.
Senator Bingham of Connecticut pre-
sented the minority repeal plank.
Towering six feet four inches n stature,
high above the heads Of the others on
the speakers platform. and with his
shock of gray. almost Whit. hair. the
Connecticut Senator was a picturesque
first mention Of repeal in his minority
report. A parade Of wet delegates
started. but it did not last long and
the paradcrs were only small minority
of the delegate body. A fight in the
Washington delegation over the State
standard, which one Of the delegates
wanted to carry in the parade, was the
principal part of the excitement.
Bingham ridiculed the gains from
prohibition claimed in the majority
plank, declaring that they were gains
in drunkenness. in crime, loss OF reVe-
nue.. His speech was repeatedly cheered.
Garfield Holds His Head.
Come clean on giving us right to
vote on this question of retention or
repeal of the eighteenth amendment,
the Senator demanded.
When he yielded to Garfield to defend
the majority plank, II was clear that
Garfield was in for a bad quarter OF an
hour. The Ohioan. son of the late
President Garfield. Secretary of the In
terror himself under Roosevelt. and a
leader of the Bull Moose party in 1912,
kept his head and his temper although
he scored the hecklers and the booing
vets. He insisted that the majority
had asked for a constructive proposal in
its prohibition plank.
Shall we give up all We have
gained?" he demanded. Think of evils
of the saloon of which our young people
know nothing
Here he was interrupted and not per-
mitted to continue by the crowd in the
galleries, until Smell had threatened to
clear out all the visitors.
The wet and dry speeches followed.
with DR.. Nicholas Murray Butler Of
Columbia University demanding the
repeal plank and Secretary Ogden Mills
Of the Treasury. another wet New
Yorker. sustaining the majority plank.
Secretary Mills by his forceful argu-
ment held the crowd in check and he
was roundly applauded from the floor
hv GplpUatpc VI hn InI
Mills said he had no sympathy with
the fanatic vets or the fanatic drys.
The latter, he said, would keep the evils
of present-day conditions and permit
no revision of the eighteenth amend
ment The ardent vets, clamoring for
repeal. left the voters no choice between
the old evils of the saloon and the pres
ent evils of the speakeasy.
He told the convention that both the
ma jority and the minority planks had
one thing in common, they proposed to
permit the States to determine for
themselves whether they desired to per-
NIT the manufacture and sale and con-
sumption of alcoholic beverages. But
while the majority plank made it GER
tain there would be no return of the
saloon and its attendant evils, the
minority plank merely expressed hope
and sought to make promise that the
saloon would not be brought back.
The prohibition plank adopted by the
convention, in the opinion of moderate
wet Republicans, goes much further
than had been expected of the G. o. P.
in its national platform. At the same
time these Republicans insisted that
it could well be supported by dry Re-
publicans.
DIR. Daniel E. Polling. one of the dry
organization leaders, said of the plank
that he believed it would be attacked
more bitterly by the repealist vets than
it would by the drys. DR.. Edwin C..
DinWiddie, another of the dry leaders,
satisfactory to the drys.
The plank was so drawn as to
put the Republican party again on rec
ord for law enforcement and against
notification of the eighteenth amend
ment as long as it remains part of the
Constitution. 1t declares against the
mere submission of proposal, either
to retain or to repeal the eighteenth
amendment. This in effect is declara-
ton against repeal of the eighteenth
amendment 1t contends, however,
that the people should be permitted to
pass on a proposal to amend the Con-
stitutioh still further to remedy evils
that apparently now exist.
Saloon May Be Issue.
The G. o. P. in its platform has
practically declared for revision of the
eighteenth amendment. If the Demo-
Gratis. in their zeal for the wet course,