The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-06-03
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BY RODNEY BUTCHER
NEA Service Writer

WaShlngtOn-When Senator Alpef.
w. Barley of Kentucky delivers the
keynote speech at the Democratic
national convention, as he probably
will, it would seem as if mutual fore
bearance might be the better part o..
valor for all concerned, for Senator
Barley has ahead Of him one OF the
most difficult of all acts in these
Political F'ollies Of 1882"
It would seem as if Senator Barley
had better soft-pedal the tariff issue
which his party has trumpeted so
raucously in it's attacks on the Repub-
licans in the last two years.
NO LAUGHS, PLEASE
And it would seem as if the dele
gates had better prepare to refrain
from bursting into laughter in case
Senator Barley starts larruping Re-
publican tariffs or to let well enough
alone in case he says nothing about
the tariff at all.
AS for what Senator Barley and
the convention had better do about
the prohibition issue when the senator
gets up there on the platform, one is
not quite so sure.
But perhaps the safest bet would be
for the senator to keep very quiet
about it and for the convention not to
go shouting to him for a few words on
that subject.
X X y
ROW IN SIGHT!
TO tell the truth, it has been SEEM
ing to some Democrats that some
thing very drastic ought TO be done
about Senator Barley, despite the
fact that the Roosevelt forces selected
him for keynoter and even though he
has been approved for the job by the
arrangements committee.
When Senator Barley voted to put
prohibitive tariffs on oil and coal into
the tax bill terrible groan arose from
that particular group.
And vets in the party, who observed
him voting against beer OH the eve of
a convention which undoubtedly will
adopt a wet platform plank, recalled
with equal anguish that Barley had
long been known as an orator for the
Anti-Saloon League and rigid dry.
~ *
BARKLEY WANTS TO KEEP JOB
1t appears that Senator Barley
likes the idea of being senator and
likes the idea of being a keynoter. He
likes the idea of being both. But he
likes the idea OF being a senator most.
There's coal in them thar hills of Ken
lucky and Barley, like most other
senators, felt the need of acting for
his back home interests.
His vote for the oil tariff, however,
laid him open to the charge that he
had been persuaded to trade an oil
vote for coal votes.
Barkley's votes and the subsequent
resentment demonstrated again the
tough time the Democrats have been
having with that tariff issue of theirs.
X X X
FEW ISSUES LEFT
There aren't many issues between
the parties, heaven knows, and the
Hawley-S moot tariff is about the only
weapon the Democrats can use with
any plausibility to make people think
that the Republicans are at least part
" responsible for the depression.
They have been using the tariff for
that purpose month after month, only
to find lately a group of Democratic
senator's helping sneak oil, coal, lum-
Der and copper tariffs into the tax bill.
No wonder Senator Cordell Hull Of
Tennessee, perhaps the bitterest enc
my of Republican tariff policy, who
had led the fight for Barkleys choice
as temporary chairman, threw up his
hands in dismay and is understood to
be now opposing Barley for the key
note job.
WHICH Is THE SILLIER?
It has been reported that Hull and
others were actively working to get
Barley to withdraw in order to save
the party embarrassment and that
they might succeed.
The question seems to have been
whether a Barley withdrawal, forced
or caused by persuasion, would make
the Roosevelt forces or the party to
look sillier than the party would look
to be having Barley as its keynoter.
Still, when you recall how success
fully Republican orators keynoted in
1924 and 1928 with never a mention
of the corruption that had been dis