Evening star., 1932-07-21
The Political Mill
Bv C.. Could Lincoln.

' w.
slonal elections will tell the tale so far
as the submission Of q repeal or a re-
vision amendment to the Constitution,
dealing with prohibition, are concerned.
| The vets must elect enough wet men,
| bers or the drys must elect enough dry
members, tc control the situation. Many
| of the States. in their Republican and
Democratic conventions, have this year
taken very definite stands regarding the
prohibition question. Perhaps none was
J more surprising or showed more OF an
upset than the action OF the Indiana
Republicans in their State convention,
when they adopted a plank in their
State platform calling for repeal.
Indiana has been considered in the
past Overwhelmingly dry. 1t has had
the dryest State enforcement law. per-
haps. of all the States. 1t had the
greatest number Of members OF the krl
! Klux Klan, identified with the dry
cause in bygone years. Indiana m
deed, In its Republican convention TINS
wear offered an example OF the change
in sentiment on prohibition as striking
as the recent senatorial election in
North Carolina, where Reynolds, wet
candidate. defeated the dry Senator
| Morrison. Senator Jim" Watson, the
Republican leader OF the Senate, who is
going back to his home state De1ore long
to campaign for reelection, Is going to
/ stand on the Indiana State platform OH
| this wet and dry issue. Up in Connecticut,
, Senator Hiram Bingham, Republican,
will campaign as a foremost champion
! of the wet cause. He insisted upon
| bringing up in the Senate many times
| during the session just ended the pro-
posal that beer Of small alconollc con-
| tent be legalized without further delay.
He led the fight in the Republican Ma
tional Convention for plank in the
| national platform declaring for straight
/ repeal of the eighteenth amendment.
[ Out in some of the Western States,
| however. Republican senatorial candi-
| dates will take different position on
! the liquor question. for example. IN
Kansas and North Dakota, where the
| issue is not likely to be stressed as 1t
will be in Connecticut and Indiana. The
drv organizations have reached the con-
| clusion that these congressional cleo
! tions are the big battle ground this
| wear. and so far have declined 10 give
| their support to any presidential candi-
date. 1t is obvious they Will not declare
| for Roosevelt in any event. What
President Hoover says about pronloi-
ton in his speech of acceptance may or
NAV not bring him aid from the organ
lied drys. 1t is expected that the Pres
iGent will stand on the Republican plat
form. which has been denounced by the
| dry leaders. when he does speak. Bu.
one thing that seems to be apparent /;
! that a Democratic victory IN the COM
/ ing presidential campaign Will be
! blow to the dry cause.
Information received from New
! Hampshire is to the effect that Gov
| Winart will not oppose Senator George
| H. Moses for the Republican senatorial
nomination this year. 1t is now prac-
! tically certain. 1t is said, that Gov
! Winant will run for reelection as Gov
! ernor. FoGr years from now. it is be-
! lieved in some quarters in New Hamp-
shire, Winant will seek the senatorial
st at nov held bv Senator Keyes. The
! fact that Gov. Winant Will not contend
with Senator Moses fol- the senatorial
/ nomination. If il is fact, will mean
! tnat a real effort is on in New Hamp-
| shire to line up the Republicans solidly
: i'll tine coming campaign for State and
National tickets and to eliminate all
/ factlOral rows. For months there has
been speculation as to whether Winant
wing of the Republican party in New
Hampshire would lock horns this year
! with Senator Moses At one time it
{ seemed extremely probable that this
would happen. The Governor is young
! and ambitious and has such follow
! ing in New Hampshire that he was able
/ to smash precedent and have himself
/ elected to a second term in that State.
/ Some OF WinantS influential friends,
| however. have declared for the re-eleQ-
| ton Of Senator Moses, whose nomnh
! ton now seems assured AS recently aS
( the Republican National Convention
+ said he did no. care to discuss his flu
ture political plans.
X
TIE Job of harding the Democratic
National Convention in Chicago, from
a purely physical point of view was a
huge task That it was we'll done. the
thousands of visitors and the dele
gates themselves will testify. Col. Ed
win A. Halsey Of Virginia had the job
! of sergeant at arms of the national
convention. and the command Of the
convention tall was in his hands. aided
by scores of assistants and. of course. by
! the Chicago police force. At all times
order was preserved in the convention
! hal during the week the convention
w2s III session. although feeling ran
high times There were Interrupt
tom in the proceedings due to the
boos in the galleries, but only tenn
porary interruptions. and there was no
disorder at any time, Col HalSey is
the ranking Democratic official of the
| Senate and has been the candidate of
| his party for election as Secretary of
i,, = l,D
| past.
Just what part Senator William E
Borah Will play in the coming national
campaign is intriguing the interest of
the public. 1t does not seem conceiva-
bic that he will retire to the fastnesses
OF Idaho and permit the conflict to go
on without him. He has been extremely
INSTRUMENTATION on occasions. and
the Republican plank on prohibition
so reused his ire that he arose on the
Senate floor and denounced it and sale
he could not support the Hoover Curtis
ticket on such plank But if Senator
Eorah cannot support Mr.. Hoover. can
he go over to Gov. Frsnklin D. Roose-
welt of New York. the Democratic NOM
lnee? He has said nothing that would
indicate that he intended to jump clear
off the Republican reservation and go
over to the Democratic enemy. The
Idaho Senator has never taken any
such step. He has never been a Dem
ocrat. More recently. perhaps in Jest.
Senator Borah has said that he would
attend the Hoover notification cere-
monies If he were invited. This was
interpreted in some quarters as mean
ing that the Idaho Senator would get
back of the Hoover-Curtis ticket after
all. But the last word seems to be that
! MIR. Borah may find he will not be in
Washington at the time of the Presi-
dents notification of nomination by
I the Republican convention.
Sooner or later Mr.. Borah will make
himself heard in this campaign The
prospects now are for one of the hottest
campaigns held in recent years. The
Senator from IGaho is not likely to sit
on the sidelines in such a situation. 1t
has been said that he might confine
! himself to campaigning for individual
members of Congress this Fall, but if
he gets into the campaign at all he Is
likely to 60 the whole route