Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-06-13

his picture does not appear IN the motel
Hobbies nor in the corridors. He has
won q victory without enthusiasm be-
cause enthusiasm is bred of victory and
there has been no contest. Upon every
issue to be written into the platform
the conservative forces of the Republic
an party find themselves unchallenged
by any Republican faction.
The only question upon which thrre
Is division is prohibition and there
curious thing manifest. The fighting
factions are not within the Republican
par' The milt"n mt drys end the NIL
te- v'c5 ere G-rs ard wits and 10,
RcrESi5 :.
From Outside Forces.
If the prohibition plank were left
to the Republican delegates without
5uttonholing and pulling and hauling
from the professional lobbyists 1t could
be written quickly and clearly-yet Curl
ously, the only clamor in the town, the
only dramatic struggle in the conven-
ton, will be the fight over the pro-
hibition plank, which in its bitter
phases comes from forces outside the
party-a grotesque and rather absurd
situation.
1t may be interesting to consider the
events of recent years since the last big
fight in the Republican party 20 years
ago, which led up to the strange stu
alton one finds in Chicago this week.
We have a party without factions-at
peace, almost sepulcllral in its quietude.
The ProgresSives are noisy enough in
Congress. For dozen years they have
been marching and countermarching
inside the Republican party, yet today
they have abdicated in their fight to
control the party machinery. They
have been unable to rally a candidate
since 1924, when they presented La
Toilette, and, despite their Strength in
Congress, the Progressives here in Chi
cago are offering no planks for the
platform-no suggestions for party pol
icy. They simply are not here.
Unity Surprising.
Yet if ever there was time in Amer
lean history which called for challenge,
for combat and for criticism, construc-
tive or otherwise, 1t would seem to be
now Not that Mr.. Hoover has failed.
He is growing stronger every day. But
in a time like this, when the country
stands dangerously near the abyss, one
would say that political differences as
to the party's program and platform
should come, If ever they came, to shake
this convention to its core.
Gur here no voice rises, either IN pro-
test or alarm. The ProgreSsives have
quit the fight. They will not appear
in the Democratic party either. They
have been submerged. What Is years
ago was the dominant, popular faction
which swept through the Republican
primaries in Republican States like
prairie fire has vanished into thin air.
And in this time Of national crisis
the peace that passes understanding
rests like an omen upon the convention
scene and the only emotions that are
being stirred come, not out OF the great
issues of hope or despair that are grip
ping the Nation, but out OF secondary
iSsue-prch ibition.
Three Lines of Battle.
II the forces Of reaction could have
planned it so, they could have devised
no better red herring to brush across
the trail than the prohibition issue to
divert the hounds of reform from their
quarry. But the reactionaries did not
plan 1t So 1t was no conspiracy, this
rise of prohibition to thwart the re-
formers. Probably prohibition Is an Is
sue because the reformers have lain
down They have made no more i'm
portant issue. They have sounded no
clarion note and in their silence this
vast caterwauling about prohibition has
arm.
As the crowds blacken in the Hobbies,
as tie elder statesmen smoke in their
,bca rooms and as the plot thickens "a
hours before the convention assemblies,
the prohibition fight is the only news,
and the pre-convention crowd resolves
itself into something like this:
lines 0f hatt1a-tha Wilt ant
drys, the militant vets, neither of |
whom care for the Republican party
but are fanatically eager for their causes.
and between these two, the responsible
party leaders tremendously anxious
about the election, who desire to write
Q winning plank.
Vets Stage Shows.
The militant drys have as little hope
as the militant vets to control the
nlatfo,m. The drys know they can
not stampede the convention. They
will not try. The drys desire an in
dorcement of prohibition and hope that
with that Endorsement nothing will be
said about modification, referendum,
repeal or resubm-s-ion.,
The vets are more hopeful and less
.xnerienced and they are putting on
the shows. Today they will parade.
They will give Chicago treat. The
wet crusaders desire a plank denounc-
ino nrohibition and abandoning 1t as a
Republican policy.
TIE middle-of -the-road Republic
ans. mostly organization men, the sort
who are called to conference at the
white House, these who are anxious
about their own States, believe that
they can satisfy the wet sentiment in
the party and hold the drys in line by
e.. To- av,f0rnnrNoY1f while
ne Eighteenth amendment is on the
hooks and p,e6gng Republicans In Con-
oress to vote for referendum upon
some substitute amendment Tor the
eighteenth amendment.
They will, of course, insist upon the
referendum coming in constitutional
form. not as mere straw vote under
State laws. They believe they can hold
the drys in line because they believe
that the Democratic party will have as
wet a plank as the Republicans will
write. and that its language will make
the drys much more unhappy than the
cautious plug-hat phraseology OF the
Republican plank.
Hoover Remains Silent.
So far the White House has not
shown its hand. No administration
spokesman pretends to say what the
President favors. Yet no one who knows
the President will believe that he would
let this convention run hogwild either
wet or dry. or that he would be either
ignorant or innocent of the language Of
any compromised plank which shall be
adopted. For it will be compromise
no one can doubt that. There is no
hope for a victory for the left wing or
for the right wing in this convention
unless the vets stage stampede.
But Republican conventions will never
stampede on major issues. and to all in
sue. so long as it is the only bone of
contention, Is q major issue. however
trivial It NAV seem in the face of the
great economic problems menacing the