Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-01-17
DAWES PROPOSAL
GAINING INTEREST
Substitution for Curtis Seen
Help TO Hoover in Cam
paign.
BY THEODORE C. WALLEN.
wsshinrton Correspondent, New York
Herald -Trikuns

Herald-Tribune.
President Hoovers refusal to talk
politics with callers while pushing his
economic program was regarded yester-
day as banning approach by leaders on
a proposal to substitute Ambassador
Charles @. Dawes for Vice President
Charles Curtis as his running mate
this year.
Whether or not the President Is aware
OF it, certain members Of the Republic
can National Committee, one of whom
was in the Presidents headquarters
organization four years ego, have been
sounding out colleagues quietly to see
what support such a plan might COM
mand In the National convention in
June.
The proponents of the plan point out
that vice President Curtis will be u
years old in few days and that Gen.
Dawes is nearly Ave years younger.
1t Is contended that Mr.. Curtis can
bring nothing to the ticket which the
President himself cannot command
while Gen. Dawes would infuse new
blood, add touch Of color and moisture
and perhaps increase business conf
dence in the ticket.
Persistence of Suggestion.
The suggestion persists in the face
of vigorous objection in party councils
on the ground that such action not
only would offend the personal fol-
lowing of the Vice President, but might
be capitalized by administration OPP
ponents in the campaign. 1t Is recalled
that Senator william z. Borah, Re-
publican insurgent of Idaho, was Mr..
Curtis nominator in the Kansas City
convention four years ago and praised
him as the best liked" man at either
end of the Capitol. Senator Borah,
at that time a leader in the Hoover
camp, Is among the insurgents who now
are critically watching the movement
for the Presidents denomination ana
some of whom are regarded as lkeIy
70 bolt in any event.
Those who object to the plan to deny
denomination to the Vice President
take the view that the movement may
become formidable unless headed on,
since it originates in source which,
though not in the Presidents official
family, is high in the party. councils.
Their opposition includes the argu-
noent that public resentment outside
the Vice Presidents personal following
might be aroused in view OF the faet
that he was permitted to announce his
decision not TO seek renomnation ana
reelection to the Senate from his nome
state of Kansas.
Opportunity Seen Wasted.
IT, is felt that those who were pre-
raring to suggest a new deal in the
Wis presidency should have talked with
Mr., Curtis before his public announce
mrrt, which would have given him
chance to take the alternative OF run
ming for the Senate. There Is nothing
10 indicate that President Hoover TOOK
a hand, one way or the other, when
the Vice President made his choice TO
stand with the national ticket, although
not few Republican leaders held the
view that the opposition would nave
hailed a decision to quit the national
ticket as indicating the Vice President
considered Republican prospects better
in Kansas than in the Nation at large.
While the suggestion Of nominating
Mr.. Dawes for the position he held In
the Coolidge administration has been
Roirrg the rounds quietly, 1t Is still re-
sarded as only In the formative stage,
and it is not known whether its pro-
ponents had planned TO consult PresI-
dent Hoover about it for the present,
at all. At any rate the Presidents an
nouncement through spokesman that
he will not discuss personal politics
with callers while seeking bipartisan
support for his economic reconstruc-
ton plans is believed to foreclose any
conversation with him on the subject
for some time to come.
Dawes Sees President.
Mr.. Dawes conferred yesterday with
President Hoover, presumably on mat
tiers touching the Geneva World Dis
armament Conference, in which the
general will head the American delega-
ton The general, after announcing
Last week his decision to resign as Am
bassador to the Court of st. James after
the arms conference gets under way,
found it necessary later to scotch
report that he was permitting himself
20 be groomed as a candidate against
President Hoover. He made no mention
of the vice presidency and Is believed
TO have had no thought of it, but
friends think he would not decline TO
run with Mr.. Hoover for reelection to
that office.
A further development yesterday in
the presidential politics was the dis
closure here that the Washington State
Democratic Convention, scheduled for
February 6, is slated not only to indorse
the candidacy of Gov. Franklin D.
Roosevelt of New York for President,
which has been expected, but further
TO adopt a platform proposal calling
upon the party's national convention TO
adopt a prohibition referendum plank.
In view of the fact that Scott Bull
lit, ana other Democratic leaders of
that State were original Roosevelt
men" in the Far West and have been
in conference with Roosevelt leaders
here and In New York, it was quite gen.
orally believed that the plank to be
adopted by the Washington Democrats
might foreshadow the plank on which
it is proposed to have Gov. Roosevelt