Evening star., 1932-05-13
PARTY RIFFS GROW
| FOR CONVENTIONS
Stormy Sessions Predicted
for Both Democrats
and G. O.. P.
8y the Associated Press.

.8y the Associated Press.
The pre-eonvention curtain-raiser to
HE 1882 campaign Is ending, as it be-
gan, With the Republicans still arguing
Ehat to do about prohibition, and the
democrats still disputing what to dc
about q candidate.
! Recent developments appear to have
heepened, If anything, the bitterness OF
Feeling within the parties on these two
brine questions. The present mood OF
The contending factions foreshadows
khat neither of the June conventions
ean be called exactly iovefeast.
Z Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt continues
10 press strongly for the Democratic
Nomination, and SO do his rivals The
Ohio primary has stiffened the hopes
of wet Republicans, and the resistance
of dry Republicans. And so 1t goes, just
b month and a day before the big two
oct convention thriller begins in Chicago
Down to Narrow Margin.
{ Taking into account the normal ex-
pectancy of both sides, the Democratic
no-man's land of disputed delegate
Strength is growing very narrow.
Neither the Roosevelt camp nor the
opposition, when they get right down
20 counting noses, claims any great
margin of safety. 1t comes down TO
D comparatively few delegates, most OF
Them temporarily pledged to favorite
Sons.
Roosevelt not only added three States
DO his column this week, but he DID
tt impressively, with an unquestioned
display of driving power. Arizona ana
wyoming instructed for him despite
previous signs of hesitancy. In the west
Virginia primary he overwhelmed Al
kalfa Bill' Murray, 10 to /.
At the same time two favorite sons
we're receiving the formal pledges OF
their home States and the whole pad
6ock of dark horses was paraded again
before the eyes of the voters.
In gathering in Ohio, Gov. George
White has a delegation whose ultimate
destination no one knows. Maryland's S
instructions for Gov. Albert c. Ritchie
were coincident with revived activity for
him as second choice in many States.
There was a great stir meantime
among the friends Of Owen D. Young,
Newton D. Baker, Harry F. Byrd and
Melvin A. Traylor. and split developed
in Illinois, forecasting division OF
votes between Roosevelt and Traylor on
the breakup.
Roosevelt Far Ahead.
| In actual figures, Roosevelt remains
30 far ahead that no one else is in
the same class. OF instructed, pledged
and claimed delegates chosen to date,
he has $50; James Hamilton Lewis, So;
White, So; Alfred E. Smith, 46; John N
Garner, A; James A. Reed, So; Murray,
e3; Ritchie, 16.
I On the Republican side, President
Hoover continues to pile up delegate
Strength long after he has passed the
&nffrYhor y1nodod fn ~ IN l,f1t ifo
D candidate is not all roses for him at
that. The pressure on him to approve
this or that prohibition plank grows
more and more insistent as the conven-
zion date approaches.
! Within the week Republican modifi-
eationists have swept Ohio's primary
Tor Senator and Governor, the Ameri-
can Minister to Sweden, John More
head, has appeared with State Depart
ment approval before a committee of
Congress to advocate the Swedish sys-
tenn of liquor control, and a somewhat
similar scheme has been given public
approval by Senator David Reed of
Pennsylvania, stalwart of the stall
warts.
| There is no indication Mr.. Hoover is
doing anything directly about this, but
some very important party leaders are
working hard at it. At least, some of
them have chosen to make the first
approach through the drys rather than
the modificationists, to see how far the
cry organizations will go and try to
graft a plank which will keep their
support.
1t still is the plan of most party
leaders not to go as far toward modifi-
cation as the Democrats do, even though
fcme concession may be necessary.