Evening star., 1937-09-21
THE POLITICAL
MILL
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

meeting with Chairman John Hamilton
OF the National Committee. Thursday
the Executive Committee of the Ma
tlonal Committee is to gather here All
this activity il part of the drive started
by Hamilton several weeks ago to get
the party organization ready for the
1888 congressional elections.
Chairman Hamilton will receive re-
ports from the city leaders and from the
members of the Executive Committee.
1t is expected also that he will take up
with the Executive Committee a pro-
posal made by former President Herbert
Hoover and others for a national con-
vention of Republican leaders next
Spring. The proposed convention, if and
when it takes place, is to consider means
of reviving the G. o. P. so that real
battle for the presidency may be made
in 1910, as we'll as plans for making
gains in the congressional elections next
year.
If the Executive Committee gives its
approval to the proposal for a gigantic
party conclaye it will be more or less
flying in the face of former Gov, ALT M
Landon of Kansas, Republican presiden-
tial nominee in 1886, and of a number of
tllC INCpQOICdIl OctldLOIS anu fleDTe-
sentatives who do not wish to be put in
the position of following Mr.. Hoover's
leadership. Nevertheless, poll of the
members of the Executive Committee
indicates that today more of them are
in favor of the plan than there are
opposed to it. They subscribe to the
belief of Mr.. Hoover that something
must be done now to rebuild the party
hot
should be held at which every sugges-
ton, from changing the name of the
party to a fusion with anti-New Deal
Democrats, may be discussed.
*+
Some time ago Chairman Hamilton
declared that he would lay the plan for
national gathering. such as Mr. Hoover
has proposed in his Atlantic Monthly
magazine article. before the members of
his committee the minute that it was
presented to him officially and now that
has been done. The California Repub-
lican assembly has formally petitioned
the Republican National Committee for
a national conference, and has sent
copies of its formal action TO each
member of the committee.
The resolution as certified by Marvin
publican assembly, states that on Sep
tember the board of directors of the
assembly met in Ventura, Calf, and
adopted the resolution.
One of the objections originally raised
to Mr.. Hoovers suggestion was based
on the understanding that he favored
making up the conference with the
elected delegates to the last two Repub-
lirGn National h,,t loa
resolutions adopted by the California
Republican assembly, which is friendly
to Mr.. Hoover shows that the scope
of this is to be widened materially, that
the young Republicans and all races
would be invited to participate in an
Embossed convention.
y
Obviously, efforts will be made TO pre-
vent the gathering from becoming
boom for any presidential candidate or
for any particular group in the Repub-
lican party.
Some of the insurgent Republicans.
like Senator William E. Borah of Idaho.
who have been demanding a complete
house-cleaning of the Republican Ma
tional Committee from the chairman
down, have already indicated that they
will not cooperate in any way either
with the committee or with Mr.. Hoover,
so they are not being considered.
If such a national convention is held
every effort will be made. it is said, TO
demonstrate that it is not dominated
by any particular group, whether it be
Hooverites Landonites or the followers
of Senator Borah and other independ-
ents.
Chairman Hamilton has in mind
calling a meeting of the whole National
Committee on some date in November.
Indeed such meeting has practically
been determined upon. 1t will be held
in Chicago as the most central point
for the committeeman and women from
all sections of the country. Despite
efforts of some of his opponents to un-
horse Hamilton, the chairman seems
in position to resist such a move.
He has no present plan for retiring
from the Craftsmanship. If the COM
mittee had to pick a new chairman, in
cidentally, it would not know Just where
to turn. Furthermore, the chances are
that it would be unable to satisfy all
the groups in the party.
Senator Vandenberg of Michigan
started lot of discussion by his speech
to the Republicans of his State on
Saturday night, in which he suggested
the possibility of a coalition between
anti-New Deal Democrats and the Re-
publicans for the campaigns of 1888 and
1940 Such coalition is devoutly de-
sired by many of the opponents of the
Roosevelt New Deal administration and
its policies. The difficulty however, is
to find practical way of bringing it
about. 1t is hard to get Republicans to
support, for example, Democrat who
might happen to be the fusion" choice
for President, and equally hard to
persuade Democrats to support a Re-
publican nominee of fusion"
The Michigan Senator pointed out
that already political realignments are
forming with deep cleavage in Demo-
cratic ranks He insists that many
former supporters OF the Roosevelt
New Deal party which he claims can
not be considered the Democratic party,
are falling away. 1t is the aid of these
opponents and their cooperation which
is needed to turn the New Dealers out
of office.
Party labels are worn rather lightly
by millions of voters of the country
today. These millions slip from one side
to the other, depending upon the pen
dulum of public sentiment, and particu-
larly upon the condition of their pocket
books. When the Hoover landslide of
1928 is compared with the Roosevelt
landslide of 1882 there can be no doubt