Evening star., 1940-06-16

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Committee to draft platform this week
for the 1910 Republican Convention,
meeting in Philadelphia Jure "a, Ma
tional Chairman John Hamilton Is fol-
rowing advice given in vain to the Demo-
Gratis in 1928 by Alfred E. Smith, then
Governor of New York and the prospec-
tive presidential nominee.
Gov. Smith, in a letter to the jackson
Day dinner here, said the party had
erred in the past "by waiting for the
national convention to undertake the
entire task of preparing a platform !"
He added:
In the heat and rush of convention
the platform when finally written is . =
not sufficiently understandable to the
masses of the people. There is too great
a tendency to speak of the evils that
beset us and to fail to suggest specific
remedy"
This campaign year the Republicans
already have tentative draft of a plat
form in the Program for a Dynamic
America" prepared by Glenn Frank and
2oo Key party members throughout the
country from 900 recommendations sub
mitted between November 5, 1887, when
the Program Committee was authorized
by special meeting of the National Com
mittee at Chicago, and February /, 1910,
when the report was sent to the ma
tlonal headquarters 1t is a 116-page
document and is supported by four
volumes of unpublished material
To Have Public Hearings.
-a,c ssssmbers-designate of the Resolu-
tions Committee, who will meet at the
Bellevue -Stratford Hotel tomorrow to
organize, will use the tentative draft
and supporting material as the starting
point for their discussions After select
ing chairman, they will confer with
DR.. Frank, former president of the
University of Wisconsin, and the nine
regional vice chairmen who directed the
field work in assembling data and worked
out tentative recommendations. On
wednesday morning public hearings will
begin, but the committees final recon-
mendations are not expected to 60 before
ehe convention until the next Wednes-
day, June 26.
The Republicans are especially for
funste this year in having completed the
spade work for their platform, because
for the first time since 1920 no single
candidate or group will dominate the
convention. The Old Guard standbys
who formerly wrote the address to the
people" have gone from the scene, either
through death or political reverses.
Congressional leaders such as Reed
Smoot of Utah, Simeon D. Fess of Ohio,
Ogden Mills of New York, David A. Reed
of Pennsylvania, James E. Watson of
Indiana, Walter Edge of New Jersey,
George Moses of New Hampshire, Mich
olas Longworth of Ohio, Bertrand Smell
Of New York, who used to dictate the
planks dear to their special interests,
have given way to new group. Lib
= erals have lost the challenging voices of
William E. Borah of Idaho and the elder
La Toilette Of Wisconsin. Young Robert
M. La Toilette, now Progressive, will
not be at Philadelphia, as he was at the
Kansas City Convention of 1928, to
sponsor a forward-looking minority
platform.
sDrafters to Be Far From Turmoil.
The men to watch this year will be
Alfred M. Landon, who will represent
Kansas on the Resolutions Committee;
his 1886 running mate, Frank Knox of
Illinois; former President Herbert
Hoover, Joseph N. Pew, jr., the new
Republican boss of Pennsylvania; Repre-
sentative Charles A. Halleck of Indiana,
who probably will represent Wendell
Willkie; DR.. Frank and Prof. Olin G
Saxon of Yale, who will have the proxy
next week of Samuel F. Pryor jr., of
Connecticut.
The public hearings beginning Wednes-
day will be, of course, the window
dressing for the committees activities
The real work will be done by drafting
subcommittee of eight to dozen men,
who will toll through the nights in an
inconspicuous hotel or club room, far
from the turmoil of the convention.
Their effort must be approved by the
full committee, composed of a repre-
delegation, and finally by the convention
itself.
At Cleveland, in 1886, the first draft
of platform was made by Landon sup
porters. The Kansas Governor had suffi-
cient strength on the committee and in
the convention to name his personal
representative, Herman Langworthy Of