Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-07-03

||)lE ~ OF the Resolu-
tons Committee
Charles G. Ross. thought that it
was. But the proposal is loaded
with dynamite. For years it has
been the subject of acrimonious
controversy among the women's
organizations of the country.
The militant National Woman's
Party. which put over the plank at
Philadelphia with the aid of George
wharton Pepper and Gov. Landon,
Is the chief sponsor of the idea.
Against it are such organizations as
the National League of Women
voters, the American Association
OF University Women, the Women's
Trade Union League, the Y. w. G.
A., the National Consumers League,
the National Council of Jewish
Women and the National Council
OF Catholic Women. These eroups
contend that the amendment not
only would not improve the status
OF women, but would wipe out the
special legal protection they now
enjoy. The process. say the oppo-
sltlonlsts, would be a leveling down
and not leveling up for the rights
OF women. Unnecessary and mis-
chievous" is the way the League of
women Voters sizes up the pro-
posal
The action at PHILADELPHIA was a
personal triumph for Miss Doris
stevens, able Woman's Party lobby.
ist.
Convention Oratory Sinks.
Inc proceedings at PHILADELPHIA
UNDERSIGNED the woeful decline that
mas come about in convention ora
tory. For this the radio is chiefly
70 blame. There's hardly anv snon-
tanelty. or even any appearance q,
spontaneity, left. The reading of
speeches. is the rule, and however
nard a speaker may labor he suffers
from the blighting effect of the
method.
Listening to the average nonin.
atlng effort, one finds himself wish.
ing that the speaker would forget
all about the microphone and the
unseen listening millions" throw
away his manuscript - and cut
loose
A speech of the sort that the late
FRANK Willis delivered at Chicago
IN 1920, with its Come on. bows and
girls. let's nominate Warren Hard
ing, Is worth bale of slicked-un
phrases prepared for release tn the
press and read into the micro
phone
Hoover Kills" Speech.
Inc much-heralded speech BY
Herbert Hoover fell fiat Even II
1t had been far better speech
than it was, Mr.. Hoover's unfor-
tunate manner of delivery would
have killed its effect in the conven-
ton. Mr.. Hoover still talks down
instead of out. Repeatedly as he
spoke there were cries of Louder"
Notes from the platform telling him
to speak into the mike" seemed
only to make him nervous. and
finally the Underwriters gave up the
effort. '1-o
The speech of the former Presi-
dent had been put together in his
usual painful, painstaking manner.
AS ne did when he was President.
ne had the speech set UP in tyre
ana made his revisions on the proof
sheets. The type was then reset
and the speech again revised. and
this changing went on till Mr..
Hoover was satisfied. The speech
is filled with evidences of his me-
ticulous tinkering. He continued
to tinker with it in delivery and
succeeded only in weakening soma
OF his best lines. Several times he
dulled sharp declaration with an
and at the beginning.
Looking back on his futile per.
1ormance, one wonders how even
the most ardent of Mr.. Hoovers
admirers could have imagined for
minute that he would stampede
the convention.
Tradition of Democrats.
There was no oratorical fare AT the
convention remotely comparable to
that provided, for example, bv the
memorable Bourke Cochran William
j.. Bryan debate over prohibition at
the 1920 meeting of the Democrats.
or the magnificent plea of Newton D.
Baker Tor the lost League of Nations
cause at the Madison Square Gar.
den convention of 1924. Perhaps a
good healthy platform fight on the
convention floor at PHILADELPHIA
would have produced some extern
poraneous speeches of the old-time
quality. But even this is to be
doubted. The radio has had a kill
ing effect on oratory. It's the Demo-
Gratis, anyway, who mainly carry on
what is left of the spellbinding ira
dition.
BY long odds the best speech at
the Philadelphia convention was
that by Wendell Willkie when he
came in late Friday afternoon to
thank the delegates and state his
creed. He had no notes. He sim
ply stood there on the platform and
talked, and ne aroused the conven-
ton to its highest pitch OF en-
thusiasm. He has the gift of words
simple, vivid words-and he has the
voice and the manner.
So the convention ended on a re-
freshing note Of spontaneity-and
the man who ended it that way was
a former Democrat.