Evening Star Newspaper, June 26, 1936, Page 6

"A—6. THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON. D. C, FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 1936. DEMOCRAT STRATEGY IS TO LIKEN LANDON TO HOOVER BARKLEY IS FIRST | 10 OPEN ATTACK - Robinson Follows Up With Charge Kansan Straddles Issues. BY ULRIC BELL. PHILADELPHIA, June 26 (N.A. N.A).—In the eyes of the New Deal- ers Gov. Landon is to be mergly the 1936 version of Herbert Hoover and all that was represented by that former President. This was made plain today as the Democratic convention went forward with the process of taking the of- fensive against its opposition and with that of recreating, as far as pos- sible, the alignment marking the campaign of 1932. As Senator Barkley did in making .- the keynote speech Tuesday night, Senator Robinson, the next night, re- assumed his 1932 role of permanent chairman and, like Senator Barkley, keyed his attack upon the old deal to - the tempo of four year ago. Like Senator Barkley, too, Senator Robinson roused the convention by en- couraging supporters of President Roosevelt to speak their minds “with firmness and emphasis” regarding the course of the Supreme Court majority which has invalidated New Deal en- actments through what are held to be rigid technical interpretations or anti- quated constitutional conceptions. Barkley Sets Pace. On ths score Senator Barkley set the pace when, assailing interpretations of the Constitution by the majority, he pointed the way for action by the:con- vention. Platform makers were then working on a plank to say, in effect, 8s President Roosevelt did in his Arkan- sas speech, that the Democratic party believes the fundamental charter to be “:oad enough, if properly inter- preted, to enable the Federal Govern- ment to operate in a national way to meet modern social and economic problems. They were considering a proposition put by Senator Barkley that there be, in particular, a redefini- tion of interstate commerce, the point on which the high court has bowled over several major New Deal enact- ments. It is known that President Roose- welt scanned closely and approved Senator Barkley's discussion of the court and the Constitution and that he was one of the first to telephone the Kentucky Senator his congratu- lations after his keynote. Gov. Landon and his running mate, Col. Knox, ere to be put under direct fire from now on in the campaign the New Deal is planning. From both Senator Barkley and Senator Robin- son, the Kansan already has received opening salvos. But he is to be linked throughout with the ill-fated regime of Mr. Hoover, as well as with other figures and factors which the Demo- crats deem to be labilities. Mr. Hoover’s prominence and influence at Cleveland aids the Roosevelt sup- porters in this respect. In line with these tactics, the Dem- ocratic Nailonal Committee itself arranged to send out two crews of farm hands, with mule-drawn mowing machines, a rake and a hay wagon, to search along Broad and Market streets for the grass Mr. Hoover said in 1932 would grow in city streets if Mr. Roosevelt were elected. The com- mittee reported that the crews could find no substantiation of “Mr. Hoover’s bilious prophecy.” And Mr. Landon, because of his repudiation of certain planks of his party’s platform at Cleveland, is slated by Democratic strategy to be cast in the mold of vecillation which is charged against Mr. Hoover. Senator Robinson did his utmost-to show that Landon straddled after the platform was fashioned in order to meet con- flicting demends. Broader Action Necessary. As for the constitutional issue, how- ever, the Democrats, no longer timid on the subject, believe the formula produced by Senators Barkley and Robinson opens the way for candid discussion of a subject hitherto al- most politically taboo. They con- sider it to be a far sounder stand than that superimposed on the Republican platform by Mr. Landon, who only ventured to ask that the way be left open, in case of necessity, for & Fed- eral amendment designed only to give more power to the States than they now have to deal with minimum ‘wages and maximum hours for women in industry. New Dealers contend that it will take much broader action or interpretation than that to meet present-day social and economic necessities. The strafing of Gov. Landon, based both on his past record and that of the Cleveland convention, is progres- sively getting hotter while the party strategists, looking ahead, are hold- ing conferences here with a view to making the most of the fact that Republican National Chairman John Hamilton applauded the Al Smith outcry against Roosevelt and ex- tended open arms to Mr. Smith and : his fellow dissenters. Leaders are predicting that nothing. will be over- looked in the way of linking the Lan- don camp with Mr. smnn and his angry Liberty Leaguer: Senator Barkley wmt after Gov. Landon on three counts. First, he accused him of denouncing the Fed- eral law guaranteeing bank deposits before the American Bankers' Asso- clation and exerting all his influence o prevent the State of Kansas from entering the system. Then, indirect- ly, he lashed at him by saying, re- garding relief, that “some States were able to balance their budgets because they made no contribution out of their treasuries to feed or clothe or house the helpless.” Again, Senator Bark- ley cited that, three years ago, Gov. Landon, now the advocate of a re- *turn to the gold standard, urged “the payment of public and private debts in money of the printing press, re- deemable in neither silver nor gold.” Copyright, 1936, by the North American Newspaper Alliance, Inc.) CLEANING DAY IS “Jafsie” Obliges With Autographs Dr. John F. Condon ol Nm York, the “Jafsie” of the Lindbergh case, gave his autograph to crowds that surrounded him when he a; rpeared at the Democratic National Convention in Phila- delphia to see it “as a good American c HOARY TRADITION DIES WITH RULE Bennett Clark, Son of Its Victim, Officiates at Quick Burial. BY JOHN H. CLINE, Btaff Correspondent of The Star. PHILADELPHIA, June 26.—The rampant New Dealers turned their backs on the past here last night and bade farewell forever to the last of their old traditions. In one brief minute, they thrulk into oblivion the hoary two-thirds rule, which for 104 years had stalked through the party’s councils, wrecke ing the dreams of men and coloring Democracy’s history with the bitterest political battles in the annals of the land. The end came during a short lull in the confused shouting of the delegates, but, despite its brevity, the passing of the ancient rule was not without its drama. On the platform, tolling the death knell under the brilliant lights, stood Sepator Bennett Champ Clark of Missouri. Flash Back to 1912. As he banged on the table with his gavel to signify that the motion to abrogate the rule had carried, his mind’s eye must have cast back along the years to a sweltering night in Baltimore in the Summer of 1912. Then, as now, the Democrats had gathered to nominate their candidate for the highest office in the land. On the platform that night stood the father of the present Senator— the late Speaker Champ Clark. He controlled more votes than any man in the party and the path to the White House looked smooth. On and on went the balloting, until, on the tenth vote, the New York del- egation went over to Clark and gave him a clear majority. The realization of cherished dreams seemed near, but his enemies rallied their forces ang with the aid of the two-thirds rule, they blocked his nomination. When the final vote had been taken, it was Woodrow Wilson and not Champ Clark who sat in the Presi- dent’s chair. And so, last night, it seemed pecu- liarly fitting that the son of the de- feated Speaker should be the one to engineer the destruction of the 104- year-old political oddity that had be- come so deeply imbedded in the tra- dition of Democracy. Deep South’ Protests. The motion to kill the rule was car- ried in a burst of applause which all but drowned out the emphatic “noes” of the delegates from the deep South. To these delegates, champions of the probably erroneous belief that the two-thirds rule gave the South a measure of control in the Democratic party, came memories of hard-fought campaigns of a vanished political era. The story of the two-thirds rule runs back to 1832, when it was invoked by Andrew Jackson to block the re- nomination of his Vice President, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. The flery Jackson wanted Martin Van Buren of New York as his run- ning mate and he got him as a result of his strategy, but Van Buren paid heavily for it in the end. After the New Yorker served a term as Presie dent, the seething Southern delegates, remembering the trick that had kept Calhoun out of office, mustered tizen.” —A. P. Photo. IBOTHPARTEES NOW PLEDGED TO MERIT Democratic Plank to Spread System in Government Adopted. By a Staff Correspondent of The Star, PHILADELPHIA, June 26.— The Democrats wrote into their platform for the coming campaign a plank in favor of the merit system to all “non- policy-making positions in the Federal service.” Democracy’s declaration on this question was awaited with particular interest because of the thousands of appointments made during the pres- ent administration to which the civil service law was not applied. A number of the laws creating New Deal agen- cigs since 1933 have specifically pro- led for appointment of necessary personnel, without regard to civil service. Both parties have now adopt- ed merit system planks. ‘While the Democrats referred to all enough votes to defeat Van Buren under the rule in his efforts to secure a second nomination for the presi- dency. Remember That Victory. ‘That was the first such victory for the South, and from that time on the delegates from Dixie have fought tooth and nail for its preservation. In 1860, the rule prevented the Democrats from naming any candi- date at their Charleston Convention. Stephen A. Douglas would have been the choice, but the chairman, Caleb Cushing, insisted thay a two-thirds vote of all the elected delegates was necessary for nomination, ignoring the fact that a third of them had already bolted the convention. ‘The same ruling at Chicago in 1896, when the gold delegations from the East walked out or sat silently in their seats, would have made the nomina- tion of William Jennings Bryan im- possible had not the chairman re- versed Cushing’s ruling. Since the defeat of Van Buren in 1844, no man with & majority of the votes of the whole convention on the first ballot has failed to se- cure the necessary two-thirds. Douglas failed on a technicality, and Clark did not have his majority vote at the start. McAdoo Lost Out. In 1924, Wiliam Gibbs McAdoo would probably have been the nominee if the rule had not been in effect. At one point, he came within 20 votes of securing a majority, and if the | majority rule had been in effect at that time there is little doubt that enough delegates would have climbed | on the Californian’s band wagon to make him the party nominee. Incidentally, McAdoo was one of those who sat in the packed hall last night and shed no tears as the last rites were administered. That the Southern delegates were the only ones to oppose the abroga- tion movement is one of the things about political conventions that are hard to understand. Since the Civil War at least, the South has never benefitted by the rule. In several cases, Southern pref- erences have been blocked by its application. Of recent years it has become the instrument with which Tammany and the political machines of Northern cities sought to block the nomination of men like Tilden, Cleveland, Byran and Wilson. In 1932 it was employed in an effort to block Roosevelt, yet all of these candidates ‘were popular in the South. The Southerners did not give up without a fight here, but their re- sistance was made during the hearing on the abrogation proposal by the Rules Committee, which voted 36 to 13 in favor of nominating by majority vote. Bay from an Electrical Dealer WESTINGHOUSE REFRIGERATORS JCjidgping 817 10th St N.W. NA. 3160 Don’t Cut Corns Shed Them Off You should never cut corns! E-Z Korn Remover softens hardest and most troublesome corns. Deadens pain, loosens core, and entire corn peels right off. Works fast. Rarely ever fails. Thousands use it. 35c at drug stores. Palm Beach owes its fame to its spe- cial yarns and patented weaves. It's different from any other fabric . « and different in its performance. Sheds the dirt . . . resists wrinkling « .. and tailors handsomely. 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Landon, the Republican nom- inee, was more specific and positive in the telegram he sent to the Cleveland convention, in which he advocated ap- plying the merit rule to all positions |the :'ehw the rank of assistant secretary 8 department, incl 3 uding post- Wording of Plank. ‘The Democratic plank reéads as fol- lows: “For the protection of Government itself and promotion of its efficiency, we pledge the immediate extension of the merit system through the classi- fled civil service—which was first es- tablished and fostered under Demo- cratic auspices—to all non-policying- mwmmmmml A vunn( reference to the departure from the civil service requirements in setting up emergency agencies during the depression was contained in the following concluding sentence of the “We shall subject to the civil serv- ice law all continuing positions which, because of the emergency, have been exempt from its operation.” Pending Bill Died. During the recently adjourned Con- gress there was proposed legislation to extend the civil service law to positions in the executive branch not now cov- ered by that law, but it failed to come to & vote and died with adjournment. One nt these bills in the Senate would have allowed incumbents of positions outside the civil service to acquire a civil service status by taking a non- competitive examination. The plank adopted by the Demo- crats followed appeals to the Platform Committee by Luther C, Steward, president of the National Pederatmn of Federal Employes; William Green, head of the American Federation of Labor, and others. = - Hymn Model of English. Cardinal Newman’s hymn, “Lead, Kindly Light,” considered to be a model of English, is composed almost entirely of monosyllables, and, with six exceptions, of words of Saxon origin. TWO LORRAINE-HASPEL COOL- ING SYSTEMS IN ACTION! Vil R UITS WHITE GABARDINES - SURF WHITE SUITS WHITE CORD SUITS 2.75 Is this a system! We'll say itis! 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