Parleys

About one comfortable trolley-load of happy, willing politicians shook hands and slapped one another's backs, one day last week in the lobby of the Bigelow Hotel of Ogden, Utah. Far westerners to man, Democrats all, they had been invited there by Joseph Chez, Ogden lawyer, and Fred W. Johnson, lawyer from Rock Springs, Wyo. There was a knowing look in their eyes as they discussed the prime purpose of their meeting-- to "consider" who was the "most available" candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination next year. They named no names until all had assembled for formal business.

Then, with scarcely a mention of any other candidate, they notified the Pacific Coast, the Rocky Mountains and the U. S. in general that they, the 40 willing workers of the west, hailed Governor Alfred Emanuel Smith of New York as their man and would work for him from that moment on.

When the resolution was proposed, only three gentlemen present exhibited much surprise. The first of these was one Louis Henry Francisco. No one had invited Mr. Francisco. He had just "dropped in," he said, from San Diego, Calif. He described himself as a rancher, a rich man, an intimate of laborers, bankers, clergymen. He had, he said, solved all the country's economic and international problems. He was, he said, the originator of the so-called Dawes Reparations Plan. He, Louis Henry Francisco, was, he insisted, the man of the hour, the long-sought, the logical, the "most available" candidate right there before them in person.

The willing workers listened politely to Mr. Francisco. They heard later that he spent a whole evening trying to telephone across the continent to Governor Smith and persuade him to withdraw at once. They were not offended when, departing in a huff, Mr. Francisco addressed them as a "meeting of the Bowery of a few small western towns."

Judge Joshua Greenwood of Salt Lake City was second to speak against the Smith resolution. "If he [Governor Smith] is nominated, I shall vote and work for him," said Judge Greenwood. "But ... I am not willing that it should go out to the North and the East and the South without further conventions that the great West is for Smith for President. If you insist on that, then we have reached the parting of the ways."

To defend Judge Greenwood in the ensuing debate, now arose National Democratic Committeeman James H. Moyle of Utah, a bulky, bearded, monogamous* Mormon, who declared that he had come prepared to discuss principles, not politicians. "You men do not represent Western sentiment," he frowned. "Why mislead the East that there is a great movement being launched in the West when you men know you only want him for a candidate because you like him?"

Mr. Moyle then sidetracked the debate into consideration of the Republican tariff. Let Democrats campaign to give producers of raw materials protection proportionate to that long enjoyed by manufacturers, said he.

The Messrs. Greenwood and Moyle soon returned to Salt Lake City. Behind them, Ogden reverberated with the remaining worker's unanimous adoption of their well-prepared resolution.

Said A. W. Ewing, a Utah delegate: "If Al Smith is nominated, religion will cut no figure in Utah. I assure you that the Mormons as a whole are overwhelmingly Democratic. There are very few gentiles in the Democratic party in Utah, for 80% of those with wealth have joined their brethren in the party of predatory interests. It isn't the Mormons who sent Senator Smoot to Washington; it's the mine owners and gentiles."

Joseph Chez tactfully revised the absent Mr. Moyle's resolution for an equalized tariff; had it passed and said that Utah would "be O.K."

Equally tactful was the supression of all discussion of the Democratic party's two-thirds nominating rule. Anti-Smith Democrats might have been inflamed had the Westerners openly stated their intention of trying to make one-half the national delegates sufficient to nominate the 1928 candidate.

Finally there was formed a western states Smith for President Association, with a Salt Lake City banker for permanent chairman, a South Dakotan for secretary. It was decided to have bigger and better Far Western Al Smith conventions soon. The first 1928 Presidential boom of real magnitude was under way.

The Significance. In the new association's roll call are 14 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming. Ignoring the association's boast of present Smith strength in these states, it is a fact that in 1924 Gavin McNab, San Francisco boss Democrat, organized in 10 of the states a band of 110 delegates who effectively blocked the Smith nomination that year. Now there is no McAdoo. The Smith men are in the Western field before a McAdoo successor has even begun to be settled upon. The Democratic West has undertaken to join itself with the Democratic East. Should the Ogden trolley-load succeed, Al Smith could conceivably ride to the nomination on a special train requiring no engineer or fireman from the South. . .

In the East observers agreed that the solemn withdrawal of William Gibbs McAdoo (TIME, Sept. 26) had "left the dry Democrats unherded." Col. Patrick H. Callahan, boss Democrat of Louisville, Ky., announced that W. W. Durbin of Lima, Ohio, would soon call a parley in Chicago at which dry Democrats would discuss issues, not candidates. Yet dry candidates continued to be suggested for such a conference to consider, including Thomas J. Walsh, Joseph T. Robinson, Edwin T. Meredith, Evans Woollen, Newton D. Baker, Cordell Hull, Daniel C. Roper, Josephus Daniels, Alben W. Barkley, Alvin Victor Donahey, J. C. W. Beckam, George F. Milton. . . .

In the G. O. P., National Chairman William M. Butler mailed letters to some of his colleagues, asking them to meet him in Washington, D. C., on October 3. President Coolidge was reported as being vexed by rumors that this informal parley, preliminary to the National Committee's December meeting would discuss drafting him for a third term.

*As all law-abiding Mormons now are.