Minorities

Two U. S. minorities convened in Chicago last week and accomplished just about as little as several hundred adult citizens could possibly have accomplished had they set out purposely to be futile for several days.

There was the Prohibition Party. It met in the Hotel La Salle, an undistinguished-looking handful of men and women from 22 states. And there was the Farmer-Labor Party, a more healthy-looking but smaller congregation, representing ten States and the District of Columbia. The upshots of the two meetings were as follows:

1) An organization called the Jefferson-Lincoln League tried to unite the Prohibitionists and Farmer-Laborites as one party. The absurdity of this was soon apparent Laborites are Wet.

2) The Prohibitionists nominated a man named William F. Varney, of Rockville Center, N. Y., for President of the U. S., but reserved the right to shift to Herbert C. Hoover instead of Mr. Varney should Mr. Hoover care to state specifically that .5% is as strong as he thinks liquor should ever be permitted to be in the U. S. A man named James A. Edgerton, of Alexandria, Va., was nominated for Vice President.

3) The Farmer-Laborites nominated Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska for President of the U. S., despite his previous statement that he would lead no Third Party movement.* Mr. Norris reiterated that he thought a third party would be futile and refused the nomination. For Vice President, they nominated a man named Will J. Verne of Moultrie, Ga.

*By actual count there are seven parties with candidates for the Presidency thus far this year: Republican, Democratic, Socialist, Communist, Farmer-Labor, Prohibition, Interracial Independent.