Spontaneous Confusion

If there is any distinction between the Democratic and Republican Parties it is that the Democrats indulge in spontaneity. Freedom of speech and action are the Democracy's cardinal tenets. No leader is so small or obscure that he cannot pop up and make himself heard. Because the Party is individualistic and sectional, it has a habit of bursting into flame over principles and personalities. Where Republicans smother their differences in committee, Democrats fight theirs out in public. Where Republicans represent the People, Democrats are the People--noisy, emotional, opinionated. In conventions assembled they generate an atmosphere where almost anything can happen.

Such an atmosphere last week pervaded the opening of the Democracy's national convention at the Chicago Stadium. Fortnight prior, the Republicans had held their cut & dried meeting under the same roof. Their differences were pale and disembodied compared to the issues dividing the Democrats. Arriving early on the scene the anti-Roosevelt forces under Alfred Emanuel Smith had opened a stinging fire on the candidacy of the New York Governor. This party strife a hundred newsmen, ablest of their profession, were on hand to megaphone to the country. On the front page of his nationwide press Democrat William Randolph Hearst, having plumped for the candidacy of Speaker Garner and found it hopeless, exhorted Democrats to be truly democratic and drop the old two-thirds rule required for nomination. His press was not above fabricating reports of a Wall Street meeting of "160 prospective angels for this year's Democratic presidential campaign" to "stop Roosevelt." Delegates arriving in Chicago found their leaders already locked in a struggle which might make or break their party.

First Day, Ominous calm marked the first day's session at the Stadium. Beneath the Republicans' bunting, flags and Washington pictures, the gallery audience was only slightly larger than that which attended the G. 0. P. meeting. National Chairman Raskob, often accused by Republicans of trying to "smear Hoover," got a titter when he said he had looked up "smear" in the dictionary and found it meant "to anoint a dead body with sacred oil before burial." Commander Evangeline Booth of the Salvation Army prayed. Mayor Cermak rumbled a speech of welcome which soon descended to a partisan harangue. Then Senator Barkley, tall, paunchy, all in white, launched vigorously into his keynote address (see p. 12). Most delegates, mindful of the fight to come, did not overtax their lungs or palms with applause.

Shouse v. Walsh, The first fight scheduled for the convention was on the permanent chairmanship. Originally picked to preside was Jouett Shouse, able chief at the Washington headquarters. Roosevelt supporters had agreed to his election and the Governor was supposed to have sanctioned him. Then it was announced that Governor Roosevelt's man for the chair was Montana's grey-grim Senator Walsh. Mr. Shouse had been ditched, it was explained, because he did not favor the Roosevelt candidacy. Quickly the anti-Roosevelt battalions rallied to Mr. Shouse's support, charging that Governor Roosevelt was guilty of bad faith. Al Smith vehemently declared: "A principle is at stake--the principle of keeping your word." James Farley, loud chief-of-staff of the Roosevelt forces, boomed out "pooh-poohs," claimed he had the majority necessary to elect Senator Walsh. A friendly gavel would greatly help the Roosevelt candidacy.

Two-Thirds Rule, The second, and more important, fight on the program fizzled out when Governor Roosevelt, dangling on a telephone in Albany, beat a retreat which threatened to cost him the nomination.

In 1832 Andrew Jackson fastened to the Democratic party a rule requiring a two-thirds vote to nominate. Its purpose was to give moral substance and worth to the nomination. Every subsequent party convention has used the same rule. A thing of sentiment and tradition, it cost Champ Clarke the nomination in 1912, deadlocked the 1924 Madison Square Garden meeting for 17 days. Last week on the eve of the Chicago convention Roosevelt supporters announced their intention to abrogate the two-thirds rule, nominate their man by a simple majority. This rule change could be effected by a majority vote (578).

Decision to take this radical step was not Manager Farley's. He had called a "pep meeting" for Roosevelt leaders. Bruce Kremer and Senator Wheeler, both of Montana, began to urge a change in the rules to help their candidate. Senator Huey Long, Louisiana's "Kingfish," delivered a loud yawp for the same thing, swung the meeting completely off its balance. Josephus Daniels of North Carolina and Senator Hull of Tennessee chimed in. Manager Farley lost control of the meeting and the Roosevelt movement passed momentarily into the little hands of little men from the South and West. The meeting voted to work for a simple majority rule to nominate.

Other Democratic leaders were indignant. Mr. Smith fulminated: "The spirit of American fair play will not tolerate any eleventh hour, unsportsmanlike attempt to change the rules after the game has started. This radical change sounds like a cry for the life preserver." Senator Carter Glass, red with rage, called the proposal "a gambler's trick," such a nomination "damaged goods." "The whole enterprise smacks of poor sportsmanship," declared James Middleton Cox. Newton Diehl Baker said such a nominee would have "a moral flaw to his title."

When this volley of criticism reached Governor Roosevelt, he backtracked. He telegraphed Manager Farley:

"I have been giving much thought to the subject of adopting a majority nominating rule instead of the two-thirds rule. I have always believed that the two-thirds rule should no longer be adopted. It is undemocratic. Nevertheless it is true that the issue was not raised until after the delegates to the convention had been selected and I decline to permit either myself or my friends to be open to the accusation of poor sportsmanship or to the use of methods which could be called, even falsely, those of a steamroller. I am accordingly asking my friends in Chicago to cease their activities to secure the adoption of the majority nominating rule."

Nomination. The nomination itself thus became once more the real fight of the convention. Governor Roosevelt did not have a clear two-thirds. Whether he could muster it or not was a question more confused every hour. The forces of Smith & the Favorite Sons took fresh heart for if Roosevelt could be stopped, the nominee would be anybody's guess.

"Weakest Man." Intensifying the bitterness of the whole contest was an attack on Governor Roosevelt by Boss Frank Hague of Jersey City, field marshal for the Smith forces. Just before the Roosevelt men met to discuss the rules, the mimeograph at Smith headquarters reeled out Hague's blast. Excerpts: "Governor Roosevelt, if nominated, has no chance of winning in November. He cannot carry a single State east of the Mississippi. . . . The Democratic party has a golden opportunity but for the party to select the weakest man cannot bring success. Governor Roosevelt has utterly failed in his last two attempts to sell himself to the people. There is a wealth of material before the convention. . . . Why consider the one man who is weakest in the eyes of the rank and file?"

This condemnation from a hard-boiled politician of the Tammany stripe sent the Roosevelt crowd into a rage. Shrieked Senator Long: "Just the funeral march-- the last screech of defeat! All Frank Hague knows is the road to Manhattan."

"I'm for Myself."-- The personality of Alfred Emanuel Smith continued to dominate the Chicago scene. On his arrival from Manhattan, his first interview was as crisp and crackly as any he had ever given during the 1928 campaign. Excerpts:

"What did you have for breakfast?"

"Ham and eggs."

"Who's your own choice?"

"Alfred E. Smith of New York."

"What do you think of the claim of the Roosevelt forces that they'll win on the first ballot?"

"Just a little ballyhoo."

"How many votes for you in the New York delegation?"

"I don't know."

"How many from other States?"

"You'll find that on the record. All I know's what's on the public record."

"Are you leading a stop-Roosevelt movement?"

"I'm combatting a stop-Smith movement that began a year and a half ago."

"Who's your second choice?''

"I'm for myself alone."

"Will you support the nominee?"

"I don't think it's necessary to talk about that now."

Between glad-handing friends, being photographed, holding confabs, Al Smith found time to play golf every day. His efforts to keep the nomination away from Roosevelt were subtle, discreet. Except for the Hague broadside, Smith headquarters seemed to be only pro-Smith, anti-nobody.

First Break. "Call in the newspaper men! I've got a real story," shouted Roosevelt Manager Farley as he read a telegram from Washington. It was from Senator James Hamilton Lewis, releasing Illinois' 58 votes pledged to his candidacy. His explanation was that he had to remain in the capital to do his sworn duty on relief legislation. This first break in the ranks of the Favorite Sons prompted the Roosevelt leaders to claim half the Illinois delegation.

Hopefuls. The other Favorite Sons, minor candidates all, lay hopefully low. Speaker Garner, in Washington, came out for Repeal, declared he was "willing to serve my country and my party to the limit of my capacity." His supporters paraded about Chicago with placards: "No Doles but Jobs--Garner," "Garner is Action and Decision," "Garner and Work.'

Governor Ritchie of Maryland rested his case on his slogan: "Win With Ritchie."

Harry Flood Byrd's candidacy was pressed as "The American" followed by: "Liberty and Order, Economy and Efficiency, Courage and Honesty, Equality and Progress."

Object of many an urban stare was the rustic figure of Governor William Henry ("Alfalfa Bill") Murray of Oklahoma sipping gallons of black coffee, chewing soggy cigar butts. He grew pessimistic about getting the nomination for himself but insisted Oklahoma would vote for Roosevelt only "after frost--and frost down our way don't come until after election."

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