DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION

Hokitika Guardian, 27 June 1928, Page 2

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION

(United Press Association. —By Electric Te legra ph.—Copy ri gb t.)

.ueeived this dav at 9.3 C a.m.) NEW YORK, June 26

News from Convention Hall, Houston. Texas, states delegates loregathered at noon for a short preliminary meeting at which the Convention was organised. The amazing ascendancy of Tammany Hall is evident. It is not the old Tammany which in American political annals has earned the same reputation as the Mafia in Italian criminal annals. The old South lias hated Tammany and to make the old South accept Tammany’s candidate Smith, Tammany has radically altered itself. It has learned social amenities in its new ways as'one of the most startling outgrowth of the present convention.

Claude Bowers, a New York journalist in a keynote speech said: “American democracy is mobilised to-day to wage a war of extermination against privilege or pillage. Sinclair lias paid the debts of tlie Republican Party.” The speaker recounted all the details of the alleged corruption and pollution of the Harding administration, stating: “Within five months, the conditions at Washington became a scandal and a stench. He attacked tlie Republican treatment of tlie farmer and extension of the privilege to business, stating a few powerful corporations were rich but the small businessman was bankrupt. He execrated “ Republican dollar diplomacy ” which he said had brought war with Nicaragua. Convention Hall, a huge wooden structure, seating 25,000 persons, was like a moderately hot oven, under the Texas sun. The first picturesque touch was the march around the floor of a cowboy band behind a cowgirl in blazing red on a prancing horse. A woman from Georgia, which is intensely dry, got on a chair and sang hymns. It was a hard gathering to bring to order. Chairman Shaner of the Democratic National Committee pouiided his gavel for twenty minutes ineffectively. He was greeted by jeering and whistles, and lvloig lights flared. It was fantastic.

When the convention did get down to business it only had a few representations to accept from patriotic societies and to listen to the speeches of welcome. It then recessed until seven to-night. Meantime, in the Committee rooms discussions hang on whether the words of the Eighteenth Amendment should be included in tbe compromise plank, the general terms of which are agreed upon, namely, strict law enforcement and condemning- oi tbe Republican administration and lax enforcements of the Volstead law. Vice-Presidential possiliilities n 0" centre upon Senator Robinson, of Arkansas, but it is not likely a definite alignment will occur until after the presidential nomination is out of tbe way.