EVE OF BITTER FIGHT

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 232, 27 June 1932, Page 9

EVE OF BITTER FIGHT

Democrats at Grips

CONVENTION OPENING Roosevelt’s Bid for Selection TRAGIC ROLE OF AL. SMITH By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright (Rec. June 26, 5.5 p.m.) Chicago, June 25. The stage is set for the Democratic National Convention, which will open on Monday with Wags, bands, cheers, and boos. Underneath the superficial excitement is a desperate and bitter struggle for control between powerful forces, which are bound up in a storm of protest against the rule of President Hoover.

The struggle is between the supporters of Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt and sectional interests representing nine other candidates. The stage managers have almost finished rushing around, shifting and changing scenery, moving quietly but violently behind the - curtain. To Mr. James A. Farley, chairman of the New York Boxing Commission, has been- given the job of bringing about the nomination of Mr. Roosevelt. Mr. Farley is an amateur, and this is his first big professional role. Save for some' very skilful work In the rehearsals, rounding up delegations to give him control of committees, he has said or done nothing to justify his assignment He was, for example, stampeded Into announcing that the Roosevelt forces would abrogate the two-thirds nomination rule. This faux pas of the first water was immediately accepted by opponents as indicating that Mr. Roosevelt could not obtain nomination if he had to get a two-thirds vote. Mr. Jouett Shouse, a former Assist-"ant-Secretary of the Treasury, gets the role of skilful manipulator with Mr. John J. Raskob. He pulls the big purse strings. Mr. Shouse has been chosen for the job of permanent chairman, but the Roosevelt party wants Senator Thomas Walsh. There will be a row

-about that. Senator Alben W. Barkley, of Kentucky, will announce the party s policy. , , . The man who gets the tragic role is Mr. Alfred Smith. It is said that “he might fool them and regain some power,” but as the days march observers note that he goes to confer with important persons; they do not come to him. He often’ confers with unimportant people. Among other possible candidates are Mr. Albert Ritchie, of Maryland; Mr. Melville Traylor, of Chicago; Mr. Newton Baker, of Ohio; and Mr. John Nance Garner, of Texas. The long-waited Coalition threat to break away from Mr. Roosevelt if he is nominated without the customary two-thirds majority took organised form among the Democrats on Satur; day, as several more party stalwarts, Including Mr. Newton Baker, lined up against the proposed two-thirds rule abrogation. The two-thirds rule, originally designed to protect the South against the North, has latterly operated to enable a group of big city delegations to prevent the nomination -of strong candidates.