U.S. PRESIDENCY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 26 June 1928, Page 5

U.S. PRESIDENCY

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. A FAMILY AFFAIR. GOVERNOR SMITH’S DOMINANCE. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.) Received 11.20 a.m. to-day. , NEW YORK, June 25. Houston, where the Democratic Convention is meeting, is a half-grown torrid little city of Texas, in which living is made nearly unbearalble by hot winds sweeping in from the Gulf of Mexico. It is swarming, overcrowded and frightfully uncomfortable, but trembling with excitement. Talk is loud and pugnacious, centring chiefly upon prohibition. The actual situation ,hag not changed. One Tammanyite arriving here summed it up graphically: “Yon ask what is our platform. Ail: Smith is a platform in himself. ”

Governor Smith dominates and inevitably he will dictate. Senator Reed is ruiled out * from serious consideration, either as a candidate or a leader of the Opposition to Governor Smith. The latter duty now depends upon a call on inexperienced politician Dan Moody, Governor of Texas, and a small fervent iU'oup of prohibitionists, most of whom are women. Actually only seven per cent, of the delegates are women, showing a marked decrease since the Democratic Convention ot 1924, but their absolute honesty and intense sincerity mark them as a ponderable political force. That Gargantuan but very real figure Bryan is absent from the Democratic Convention for the first time in a generation and there is no one to take his place. If one remembers that this southern section of America is traditionally Democratic, it can be seen under what peculiar circumstances this convention will be conducted. It will be a family affair. The convention of 1924 was swallowed up in large New York and soon became a laughing Stock because of its political barbarity, but here it is a vastly serious business. Tamany will sway fhei decisions, and one can therefore expect (Shrewdness and_ long-prac-tised political gunning. It ig expected that the convention will adopt a platform on Wednesday or Thursday. 'Pile Presidential nomination will probably occur on Thursday and the VipaPresidential nomination on Friday, with an immediate adjournment after that.