AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19196, 12 June 1924, Page 7

AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION NEW FIGURES EMERGE. PREPARING THE PARTY PLATFORM. Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. NEW YORK, June 10. With the calling to order of tho Republican Convention to-day began tho great quadrennial political circus. The huge auditorium, seating 14,000 people, presented a particularly bright picture, owing to tho great number of women at tho convention, which, has been especially largo since tho women delegates began to participate in the deliberations of the parties. Calculated and excellently manoeuvred enthusiasm was in evidence as usual, the presiding official having direct telephonic communication with brass bands situated in various parts of the auditorium, and telephoning directions to strike up particular State tunes in order to maintain the proper pitch of feeling among the various groups of delegates. Nothing actually is done on the spur of the moment. Everything is previously planned. .Smoke filled the loaders’ rooms at the various hotels, but the outward appearance of Democracy’s sway is excellently maintained in this present large scale picture of successful political showmanship. One striking thing is the passing of the old-time powerful figures who controlled the party. This is a day of new names and new combinations, although thov are swayed by the same philosophy. It is little short of astounding to note the passing out of Senator Lodge, who for tho past 16 years was a giant behind tfte scenes at every convention. Mr H. M. Daugherty (who was directly responsible for the nomination of ITesi dent Harding) and various lesser known men have retired into the background. The Ohio delegation, of which Mr Daugherty is a member, declined to give him the chairmanship, Senator Lodge, who was the Massachusetts delegation’s chairman in tho past, is now only a simple delegate. The present-day figures are Congressman Burton, President Burton (of Michigan University), Mr Butler (Mr Coolidge’s personal manager), and Mr William Stearns (a Boston merchant, who is Mr Ccolidge’s confidential adviser). The President is connected with several lohg-distance telephone wires from Washington, and maintains a directive touch with these new forces. Senator La Toilette and his Wisconsin delegation remain the most bitter irritant in the proceedings here. Mr La Follette has announced that the convention must repudiate Mr Daugherty, and must commend Senator Wheeler for his oil investigations, and otherwise do things which cannot bo done with the maintenance of essential harmony. The struggle over the final form of the platform continues unabated. The World Court is a question which just now has become the major issue.—A. and N Z Cable. COMMITTEES APPOINTED. CONFLICT OF FORCES BEGINS. NEW YORK, June 10. After Representative Burton’s keynote speech committees on resolutions, rules, credentials, and permanent organisation were appointed, and the convention then adjourned until to-morrow. The committees, however, went into session, and the conflict of forces began. Women, appearing before the Permanent Organisation Committee, asked that women should he made full-fledged members of the party organisations, especially of the’National Committee, on which they now act in an advisory capacity only. They feel that their enfranchisement has only augmented the electorate without giving women an opportunity to plan new political movements. The Resolutions Committee, however, became the widest battlefield, the following groups clamoring for the inclusion of special planks in the platform:—Labour and manufacturers (asking for a higher tariff), the League of Philippine Independence, the Mission of Women (asking for a Constitutional amendment 1 making women equal with men before the law), the anti-Ku Klux Klan faction, Prohibitionists, Volstead modifieationists, and a dozen other groups. The platform will naturally reflect the strength of the various forces.—A. and N.Z. Cable. SUPPORT FOR MR COOLIDCE HIS CLAIMS ADVANCED. RESISTANCE ON PARTY UNITY. NEW YORK, June 10. The permanent chairman (Mr Mondell), in addressing the convention, intimated that the Congressional disinclination to accept Mr Coolidge’s views on the soldiers’ bonus, taxation, immigration, and the World Court was due to a lack of dependable Republican majority in Congress. He said : “Confidence in Mr Coolidge is the important and outstanding fact in the political situation to-day, and in tho presence of inevitable differences of opinion on questions of moment this confidence would bo as fine a compliment to the American people as it would be to the President. Legislative control by stifling combinations cannot produce legislative results beneficial or satisfactory. Every fault in the recent legislalion could and would have been avoided had there been a dependable Republican majority in Congress.” President Burton, of Michigan University, in placing Mr Coolidge's name in nomination, eulogised tho President, who he said, was marked by fecundity of. ideas and frugality of idioms. Tho first mark of a public servant was not solely a desire to know what people wanted, but a desire to help people to want what they ought to have. Mr Coolidgo, an out and-out Nationalist, stood for the undiminished and untramellcd independence and sovereignty of the United States, rte believed fairly in the right to and value of labour organising, but maintained that Capital and Labour must pool their interests and' work together. He wanted no more war, and boldly supported tho proposal for a World Court, but he realised that tho United States must adequately prepare for defence on land and sea.—A. and X.Z. Cable. A DISTURBING FACTOR. POSSIBILITY OF THIRD PARTY. SENATOR LA FOLLETTE’S INTENTIONS. NEW YORK, June 10. (Received Juno 11, at 8.50 p.rn.) A despatch from Cleveland (Ohio) says that the Resolution Committee’s action today in throwing out Senator Lo Follette’s demands caused a temporary flurry that may be augmented upon the convention flour since the Wisconsin dele /.•item threatens to take tho issue there. It is considered a certainty that the eon vein ion will also completely negative Senator La Follette’s action. The prediction is now widely made that Senator La, Follette will call a third party convention on July 4, and definitely launch an organisation wl.ich may sei iously upset all the present campaign calculations. It is understood that the American Federation of Labour stands ready to support him. Mr Warren Stone, president of the International Order of Locomotive Engineers, has been named a.-> .-cnator La Follette’s running mate. Mr Coolidge’s most optimistic supporters admit the gravity of the situation.—A. and N.Z. Cable.