THE DEMOCRATS

Southland Times, Issue 20524, 28 June 1928, Page 7

THE DEMOCRATS

AMERICAN PRESIDENCY FANTASTIC SCENES AT CONVENTION TAMMANY HALL’S ASCENDANCY (United Press Assn.—By Telegraph—Copyright.) New York, June 26 News from the Convention Hall at Houston, Texas, states that the delegates foregathered at noon for a short preliminary meeting at which the Convention was organized. 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 has hated Tammany, and to make the old South accept Tammany’s candidate, Governor Smith, Tammany has rad.cally altered itself. It has learned social amenities, and its new ways are the most startling out-growth of the present Convention. Mr Charles Bowen, a New York journalist, in the keynote of his speech, said:— “American democracy is mobilized to-day to wage a war of extermination against privilege and pillage. Sinclair has paid the debts of the Republican Party.” The speaker recounted all the details of alleged corruption and pollution of the Harding Administration stating that “within five months the conditions at Washington became a scandal and a stench.” He attacked the Republican treatment of the fanner and the extension of privilege to business, stating that a few powerful corporations were rich, but the small business man was bankrupt. He excoriated the “Republican dollar diplomacy,” which he said had brought the war with Nicaragua. The Convention Hall, a large 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, and the chairman, Mr Shaver, of the Democratic National Committee, pounded his gavel for 20 minutes ineffectively. He was greeted by jeering and whistles, while lights flared. It was a fantastic scene

When the Convention did get down to business it had only a few representations to accept from the patriotic societies and to listen to the speeches of welcome. It then went into recess until 7 to-night. Meantime, in the committee rooms, the discussions hang on whether the words of the Eightenth Amendment should be included in the compromise plank, the general terms of which were agreed upon, namely, strict law enforcement and the condemnation of the Republican Administration for lax enforcement of the Volstead law.

The Vice-Presidential possibilities now centre upon Senator Robinson, of Arkansas, but it is not likely that a definite alignment will occur until after the Presidential nomination is out of the way.—Australian Press Association.

COMMITTEES APPOINTED. (Rec. 8.30 p.m.) New York, June 26. When the Democratic Convention was reconvened in the evening it was strongly rumoured that the enforcement plank will not mention the Eighteenth Amendment. The Convention selected various committees and adjourned until eleven o’clock tomorrow morning when the platform committee starts the final work towards putting the platform in shape for presentation to the Convention.—Australian Press Association.

Properly designating a building in which is housed a political organization in New York, the term Tammany Hall has come to be applied .to the organization itself. The genesis of the movement is to be found in the Society of S. Tammany (the name being a corruption of Tamanend, a reputed Indian Sage) formed on May 12, 1789, by William Mocfhby. This society concerned itself at the outset with social and benvolent objects, but before long it assumed a political cast, and from 1800 onwards it has identified itself with the National Democratic Party; a fact which does not necessarily imply that the National Democratic Party identifies itself with Tarnmany. The influence of Tammany both in national and local politics is due to its complete and efficient regional organization. The district leaders ingratiate themselves with the inhabitants by charitable donations, by holding social functions, by finding work for the unemployed and by other less reputable methods. Much of the real power of Tammany is in the hands of its head for the time being, known as the boss. The first of these was William M. Tweed and his sue cessors included Richard Croker and Charles F. Murphy. Tweed —and not he alone —left an unenviable reputation, having been proved in 1869-71 to have robbed the city of millions of pounds by systematic corruption. The methods of Tammany again came in for severe criticism in 1880 at the hands of the State committee on cities, but in later years the organization has been purged of its baser elements, and has broken with traditions of political brigandage. As the cabled report indicates Tammany Hall is playing a big part in the Democratic Convention now in progress at Houston, Texas, and its influence is sure to be fully exerted to secure the nomination of Governor Smith.