THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION

Southland Times, Issue 22913, 11 June 1936, Page 5

THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION

ELECTION IN U.S.A. TASK OF ORGANIZING CAMPAIGN DELEGATES GRAVE AND GAY (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) Cleveland (Ohio), June 9. The opening session of the Republican Convention to-day simply organized itself, selected Senator Frederick Steiwer as temporary chairman, and made ready within the next 60 hours to ratify the decisions of the leaders and managers in their choice of candidates and of the platform to be adopted by the party. Over 15,000 people crowded into the vast auditorium, which was ablaze with lights and noisy with the blare of half a dozen bands. The usual mixture of gravity and high spirits was displayed by the delegates; there were ever present features of the sublime and the ridiculous.

The gathering opened with an invocation by a Washington clergyman, in which he asked God “to protect us from greed and social irresponsibility,” and warned his listeners solemnly of the consequences of allowing the poor and the young to be ground down by depression. He was immediately followed by a quartette which sang medleys, the principal ingredient of which was a bass voice which was so low that the floor of the hall trembled, and caused the audience to laugh. A Colourful Crowd. The crowd was a colourful one, most of the State delegations wearing this or that article of raiment by which their State was known. Women made up the greater part of the audience, but their presence in such large numbers only emphasized the diminishing importance of the role of women in party affairs. They have been absorbed increasingly into the administrative machinery of the party but apparently have less voice in the determination of the policy. The inconspicuous part played by women in framing the platform is indicative of this, and so is the fact that the movement to make the Republican Party approve a Constitutional amendment permitting the regulation of the wages and hours of women and minors in industry Is being led by men. Move Against Landon. Apparently convinced of the ineffectiveness of its efforts to defeat Mr A. M. Landon, the other leading aspirants to nomination for the Presidency, the chief of whom are Colonel Franklin Knox and Senator W, E. Borah, are now concentrating their strength on trying to influence the platform by five planks: Monopoly in industry, monopoly in money, monopoly in foreign affairs, monopoly in agriculture and monopoly in foreign trade, It seems unquestioned that the plank strongly condemning monopoly will agree on extreme neutrality in foreign affairs, and the condemnation of trade agreements which reduce tariff rates is also likely to be accepted; some form of general bounty for agriculture is expected. The money plank, however, is producing the greatest difficulty. Conservative banking interests in the East will be given little say in the framing of this plank, it having been decided to-day not to allow Mr Ogden Mills (Secretary of the Treasury under President Hoover) to make recommendations to the committee which drafts it. Senator Borah’s Stand. Senator Borah has announced that he will take the floor of the convention with his own drafts of the planks if those being drawn up fail to satisfy him, Colonel Knox, in a statement this afternoon, said that he did not want “blank power of attorney.” He wants a platform without a single ambiguity; anything else leads to a dictatorship, he says. The “Old Guard” of the Republican Party is fighting desperately to have some voice in the party’s affairs this year, but the aims of both its candidate and its platform seem likely to be frustrated.