FIFTH SESSION OF CONVENTION.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 1 July 1924, Page 7

FIFTH SESSION OF CONVENTION.

Democrats’ Strenuous Work

DRAFTING THE PLATFORM

By Cable —Press Association —Copyright. NEW YORK, June 28. The fifth session of the Democratic Convention opened ostensibly to receive the platform, but Mr Cummings, emancipated from lack of rest, appealed and begged the delegates to go into recess until the afternoon to ffive the dissolutions Committee a final opportunity to reach an agreement on the League and Klan issues. He declared that the committee feared that if the Klan .were brought on to the Convention floor, the Democratic Party would be torn with dissension. The Convention meekly adjourned, and reconvened. It was an open secret, however, that agreement bad not been reached. Twenty thousand persons crowded the auditorium expecting a pitched battle. ... Mr Cummings read the majority report ■on the platform, outlining the principal plans.

The League Issue. Mr Baker then read the minority report, offering a substitute for tlie League plank, and Delegate Pattmgan (Maine) offered a substitute for tho Klan plank, condemning the Klan by name. ' , The chair offered a resolution allowing a two hours’ debate on each question. . ‘ Few persons seemed inclined to listen eagerly to further talk, and before the debate begun half the audience had filed out. Tlie debate over the League resolved itself into a contest of expressions ot expediency and idealism. The advocates of a popular referendum declared that to endorse joining the League,_ even with reservations, meant to revive the defeated issue of 1920, and again court Democratic defeat.

Mr Baker's Impassioned Appeal.

Mr Baker made one of the most impassioned addresses of American political history. He whipped feelings to high tension, as he outlined the Democrats’ shame if they repudiated Mi Wilson. He poured burning words upon Mr Lodge and the Republican irreconcilables; he mustered strong legal arguments showing that the American Constitution was without provision for a referendum. He had been waging a 72 hours’ sleepless battle; he spoke with the furore of physical - collapse. There was no longer listlessness among the auditors. His peroration was a plea that Democracy’s dove for Mr Wilson should remain - alive, although the leader was. dead. • After that there was cheering, .in which there was~ pleasantly missing any element of artificiality.

Only Moral Victory,

Mr Baker’s victory, however, was only moral. The poll of delegates showed, his issue defeated by 742 to--45 votes, and the debate over the Klan issue began .amidst evident tensity. Fifteen hundred policemen were -massed thorough the aisles and floor as a> precaution against disorders. The Klan was fairly generally condemned, but the opponents of mentioning the Klan’s name declared that the organisation has 1,000,000. members, not all of whom merit denunciation. . Other speakers took the broad line that was is wrong should be specifically condemned, and the Klan is wrong and vicious.

More Planks Adopted,

The Democratic Convention adopted n platform containing the non-contro-versial planks cabled on June 26 and 27, and the following further planks, namely, favouring the enforcement ol all laws, condemning the Republicans for not enforcing the prohibition laws, favouring participation in world affairs, as one of the surest methods of aiding agriculture, through the creation ol better world markets, condemning the Lausanne Treaty, favouring the fulfilment of Mr Wilson’s arbitral award respecting Armenia, and favouring an adequate army and navy until the reduction of international armaments has been effected. It is declared that if there is no substitute for the League of Nations as an* agency for peace, it is wise and desirable, to remove this question from partisan politics,. and therefore a referendum will be held after allowing ample time for consideration and discussion. Should the United States become a member of the League, with such reservations and amendments as the President ami Senate may agree, if affirmative this mandate .will he immediately carried, and we insist on obedience to the ordinary processes of law, and condemn anv efforts to nrouso religious or racial discussion.

Call of the League. NEW YORK, June 28. Rejecting Mr Newton Baker’s sub istituto plank for the League ot Nations, the Democratic Convention voted to stand by the Resolutions Committee.

Mr Baker made a dramatic appeal, asking the Convention to consider the memory of Mr Wilson, and put in an out-and-out Wilsonian plank for the League. “Next ‘to m.y duty to my God and my family, nothing in, my life compares with the League. The man who ought to be pleading this cause here is; dead—calling from consecrated ground.” He derided the majority plank as composed of provisions which lead to nothing. Naming the KJan. The Democratic platform will not single out the Ku Klux Klan by name, and' will not contain the Wilsonian plank covering the League of Nations, according to decisions reached early this morning after a ten hour session, winch developed some of the most disorderly scenes in the Convention history*. Fearing disorder and nossihly bloodshed, the managers of the Democratic Convention failed to dismiss the Klan plank in the presence of crowded galleries, and agreed upon a plan for a senarate session to-night, from which all hut the delegates and newspaper mm will he excluded. Mr William Jennings Bryan, Democracy’s old war-horse, made a plea against a religious war. “We should fight the Ronuhlirnn Party, not the Klan.” Deep into the night the debato continued. The session has already lasted tvclve hours without intermntion. The poll on the Klan question was enndneted amidst ill-feeling. >ngendercrl hv weariness and deafening confusion. Tim faction against naming the Klan won hv 542 to 541 votes. The comnletc lain t form w*ns then arlonlerl hv aer-lnmatlon. amidst an ir-doseribahle din, and the convention adjourned.

FLOOD OF RELIGIOUS HATRED

FIERCE DISSENSION CREATED. By Caldc —Press Association—Copyright. (Received 7.55 p.m.. .Tune 30.) NEW YORK, June 29. The net- result of Saturday’s session of the Democratic Convention was to

create dissensiion within the ranks of the Party, and release a flood ol religious "hatreds, likely to cause riot and bloodshed in many sections of the country, during the campaign, and furnish the party’s adversaries with much campaign materia!. According to impartial observers, any nomination would not he worth a penny now. “As the result of the Ku Khix Klan quarrel they elected Mr C'oolidge on Saturday night,’’ is a statement heard on all sides