POLITICS IN AMERICA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20184, 28 June 1928, Page 7

POLITICS IN AMERICA

DEMOCRATS MEET “War of Extermination Against Privilege and Pillage.” COWBOY BAND PARADES t By Telegraph—Per Press Assn,—Copyright ] [ Australian Press Assn. 1 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 organised. The amazing ascendency or 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 soutn has hated Tammany, and, tj puake the old south accept Tammany’s •candidate, Governor Smith, Tammany .has radically altered itself. It has learned social amenities and its now ways arc the most stratling outgrowth of the present convention. j Mr Claude Bowers, a New York ■journalist, in his keynote speech, said; ‘ American Democracy is mobilised fold ay to wage a war of extermination against privilege and pillage. Sinclair has paid the uebts of the Republican (Party.” The speaker recounted all the details of alleged corruption and. pollution of the Harding Administration, .stating: ‘‘Within live months conditions at Washington became a scandal and a stench.” Ha attacked the Republican treatment of the farmer and the extension of privilege to business, 'stating that a few powerful corporations were rich, but the small businessjinan was bankrupt. He excoriated tho I*‘ Republican dollar diplomacy,” which jlie said, ‘‘had brought war with Nicaragua.” The Convention Hall, a huge wooden structure seating 25,000 persons, was like a moderately hot oven under the Texas sun. The first picturesque touch was a 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 the gravel for twenty minutes 'ineffectively. He was greeted by jeeiirig and whistles, and Kleig lights flared. It was fantastic.

When the convention did get down to business it only had a few representations to accept from patriotic societies and to listen to the speeches of welcome. It then went into recess until seven o’clock to-night.

Meantime in the committee rooms discussions hung on whether the words of the Eighteenth Amendment should be included in the compromise plank, •the general terms of which were agreed upon, namely strict law enforcement and condemnation of the Republican administration’s lax enforceinent 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 wav.

A later message states that when the Democratic Convention was re-conven-ed in the evening, it was strongly rumoured that the enforcement plank will not mention the Eighteenth Am-

endment. The convention selected various committees, and adjourned until [ clc ven o ’clock to-morrow morning, ‘when the Platform Committee starts its final work towards putting the platform into shape for presentation to the convention.