Republicans: Dutch Take Holland

(TIME, June 27, 1932) -- It's about time that you folks quit talking about your families at home and how you'd run the Government if you got the chance and take your seats. Let's get this convention started. The Lord can't place his blessing on you while you are running around!"

Senator Lester Jesse Dickinson of Iowa, temporary chairman of the Republican National Convention, whammed with his gavel to quiet the vast babble that was filling the flag-hung Chicago Stadium. He had "keynoted" the convention the day before in loud, oldtime partisan style. Now in order were several more perfunctory pieces of business before the main (and equally perfunctory) acts of the meeting could be performed.

When the babble hushed and a Roman Catholic priest had had his turn delivering the benediction (a Protestant had had first turn), the Committee on Credentials reported. It sprang a surprise by unseating one of the party's most familiar convention figures, National Committeeman Joseph ("Tireless Joe") Tolbert of Ninety-Six, S. C. When he set out to "clean up the G. O. P., South" in 1929, President Hoover laid his political curse on the Tolbert regime in South Carolina, favoring instead the J. C. Hambright organizations. Prior to the convention, the National Committee had voted to seat Mr. Tolbert & delegates. After the Credentials Committee's decision was read and carried on the convention floor, "Tireless Joe" was found mumbling: "See what Hoover gets out of his lily-white South! Jes' you wait, mister, and see what he gets out of it!"

At 12:10 p. m. Senator Dickinson presented to the convention its permanent chairman, Representative Bertrand Hollis Snell, Potsdam, N. Y. cheesemaker. Chairman Snell, plump and pink, was escorted to the platform by a delegation of ladies headed by Mrs. Alvin Hert, vice-chair-woman of the National Committee. From the first bang of his gavel, for which was later substituted a bungstarter, it was apparent that stout Mr. Snell had the convention in his round red fist.

The night before, Mr. Snell had sent work around to the delegations that when he uttered the name of Hoover there must be no repetition of yesterday's disgraceful lack of enthusiasm. His address, which he had shown to his House adversary, Speaker Garner, began by pitilessly flaying the Democratic opposition:

"The Democrats have a minority complex which they cannot change. As a fault-finding, caviling minority opposition they are 100% perfect. As a driving, construction majority they are a 100% failure . . . . This much must be stated to their credit; as long as they followed the leadership of the one man in America who has furnished leadership in this great crisis -- Herbert Hoover--"

On the alert, the delegates rose. They clapped. They cheered. The band struck up "Iowa," in honor of the President's birthplace; then "California, Here I Come," in honor of his home state, whither he has not returned since 1928 and whither he said last week he could not return for the Olympic Games; then "I've Been Working on the Railroad," somehow associated with the President's engineering activities.

Governor James ("Sunny Jim") Rolph Jr. seized the Golden Bear flag of California and started a procession. Banker William H. Crocker uprooted the Sate's placard and followed. The lone star of Texas and South Carolina's crescent & palmetto, only other State ensigns apparent at the convention, swung into line. Walter Newton of Minneapolis, the President's political secretary, seized the Minnesota guidon. Senator Fess snatched the disloyal Wisconsin standard and waved, cackling with joy. The Hamilton (Ohio) Glee Club, a group of funereally garbed songsters who once provided music for Warren Gamaliel Harding's front porch campaign, sang manfully. Chairman Snell rapped for order, smiled when he did not get it, got it not long after without much rapping.

"Washington, as an engineer," he continued, "solved stupendous and vexatious problems for the benefit of mankind. President Hoover's mind is the mind of an engineer . . . .

"The way to resume specie payments after the Civil War was to resume and the Republican Party did it . . . . The way to restore good times is to restore them and the Republican Party has set itself resolutely on that course . . . . Forward to victory!"

"Amen," shouted a Negro delegate.

Wednesday Evening. Everyone knew that if this singularly colorless convention was to have the slightest splash of pigmentation, now was the time for it. Charles Gates Dawes had refused to permit his friends to boom him for the Vice- Presidency. Opposition to the renomination of Charles Curtis was completely demoralized. Chairman Snell had told the "newspaper boys" that in all probability Dr. Joseph Irwin France, sole Hoover opponent for the Presidency, would not be allowed inside the Stadium. But there would be a struggle worth watching, thought observers, when the Prohibition section of the platform came to the floor. Nicholas Murray Butler and tall, white-maned Senator Hiram Bingham of Connecticut had promised to pit their minority Repeal plank against the Administration's Revision proposal, over which the Resolutions Committee had been toiling for 24 hours.

The show began before the convention was called to order. Howling delegates from Illinois, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Rhode Island, Michigan, Maine, Indiana started a parade. "We Want Repeal, No bunk." read signs carried by the Illinois contingent, which also displayed a row of beer cans hung between two poles. Chairman Snell managed to stop this with his bungstarter by 9:30.

Chairman James Rudolph Garfield of the Resolutions Committee, whose glasses, thin straight hair and small white mustache make him almost indistinguishable from a dozen prominent G. O. Politicians, began reading the platform.

A slap at insurgency brought a murmur of approval. Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who had been sitting in a box with Mrs. Patrick Jay Hurley, stiffened when her father's name was mentioned for the first & only time during the convention. The Utah delegation applauded when a conference on bi-metallism was promised. The oil states held a little parade when high oil tariffs were recommended. The house rang righteously with indignation when Chairman Garfield deplored the burgeoning kidnapping racket. Then the words "the 18th Amendment" were pronounced and the atmosphere electrified.

Not all of the guests, who filled 15,000 seats for the first time, had paid admission. It was reported that the Illinois delegation, sopping wet, had provided unused tickets for many a friend. Disorder in the gallery broke out almost as soon as Chairman Garfield started to read the plank. "BOOOOOO!" shouted the gallery. "We want Repeal!"

Chairman -- Gentlemen, I hope, I am sure that the delegates of this convention and not those who are guests in the galleries will settle the policy of the Party.

Gallery -- Take him away! BooOO!

Chairman Snell (gavelling) -- The spectators are the guests of the convention and we expect them to give peaceful attention to the platform.

Gallery -- Boo! We're the voters! Repeal!

When Chairman Garfield managed to finish his platform report, Chairman Snell steam-rollered through a motion that debate on the Prohibition plank be limited to two hours. First speaker recognized was Senator Bingham.

"The time has come," said he, "when the question must be met. I represent a group of states that desire Repeal . . . . All we ask is that you give the people a chance to come clear, to come clean, and not give them a plank that no one can understand . . . . We adopted the 18th Amendment to win the War. Let us repeal it to win the Depression."

Next speaker was Chairman Garfield, for the Administration's majority report plank. Again heckled, he remarked: "The great backlog of oak that gives heat to the home is not disturbed by the prattling of the kindling."

College President Butler next took up the Wet argument, his cracking voice making him far less eloquent on his feet than on paper. His impeccable dictation and the fact that he had argued similarly at Republican gatherings for years seemed to win him the respect of the crowd. After Dr. Butler came the turn of Secretary of the Treasury Mills. Obedient to his President, he infuriated his Wet colleagues in the New York delegation by forcefully, with downward jabs of his fists, demanding acceptance of the Administration's plank.

Seventeenth and last speaker was booming John McNab of California, who reminded the audience that he had placed the name of Hoover before the 1928 convention (voice from gallery: "That's no credit to you !"). Ending the fight, he put the matter bluntly: "Do you want to support the President in this crisis? I appeal to you to vote for this majority report."

At 1:30 a. m. the convention did so, 681-to-472.

Thursday. Chairman Snell let it be known that he would "run it through" in one last session. He did. The convention was prayed over by Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman of St. Louis. Then Joseph Scott, premier orator of Pasadena who has two tremendous eyebrows and two sons in the Catholic priesthood, stood up to renominate his friend Herbert Hoover.

"Babylon and Nineveh and ancient Rome," cried he, "wallowed in the wealth of material prosperity, stood naked and unashamed in their perdition -- and succumbed. But the human lamp posts of Nero, the men, women and children thrown to the lions at the Colosseum for a Roman holiday, gave us the artesian springs of Christianity that rule the world, while the splendors of Rome are almost forgotten memories.

"Why therefore be frightened? Why stand frozen with fear and trembling like the slaves of old? Why not remember the inheritance which is ours and stretch forth strong arms and stout hearts and be worthy of our patrimony? We have an illustrious example of such a spirit -- the spirit of one who, through the last long grueling four years, has stood at the helm as the captain of our ship of state and has steered the vessel safely through fog and hurricane, and passed the terrors of the lee shore . . . . This homespun American, HERBERT HOOVER."

This time there was to be no mistake about the calibre of the demonstration. Movie lights were switched on in ample time to record the climax of the Scott speech. Each delegate had been given a small U. S. flag and a noise-making gadget. High above the rostrum a flag fell from the illuminated portrait of the President. Delegate Louis B. Mayer of California, partner in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, was there in person to project ghostly slides of President Hoover on screens at each end of the hall. Senator Fess, again cackling with joy, produced a huge Hoover portrait and held it up over his head on the platform. One George English of Alexandria, Va., wearing Delaware delegate's badge and intoxicated with joy, went into action as floor cheerleader.

Most important of all to the success of the demonstration was one Charles Shepherd Hutson, Los Angeles lithographer and grand jury foreman. His duty it was to stand back on the platform and hold up a series of numbered placards, to signal for the band, the lights, the balloons, the organ, etc., etc. as they had been carefully scheduled to sustain a half-hour "demonstration." When he held up the placard numbered "1" and blew a whistle, the band, poised at an exit with Governor Rolph at its head, marched on the floor. Organized pandemonium broke loose.

When Mr. Hutson held up Placard 2 the band stopped playing "California, Here I Come" and fell into "Happy Days Are Here Again," Governor Rolph's official tune. Along toward Placard 15 a talking film of President Hoover urging the Senate to balance the Budget was thrown on the screens. Another placard wound up the demonstration with "Onward Christian Soldiers."

While two giant signs "Press on with Hoover," were being rolled up and put away and delegates returned to their seats, up stood Lawritz Bernard Sandblast, Oregon delegate, to place Dr. Joseph France of Maryland in nomination. Oregon's preferential primary directed Mr. Sandblast to do this. (Party managers grew nervous about this slogan when it was pointed out to them that only a slight change was necessary to make it "Depression with Hoover.") Just then the amplifying system completely broke down, but here was what he was supposed to have said: "This stanch Republican (Dr. France) occupies a unique position in our national life. At times he has been called too radical, at others too conservative. He belongs neither to the right wing of greed nor to the left wing of license. He is as radical as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, and as conservative!" The Maryland delegation rose, booed, held up Hoover placards.

When the sandblasting was over, Dr. France tried to get to the rostrum himself. Protesting about "his rights," he was bundled off by policemen (like Nominee Throttlebottom in Of Thee I Sing). He was rescued by Hearst newshawks, allowed to pour out his grievances: "This is a colossal piece of political racketeering. I was going to put the name of Calvin Coolidge before the convention and it would have stampeded them. And Snell knew it. The nomination of this man Hoover is invalid."

Meanwhile, the nomination of "this man Hoover" was being seconded by eight orators, none of whom rose to the foresic heights of Chicago's Negro politician, Roscoe Conklin Simmons, who declared:

"Not long ago I stood before the tomb of Lincoln. I sought a word from him for times of trouble and for the struggle that often almost overcomes me . . . .

"He seemed to speak. He seemed to say: . . . Go and speak to those who still gather in my name. Say that I dwell about the stout and burdened heart that bears the nation on it. And if you see him, speak to Hoover for me and say that his road is the one I traveled. Say that it is the path cleared by time for those who can walk alone toward these immortal fields where you sought and found me."

The roll call gave President Hoover 1,126 1/2 votes. Wisconsin's Senator Blaine received 13; Coolidge, 4 1/2; France, 4; Charles Gates Dawes, I; New York's onetime Senator James Wadsworth, I; Absent, 4.

Another nominating speech by another Scott -- Charles F. of Iowa, Kan. -- put the name of Charles Curtis before the convention in renomination for the Vice-Presidency. Vice President Curtis won, 634 1/4-to-401 1/2. Only in 1912, when theodore Roosevelt split the Party and paved the way to a Democratic victory, had the G. O. P. renominated its previous ticket. It would not have occurred on the first ballot had not the Pennsylvania faction switched its 75 votes from General Edward Martin, State chairman, to Curtis at the last moment. (Other votes: U. S. Minister to Canada MacNider, 182 3/4; General Harbord, 161 3/4; Alvan Fuller, onetime Governor of Massachusetts, 57; Snell, 56; all others, 55 1/2; absent, 6 3/4.

Autograph collectors and newspapermen flocked around the box of Mrs. Edward Everett ("Dolly" Curtis) Gann. She had suddenly become the heroine of the convention through her brother's victory.

"Go away!" shouted Husband Gann at the newshawks. "Newspapers? What do we care?" cried he, and complained about having been called "Mr. Dolly Gann" in the public prints.

"Just tell them I'm happy, and thank everybody for being so kind," called stalwart Mrs. Gann. "Platform? I haven't a thing to say about the platform . . . . I think the platform is all right . . . . I'm going to speak at Newport."

Thereafter the business of the 20th Republican National Convention terminated briefly. Charles Irwin, an old newspaperman, seasoned in U. S. politics since the forgotten days when young Boies Penrose was a Libertarian, watched the delegates file out of the Stadium. "The dutch," commented he, "have taken Holland."

9,000 Words

"We renew our pledge to the principles and traditions of our party and dedicate it anew to the service of the nation."

Thus began the Republican platform of 1932 adopted last week at the Chicago convention. It contained about 9,000 words and was called the most conservative, if not illiberal, party declaration in generation. Excerpts:

Depression: "The supremely important problem is to break (its) back. The patience and courage of our people have been severely tested."

Unemployment Relief: " . . . (a) problem of State and local responsibility. The party is opposed to the Federal Government entering directly into the field of private charity."

Public Economy: " . . . Prompt and drastic reduction of public expenditure. . . . The party will continue to uphold the gold standard. Relief by currency inflation is unsounding principle and dishonest in results. An ailing body cannot be cured by quack remedies."

Banks: " . . . Better protection of the deposing public."

Silver: " . . . An international conference (on) monetary questions."

Agriculture: "The Farm Board has many achievements to its credit . . . . The prices received by the American farmer, cruelly low though they are, are higher than the prices received by the farmers of any competing nation . . . . We will support any plan which will help to balance production against demand and thereby raise agricultural prices, provided it is economically sound and administratively workable."

Tariff: " . . . Extension of the general principle of protection to the products of our farms, forests, mines and oil wells."

Veterans: " . . . A difficult task. A careful study should be made with a view to elimination of inequalities and injustices and effecting all possible economies."

Foreign Affairs: " . . . Peace with all. "

World Court: "America should join."

Reduction of Armament: "We do not propose to reduce our Navy defenses below that of any other nation."

Wages: " . . . High."

Work: " . . . Shorter day . . . shorter week."

Labor: "Collective bargaining is approved."

Negro: " . . . The friend."

Children: " . . . have had the most solicitous thought of our President."

Government Reorganization: "We favor."

Democrats: "The vagaries of the Democratic House offer characteristic and appalling proof of the existing incapacity of that party for leadership in a national crisis. Individualism running amuck has displaced party discipline . . . . Goaded to desperation by their confessed failure, the party leaders have resorted to "pork barrel" legislation . . . ."

Party Insurgents: " . . . Menace to self-government . . . the confused voices of a heterogeneous group of unrelated local prejudices . . . ."

500 Words

The Republican Party, in convention assembled in Chicago last week, took an elephantine step Westward. Definitely deserted was National Prohibition as the G. O. P. has tacitly endorsed it for the last twelve years. How close to reality the party's new declaration would bring legal beer, wine & spirits remained a matter of opinion, dispute, political contest. The fact in hand was that the Chicago convention gave Wets the substance of a change, Drys the shadow of kind words. The party had pulled on rubber boots to pussyfoot its way through the campaign. Whether this was possible or impossible only Election Day would show.

Professional Drys who hold the 18th Amendment sacrosanct found themselves beaten before the delegates assembled at the Stadium. So wide and deep has been the popular revulsion against Prohibition that the convention promptly settled down into a contest between Repeal and revision, with never a thought of Retention. In the Florentine Room of the Congress Hotel were held perfunctory hearings for the extremists of both sides, after which a committee of 17 went into secret session to jig-saw a 500-word declaration on Prohibition. President Hoover would not stand for outright Repeal as Connecticut's Senator Bingham ardently demanded. Defying a majority of his own New York delegation, which wanted to sweep the 18th Amendment off the books, Secretary of the Treasury Mills became the White House spokesman in drafting a compromise plank. For 14 hours the Resolutions Committee wrote, scratched and wrote again until it perfected a declaration which it could telephone to Washington and get approved.

As a majority report from the Committee, this plank pledged the party to law enforcement and against nullification. It next detailed the workings of Article V whereby proposals to alter the Constitution are submitted by a two-thirds vote of Congress, or on application of two-thirds of the State Legislatures or by conventions in three-fourths of the States. Turning thumbs down on referendums as meaningless and ineffectual, the majority plank continued:

"A nation-wide controversy over the 18th Amendment now distracts attention. . . . (It) is not a partisan political question. Members of the Republican party hold different opinions with respect to it and no public official or member of the party should be pledged or forced to choose between his party affiliations and his hones convictions . . . .

"We do not favor a submission limited to the issue of retention or repeal . . . . The progress that has been thus far made must be preserved while the evils must be eliminated.

"We therefore believe that the people should have an opportunity to pass upon a proposed amendment, the provision of which, while retaining in the Federal Government power to preserve the gains already made in dealing with the evils inherent in the liquor traffic, shall allow States to deal with the problem as their citizens may determine but subject always to the power of the Federal Government to protect those States where Prohibition may exist and safeguard our citizens everywhere for the return of the saloon . . . .

"Such an amendment should be promptly submitted to the States by Congress to be acted upon by Sate conventions called for that sole purpose . . . and adequately safeguarded so as to be truly representative."

Dissatisfied with this declaration, Senator Bingham produced for the extreme Wets a minority report calling for immediate repeal, with ratification also by State conventions and pledging the party's "best efforts" to "promote temperance, abolish the saloon, whether open or concealed, and bring the liquor traffic under complete public supervision and control."

After a two-hour debate the convention rejected the Repeal plank by a vote of 681 to 472. Then it adopted the majority report, thus nailing down in the G. O. Platform for the first time a declaration for a Change. On the roll call seven States voted solidly for Repeal; ten more showed a majority against the Administration plank. The populous Republican states of New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan and Indiana all threw their weight against the White House. The fact that President Hoover was able to carry his plank at all was due to the votes of obedient job-holding delegates. The G. O. P., South prevented Northern Republicans from committing their party to Repeal.

What the plank meant constitutionally was obvious. A Republican Congress was to propose to the States another amendment, not specifically repealing the 18th Amendment but superseding it exactly as the 17th Amendment for the direct election of Senators superseded the constitutional provision for their selection by State Legislatures; exactly as the 16th Amendment for an income tax superseded the constitutional limitation of direct taxes based on population. The new amendment would have to provide that States that wanted to be Wet might be Wet, regardless of the 18th Amendment, but would prohibit them from legalizing the saloon. Therefore a Wet State would probably have to set up a State liquor monopoly and keep the business out of private hands for private profit. Likewise the Federal Government would reserve the power to police Dry States and control interstate liquor shipments. Under such an amendment the Federal Government's power to regulate would be large, to prohibit nil.

Never has a Constitutional amendment been ratified by State conventions as now proposed. Purpose of the proposals is that voters may elect delegates to a State convention not as Democrats or Republicans but as Wets or Drys, unencumbered by other political issues. "Truly representative" was put into the plank to effect a fairer balance between city and country voters.

Politically and practically the G. O. P. plank meant less than it said because all Republican candidates, as individuals, were specifically freed from its provisions. This was the weasel paragraph. President Hoover, as nominee for re-election, might, if he chose, disavow his party's pledge on the ground that "his honest convictions" were against any change. Likewise G. O. P. nominees for Congress are not bound to vote for the new amendment. Thus the voters might return a Republican majority to the House only to discover that most of them had Dry "convictions," were able to block resubmission at the very outset. Moreover, 13 Dry State conventions could still thwart ratification of any amendment Congress might pass. Thus only optimistic Wets thought the plank meant legalized liquor in the near future with Republicans running the country.

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