Party for Peace

In Indiana the Republican state convention denounced the Administration's tariff-bargaining law (see p. 13), scored the cut in veterans' pensions.

The Republican state chairman in New York declared that President Roosevelt's policies should not be attacked until conclusively proven wrong.

The Illinois Republican state Committee accused President Roosevelt of betraying democracy.

New Jersey Republicans met to draft a platform dodging all national issues.

Such were samples of the discord and confusion within the Republican Party last week when its National Committee met at Chicago's Palmer House. The Committee's job was to raise funds to cover the party deficit, to write a platform for the autumn campaign, to select a chairman in place of Everett Sanders who led his party through its 1932 debacle. The Republicans found themselves a bitterly divided party, unable to make up their minds as to how to attack a popular Democratic President and his New Deal. Herbert Hoover was represented by 44 followers. The anti-Hoover camp included maverick conservatives. Hoover repudiators. liberals all anxious to outshine the New Deal somehow. A man like rich Wal ter Joclok Kohler of Kohler. onetime Governor of Wisconsin, was the sort that the Hooverites demanded for National Chair man. Committeeman Hallanan of West Virginia was the choice of the anti-Hooverites. Either selection, the Republicans knew, would split the party. In the end, the ticklish job of picking the chairman fell to a man hoary with political experience. Old Guardsman Charles Dewey Hilles of New York, who held the balance of power. With both fac tions he sweated until 1 a. m. in his Blackstone Hotel suite. Next morning Henry Prather Fletcher of Greencastle. Pa. was announced as the compromise choice. Progressive Republicans were prompt to flay Chairman Fletcher as a close friend of the last three Republican Presidents. Fact was, Chairman Fletcher has been a friend of practically all Republicans and a few Democrats, too. A Rough Rider and Bull Mooser, he was given his first diplomatic post by Theodore Roosevelt, climbed on and up under six Presidents until he topped his career as Ambassador to Italy (1924-29). Frank R. Kent, political pundit for the Democratic Baltimore Sun, summed up the Republicans' choice thus: "... The truth is--and both Democrats and Republicans know it--Mr. Fletcher, personally, is the best type of man who has held the National Chairmanship in either party for a long time. He has character, standing, education, experience, ability and charm." Of their two other problems, money and a platform, the Republicans made speedy work. Ten minutes were all they needed for their $206.000 deficit from disastrous 1932. The job was done by calling the roll. Boss Roraback of Connecticut wrote out a check for $5.000. Ruth Pratt pledged $20,000 on behalf of New York, Mrs. Worthington Scranton (of Scranton) an equal sum for Pennsylvania. At the close of the roll call $230,000 had been pledged. The platform committee, headed again by Mr. Hilles, turned out its labor overnight. Major points: "American institutions and American civilization are in greater danger today than at any time since the foundation of the republic. "Our country has been backward in legislation dealing with social questions. "But we insist that all of these problems can best be solved within the framework of American institutions. "A small group in Washington, vested with temporary authority, is seeking covertly to alter the framework of American institutions. In place of individual initiative they seek to substitute complete government control of all agricultural production, of all business activity. . . ." No masterpiece of political wisdom, this document quickly became a target for Democrats everywhere. Of all the potshots taken at it none was more racy, more raucous than those of NRAdministrator Johnson. Roared the General in his best Johnsonese: "What they [the Republicans] did was to go into the purple silence and produce a kippered herring in a dark can. You know, a kippered herring is one that smells and hasn't got any--well--insides. "These pirates have reached way back into the dark ages of the Old Deal and pulled out Mr. Fletcher. They are going to Fletcherize their social program--you know--you take almost nothing into your mouth and then you chew it and chew it and chew it until it really is nothing. "Social program from that crew under the Jolly Roger! You might just as well try to pick fleas out of a sand pile with a pair of boxing gloves on your fingers!"

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