Show our weekly washington letter by NATIONAL PRESS SERVICE washington D 0 apryl lath the where and when of the presidents vacation home Is still a matter ot of general speculation communities north east south and west have invited him lie he lias has b been c en assured that in florida and tex texas a s in july he will vill find the bracing balmy air which a chief executive Is supposed to require and minnesota colorado california and the dry southwest have also put forth alluring claims the ambition to have the president as a neighbor is a healthy sign many of the invitations originate naturally in the do debiro of certain people and places to advertise their existence to the world and thus profit by the general publicity but the invitations in the main are extended in good faith and because of a desire to be helpful when one remembers that in certain european nations a hint on the part of the luler iuler ot of his intentions to visit a certain section ot of his realm Is many times met with apologetic but firm suggestions that he please consider some other locality inasmuch ns as the community to be does docs not feel competent to promise the necessary safeguard of his life and property the fact that the president of the united states can roam the held field over without meeting any such possibility lity Is pretty good evidence that we are citizens in a good nation a 40 the rum issue in an important one but contrary to the views of odthe the expert newspaper prognosticators it will make trouble in the democratic rather than the republican ranks gov GOT al smith ot of new york whose original appeal tor for support was that he be was so eo wet that a mopping up party was obliged to continually follow him has begun to hedge and only recently the democratic leaders who tried to get together on a national statement which could go out as a fundamental da message irom the party of jefferson broke up in disorder because the leaders could not agree what to say about rum on the other hand while the republicans u have recently shoun their thea niter cst in a joint debate between senor senator alwn dry and dr butler of new york wet in boston it Is plain that the debate ol of the two men was regarded as a rather interesting intellectual combat and not as a vital party issue with the democrats the rum issue because ot of tammany and other important bodies in the organization will grow in importance because these particular groups have been feeding their followers with promises ot of rum if a victory came to them no matter how much they squirm they will be unable to get away from it the cans cam in the great middle west in the larger portion of new england and the far ar west vest have no party in members embers who pro ere demanding the issue to be made paramount they are dry and consider th that at matter settled 4 04 0 the american home market la Is still the greatest in the world and d it Is easy therefore to understand the covetous eyes which european manufacturers continually cast upon it find and their als grunt lement over our tariff which bars them from entry during last year we produced over worth of manufactured goods almost of this total were consumed in tho the united states only worth were exported american wages have profited in 1814 1914 there were paid in american wages and in 1925 the total of almost was paid in wages 4 00 aw 0 frank kent of the baltimore sun which still believes that governor ritchie can dl defeat feat al smith tor for the democratic presidential nomination travels now perpetually clad in a raiment ot of sack cloth and ashes once the inspired poet laureate ot of the democratic party and anxious in his heart to live up to his title he ha finds it impossible to reconcile his common sense with any daens of praise tor for his bis party organization here is Ms his latest estimate ot of the democratic party in tho the congress recently closed there is a full column ot of it in the baltimore sun under his bis signature one can 0 wy only present words and phrases but with the assurance that the context of the whole Is on the same character probably the most pitiable spectacle in washington Is the democratic party so tar fall as its representatives 1 in the house and senate are arc the party not ot in its history has it seemed at a lower ebb it has seemed in complete collapse the party was certainly in a state of suspended animation during the session cession of congress it went through this session inert destitute of ideas devoid of initiative |