Show political wheels by JANIES JAMES L WEST 1 washington march alst democratic leaders like the little boy on the lonely country road are doing a lot ot of whistling these days to keep up their courage after the explosive meeting of 0 the democratic national committee here recently 4 w w their tune la Is that after all the little 1 late unpleasantness over prohibition was a good thing tor for the party as it brought I 1 the question out of its presumed hiding place into the open where it may be discussed dispassionately and calmly 0 40 4 well its discussion at the committee meeting was anything but dispassionate and calm A tenser atmosphere in a political meeting than that existing after mr john J raskob mortgagee of the Demo cartic party had thrown his state control bomb could scarcely have been imagined some of the participants were lashed to the fury of chair throwing and quite a few committee men and women as well as just spectators hastily withdrew themselves from the line of possible fire are some edged for exits and others less strategically located began stepping toward projecting and protecting columns in the meeting hall 1 0 0 0 I 1 no doubt the heated argument was good for the party for if it did nothing more it revealed in all its gaping space the chasm that divided the dry democrats of the south from the wet tani tam many controlled democrats of the east 0 the southerners were more vocal in the sharp fight but they found that mr rm ra kob the chairman they would like so much to get rid of had outsmarted them for he was in undisputed control of the committee through his friends and I 1 les he had been able to obtain and they found their candidate of 1928 and mr Ras kobs candidate for 1932 lined up against them mr smith took the platform in the role ot of conciliator and proceeded to bring peace and harmony by asserting that his friend mr raskob had been jumped on and kicked all over the lot by the southern gentry 40 he described senator robinson of arkansas who led thal southerners in their protest as his late sparring partner referring to mr robinson as the demo deme cratic vice presidential nominee in 1928 and assured the committee that the talk about the committee influencing the next national convention on the p prohibition question was so much bun bunk 0 it 9 ot all of which yas was interesting in that it proved that the titular leader of democracy Is standing squarely behind his handpicked hand picked chairman of the committee find and with him is determined to precipitate a similar battle in the 1932 convention vent ven tion lon w and having found out precise precisely ly wh where ers the southerners stand on the question qua ti on they have ample time in which to gather up friendly delegates in the western states in many of which the democratic party Is a mere shell of course they count on getting wet delegations from the east in platform making only a majority of the delegates to the convention is necessary to adopt a wet plank that majority can be obtained outside of the south and privately the leaders from below the mason and dixon line are convinced that air raskob will leave no stone unturned eu to obtain that majority W v w ai it if he noes there may be another political revolution in the solid south |