The Montgomery Advertiser
- Primary System Comes Under Fire of Charles Dawes
- Exhibits in Place for Inspection of Alabama Products
- Surgeons Will Oppose Poisonous Gas Warfare
The Advertiser's front page carried three very different stories. From Chicago, the AP reported that Vice-President Charles G. Dawes used a tribute to Thaddeus Kosciusko, the Polish hero of American liberty, to argue that the primary system in many places lets an interested minority rule in place of constitutional representative government. At home, the paper announced that the Alabama State Fair would open at noon with brief ceremonies led by Governor W. W. Brandon, its exhibits finally in order after days of noisy construction. From Washington came word that the 3,500-member Association of Military Surgeons had backed the American Legion's fight against the Geneva protocol's ban on poison gas, calling gas more humane than other weapons, while the State Department said it would still urge the Senate to ratify.
Translation
PRIMARY SYSTEM COMES UNDER FIRE OF CHARLES DAWES
CHICAGO, Oct. 24. - (AP) - The primary system tends in many localities to substitute rule by an interested minority for constitutional representative government, Vice-President Charles G. Dawes asserted today in an address of tribute to Thaddeus Kosciusko, Polish hero, who fought for American liberty.
EXHIBITS IN PLACE FOR INSPECTION OF ALABAMA PRODUCTS
With every exhibit in place and every advertised attraction open to the public, the Alabama State Fair will be officially opened at high noon today with short ceremonies conducted by Governor W. W. Brandon. The tangled confusion and the noisy construction which have reigned during the past few days give way this morning to an orderly display of the products of the state and the work of its people.
SURGEONS WILL OPPOSE POISONOUS GAS WARFARE
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24. - (AP) - The American Legion was assured today of the support of the Association of Military Surgeons in its fight against the outlawing of poisonous gas warfare, which has been demanded by the state department and which is provided by the Geneva protocol. The association, which numbers 3,500 members, has forwarded to the Legion a resolution recently adopted declaring "that the use of poisonous gases in war is more humane and less destructive on human life and production of human suffering than other methods of warfare." Despite the opposition of the Legion, the state department yesterday made it plain that it would urge ratification of the Geneva protocol by the senate.
Context
Why primaries were under suspicion in the autumn of 1926
Dawes's charge that primaries let "an interested minority" displace representative government came in the year of a notorious primary scandal. In Pennsylvania's Republican Senate primary of May 1926, Philadelphia boss William S. Vare won the nomination; the next day Senator Byron P. Harrison told the Senate of reports that $2 million to $5 million had been poured into the campaign, and the Senate set up a special investigating committee. That committee also examined the primary campaign of Frank L. Smith in Illinois, so the issue was a local one in Chicago, where Dawes spoke. The law gave little help. In the Newberry case the Supreme Court had held that the Senate had no power to judge primary elections. The AP report gives only Dawes's general argument and does not say whether he had Pennsylvania or Illinois in mind. The Pennsylvania story ran on for years: Vare won the November election, but the Senate finally denied him the seat in December 1929 after charges of corruption.
Why the Legion and army doctors defended poison gas
The surgeons' resolution was one voice in an organized campaign. The domestic chemical industry, several veterans' groups and the American Chemical Society lobbied Congress against the Geneva Protocol, and the American Legion officially opposed ratification. Its legislative committee claimed that the experience of hundreds of thousands who had served in the last war showed gas to be one of the most humane weapons of warfare; the surgeons' resolution repeats that claim in medical terms. Much pro-gas propaganda of the period stressed the humaneness of chemical weapons and the ability of gas to shorten wars, among other arguments. The claim stood against a heavy record, since an estimated 500,000 to 1.3 million First World War casualties were attributed to gas. The Advertiser's own headline says the surgeons "will oppose poisonous gas warfare," yet the dispatch beneath it reports the reverse: the surgeons sided with the Legion against outlawing gas.
How the Geneva Protocol fared in the Senate
The protocol the State Department wanted ratified had been signed at Geneva on 17 June 1925 and entered into force internationally on 8 February 1928. In the United States the opponents described in this dispatch won. The protocol stayed in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and in the 1920s never came to a vote before the full Senate. Lobbying by the U.S. military and the American Chemical Society meant that the Senate did not ratify the protocol until 1975, nearly half a century after this report. The article therefore captures the moment in 1926 when the State Department and the gas lobby were openly at odds over ratification.
Governor Brandon and Alabama's push for roads, ports and industry
W. W. Brandon, who opened the fair, was Alabama's governor from 1923 to 1927, so the ceremony fell late in his term. His administration improved the state's highways and Mobile's port facilities and left the state's finances in better condition, modest gains made possible by the prosperous 1920s. The port improvements let Alabama industries ship through Mobile rather than New Orleans, and the Alabama Forestry Commission encouraged wood-products industries to invest in the state. The Advertiser's description of an orderly display of "the products of the state and the work of its people" matches this promotional mood. Brandon's biography, however, says nothing about the fair itself, so the link between the exhibition and state policy rests on timing rather than on a documented plan.
Original
PRIMARY SYSTEM COMES UNDER FIRE OF CHARLES DAWES
CHICAGO, Oct. 24. - (AP) - The primary system tends in many localities to substitute rule by an interested minority for constitutional representative government, Vice-President Charles G. Dawes asserted today in an address of tribute to Thaddeus Kosciusko, Polish hero, who fought for American liberty.
EXHIBITS IN PLACE FOR INSPECTION OF ALABAMA PRODUCTS
With every exhibit in place and every advertised attraction open to the public, the Alabama State Fair will be officially opened at high noon today with short ceremonies conducted by Governor W. W. Brandon. The tangled confusion and the noisy construction which have reigned during the past few days give way this morning to an orderly display of the products of the state and the work of its people.
SURGEONS WILL OPPOSE POISONOUS GAS WARFARE
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24. - (AP) - The American Legion was assured today of the support of the Association of Military Surgeons in its fight against the outlawing of poisonous gas warfare, which has been demanded by the state department and which is provided by the Geneva protocol. The association, which numbers 3, - 500 members, has forwarded to the Legion a resolution recently adopted declaring " that the use of poisonous gases in war is more humane and less destructive on human life and production of human suffering than other methods of warfare. " Despite the opposition of the Legion, the state department yesterday made it plain that it would urge ratification of the Geneva protocol by the senate.
Source: Holding institution