Democrats map work on platform
Subcommittee named; women included
Washington (UP) –
The Democrats were ready to begin spade work on their proposed “thumbnail” platform today with appointment of a 23-member Platform Subcommittee headed jointly by House Democratic Leader John W. McCormack (D-MA) and Rep. Mary J. Norton (D-NJ).
The appointments were made by Chairman Robert E. Hannegan of the Democratic National Committee. He said that the group would start immediately to formulate tentative planks for submittal to the full committee, which will be named after the convention opens July 19. The subcommittee will meet in Chicago two days before the convention gets underway.
Women to have big voice
Women will be given a big voice in drafting the platform. Eleven were appointed to the subcommittee. Those named:
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Senators Robert F. Wagner (D-NY), Carl A. Hatch (D-NM), Joseph O’Mahoney (D-WY), Harry S. Truman (D-MO), Claude Pepper (D-FL), Theodore F. Green (D-RI) and James M. Tunnell (D-DE).
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Reps. McCormack, Norton, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. (D-MD), George J. Burke (D-MI) and Ed W. Izac (D-CA).
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Doris I. Byrne of New York, Mrs. W. T. Bost of North Carolina, Mrs. Albert E. Hill of Tennessee, Mrs. Scott Stewart of Utah, Mrs. Lucille Stewart of Kansas, Mrs. Charles G. Ryan of Nebraska, Mrs. Nellie T. Ross of Wyoming, Mrs. Sue Ruble of Oklahoma, Mrs. Fred M. Vinson of Kentucky (wife of the economic stabilization director), Mrs. Julia Porter of California and Joseph Daniels (presidential secretary).
Platform to be short
Senator Tunnell said the platform would be “short like the Ten Commandments, with a good many ditto marks at that.”
The Democrats will require less than the 4,600 words used by the Republicans, he said, “because we have a long record platform that reaches back to the end of the Hoover era.”
He acknowledged that a brief platform would relieve his party from spelling out a stand on racial issues which might antagonize the South.
“But,” he said, “I shouldn’t pay much attention to the Republican platform in that regard. They don’t.” The GOP adopted a plank advocating a permanent Fair Employment Practices Committee.