Two-Thirds Out

When North Carolina's Attorney General Romulus Mitchell Saunders rose in the first Democratic National Convention and argued successfully that it would have "a more imposing effect" if candidates were nominated by two-thirds of the delegates instead of by a mere majority, he started something over which Democrats have been wrangling for 104 years. Romulus Saunders was simply doing a job for Boss Andrew Jackson, who thereby made sure that John Caldwell Calhoun did not get the Vice-Presidential nomination away from Martin Van Buren. The first beneficiary of the two-thirds rule became its first victim. In the 1844 convention Van Buren got a majority vote for the Presidential nomination on the first ballot, could not raise it to two-thirds. Tired delegates compromised on Dark Horse James K. Polk. At Baltimore in 1912 the two-thirds rule changed the history of the world when Champ Clark got a majority on eight ballots, finally lost the nomination to Woodrow Wilson.

Laudably aimed at insuring Party unanimity, the effect of the rule has been to give the South a veto over the rest of the nation's Democrats, produce much bitter dissension. Knowing that he cannot be beaten by a simple majority, many a trailing Democratic hopeful has hung on long after he should have given up. Longest and bitterest deadlock of this kind occurred in 1924, when it took almost three sweating weeks and 103 ballots to convince the followers of William G. McAdoo and Alfred E. Smith that neither could be nominated.

The two-thirds rule may be abolished at any convention by majority vote. Three days before the Democrats met at Chicago in 1932 James Aloysius Farley, with a majority of delegates sewed up for his candidate, revealed his intention of substituting majority for two-thirds rule. At once opposing factions set up so loud a howl about the poor sportsmanship of changing rules in mid-game that Candidate Roosevelt swiftly backtracked.

About the only convention game the team of Roosevelt & Farley will have to play this year is solitaire. Last week the President and Postmaster General both felt entirely safe in predicting that one of the first things to be accomplished at Philadelphia next June will be abolition of the party's ancient two-thirds rule.

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