G. O. P.

Tomorrow the "windy city" will be assailed by new gusts as the widely ballyhooed, expensive Republican convention starts revolving on its well greased axis. There will be little to disturb the placld sequence of oratory, credentials, temporary officers, resolutions, and the form of nomination; party managers with an eye to lean purses have seen to that. Every effort will be made to dispatch the weary business and send the local delegates a homing by Thursday at the latest.

But there are one or two elements, which, unless carefully managed, will be apt to disturb, at least temporarily, that beautiful peace which has hitherto blessed the Republican campaign. Mr. Hoover is, of course, assured of his re-nomination, an event which will climax the proceedings on Thursday. But the choice of a running mate is as yet a trifie less certain. The president, to be sure, would retain his present partner, but Mr. Curtis, aside from his advanced age of 73 years, is politically in-acceptable to many party leaders. There has already been much foolish talk about Mr. Coolidge; there will be more about General Dawes and Theodore Roosevelt. Who will be the party choice is a question which party leaders will have to decide. According to all portents, that choice will not be an easy one.

Another problem, which is probably less serious, although it has received more attention from the press, is that of the Prohibition plank. The administration is outspoken in its opposition to any form of direct repeal and in its acceptance of the "resubmission" proposal announced by Republican leaders some time ago. As equivocal as anyone could require, such a plank would be most helpful to pre-election party orators, and to all appearances there can be little question but that it will be included. But in the past week, a wave of pro-repeal sentiment has swept the country, staunchly supported by the press and public reaction to the high spots of the new tax law. That the widely advertised "influential repeal element" at the convention posseses enough strength to alter the submission plank seems unlikely, but it is a question which time alone can decide.

Finally, Republican delegates will pursue their labored antics in as gloomy an aura of depression as their party has yet experienced. Aside from an ardent discipleship of Mellon methods which led managers to underestimate by $35,000 the total cost of the jamboree, it has become painfully necessary to lower the price of mezzannine seats from $100 to $40. Moreover, by chartering the arena for the weeks following the Republican convention, Democratic leaders have managed to chalk up to the G. O. P. ledger some $15,000 worth of staging and decoration. The show is on.