OCR Text |
Show Washing-tun, I), c. 1 SPHINX ROOSEVELT ' Franklin Roosevelt will go down in history as the greatest keeper ol 'a secret in American politics. For more than two years scores of friends. Democratic leaders, newsmen news-men and others tried their hand at worming from him some hint on the third term question. None succeeded succeed-ed until the Democratic convention was only a week away and this one, Jim Farley, in turn sealed his own lips. Except for Farley, there wasn't a person on earth who could say he had heard from Roosevelt himself what he planned to do. There were many to whom he said that he did not want to run. There were some to whom he voiced a . preference for Secretary of State Cordcll Hull as his successor. But there was no one, including members mem-bers of his family, to whom the President gave the slightest clue -whether he would run again. Illustrative of the complete mystery mys-tery even within the inner council was the fact that Secretary Morgen-thau Morgen-thau did not believe the President would be a candidate, while Secre- - tary Hopkins was confident that he would. Both had to admit that Uoosevelt had said nothing and that "their opinions were based wholly on ' "deductions." Last week Sen. Sherman Minton, New Deal whip, and State Chairman Chair-man Bays of Indiana, tried to pene- ' Irate the silence. Both are mem- lers of the Hoosier convention dele-'' dele-'' .:gation and strong third-termers. As "- . they were leaving after a White House call they said: "We hope . -we'll have the privilege, Mr. President, Presi-dent, of voting for you at Chicago." Roosevelt smiled broadly and re- nlied. "I'm sure we'll have a ticket that will win." . Possibly the secret of how Roose--velt kept his secret so well and so 'long was that he didn't know him-. him-. self what he was going to do. Significant was a remark he made to a Midwesterner following the nomination of Wendell Willkie. The -visitor expressed the view that Will-.kie's Will-.kie's candidacy made it necessary . Jor the President to run again. There isn't anyone who can lick ' r"him but you, Mr. President," the j caller said. "I think what happened in Philadelphia makes it imperative that you run. I am sure you don't want to; no man who has undergone the ordeal you have for eight years would want any more of it. But it's ;'not a case any more of your preference. pref-erence. In my opinion, the choice is no longer yours." The President paused as if thinking, think-ing, then said quietly, as ii to him-:;self, him-:;self, "This decision will be the most momentous in my life." FOREIGN AFFAIRS PLANK For the Democratic platform : makers, like the Republicans, the i: biggest headache was the foreign af-. af-. fairs plank. The same bellicose forces, isolationist isola-tionist and anti, which made life miserable for the Philadelphia platform plat-form writers, gave tire deep blues to the Democrats. In fact, the rival camps among the Democrats were even more troublesome. The Republicans, while they I squabbled hotly among themselves fcehind closed doors, were too con- . scious of party interest to kick up an open ruckus. On the final show- ,down, the boys worked out a compromise com-promise that gave each side a sop. The result was rather ambiguous, but it left the door open for the Republican Re-publican candidate to move which- ever way he wanted. : But the prima donna Democratic factions were insisting on the whole hog or nothing. Senator Burt Wheeler, Wheel-er, backed by the glowering John L. Lewis, is demanding an unequivocal, unequiv-ocal, isolationist, no-war declaration; declara-tion; and threatens to head a third-party third-party ticket if he doesn't get his way. Anti-isolationists, foremost among them Roosevelt himself, are flatly against such a plank. At the same time, they were acutely aware of the powerful "peace" sentiment in toe country and they know they've got to watch their step. CONVENTION NOTES 1 The Chicago convention literally dripped with vice presidential candidates. can-didates. With more than .a score already in the field, Iowa's genial, bald-domed Senator Herring tossed his hat in the ring . . . One Washington Washing-ton correspondent at Chicago at-' at-' tended the convention in a dual capacity. ca-pacity. Tall, mellow-tempered Bas-om Bas-om Timmons covered the convention conven-tion as a newsman and also acted as the national committeeman proxy of his close friend and fellow Texan, Wice President Jack Garner. I MERRY-GO-ROUND The post office department and census bureau will handle the details de-tails of registering the estimated 3,600.000 aliens in the U. S., to begin September 1. The justice department, depart-ment, which now has control of alien regulation, plans an extensive edu-k edu-k cational program in Americanism for resident foreigners. In line for G. O. P. floor leader houH Sen. Charles McNary become be-come vice president is Vermont's able Warren Austin, present assist-ant assist-ant floor chief. |