| Show Dru charts washington digest presidents supporters catch brunt of opposition criticism roosevelt personally under direct fire of enemies only twice tivice interference in state primaries now subject of bitter controversy prestige will be hut hurt by WILLIAM BRUCKART service national press washington neton D C washington it has been a matter of frequent reference among observers how president roose belts supporters or subordinates or spokesmen for him have caught th the e brunt of opposition criticism mr air roosevelt personally has been under the direct fire of his enemies on only two occasions he played his political cards so that when some ome plan blew up it was some subordinate or supporter whose neck was found out too tar far the president of course found himself a as s the target when he proposed P packing the supreme court with s six ix i additional justices of his own choosing and when he sought reorganization of the government but generally speaking the roosevelt prestige has avoided damage until now which brings us to the bitter controversy over presidential interference ter in state prima primaries and the second stage mr Roosevel ts declaration that it teas ivas a violation riola of public morality for republicans public ans to enter a democratic primary this controversy is the most heated healed and has the broadest implications of any of the three in which the storm centered about mr Roosevel ts otan head it is likely to be the most far reaching in its result the roosevelt prestige is bound to be damaged whether he wins or loses etien the score fai finally 11 is totaled and as far as can be seen now noir he will trill not be able to avoid it I 1 remember having written when the president made his cross coun try trip in the dual capacity of president and head of the democratic party that it appeared difficult to disassociate the two capacities I 1 predicted at that time two months ago that there were germs of trouble in such an attempt it was not long before the germs were growing mr Roosevel ts pat on the back for senator bulkley of ohio and his bold command to the democratic 0 voters oa of kentucky to send sen dear alben barkley back to the senate brought a shower of ripe verbal eggs onto the head of either the president or the head of the democratic party I 1 did not know which personality was naming the favorite democratic candidate in the primaries then nor do I 1 yet know from all of the information from those states since I 1 gather that the voters in the primaries did not know whether they were voting to support the president of the united states or the head of the democratic party pi pat on back for mcadoo mc idoo face slap for oconnor then on to the middle west and the far west the pat on the back for senator mcadoo who has opposition for the democratic senatorial nomination in california and next in georgia where mr roosevelt uttered the now famous god bless 1 you walter but youre no liberal to senator george to be followed by a direct endorsement of lawrence camp for the senatorial nomination against mr george later mr roosevelt gave a vicious political slap in the face to rep john oconnor in new york and attacked senator tydings aydin gs in maryland by saying that representative davey len levis lenas As ought to have the democratic nomina nomination in addition to these direct interferences feren ces in state primaries mr Roosevel ts subordinates men like relief administrator hopkins and secretary ickes horned into primaries in iowa oregon idaho and elsewhere they were well licked in iowa and idaho and it was the result in the latter state that has brought up the second stage of the controversy senator pope used to say that if any constituent wanted to know his position on a given question it was necessary only to inquire whether the president was for or against it apparently the voters in idaho did not like that the they preferred a senator to vote th their air views rather than one who consistently voted the presidents vi view ew anyway they nominated representative dark clark in their democratic primary he had something in e excess X of more votes than mr air pope the licking administered to senator pope did not taste well to the president or the coterie of new deal advisors senator pope jbv obviously bously did not like it either and he did d id the childish thing of emitting a loud and noxious squawk that the nomination was taken from him by republicans he said they went into the democratic primary and gave representative dark clark their votes in sufficient number to override the will of a majority of the democrats in the state senator pope went to hyde park N Y to weep out his story on the shoulders of mr air roosevelt but it has not been made c clear ae ar whether it was the shoulders of the president of the united states or or of the head of the democratic party anyway there was weeping at hyde park takes important second step in controversy and after that meeting and when the tears were wiped away so there would be no sniffling mr roosevelt took the important second step in the controversy he denounced the republicans as having violated public morals by voting for mr dark clark in a democratic primary although if the ballots were secret as the la law w requires I 1 have been unable to figure out how either mr roosevelt or mr air pope know that it was the republicans public ans and not the democrats who brought about mr popes defeat anyway mr roosevelt either as president of the united states or as head of the democratic party condemned such terrible things as republican votes in a democratic primary such a course of action the president or the head of the democratic party said constituted an attempt to destroy the direct primary system it apparently did not matter to the president or the head of the democratic party that mr air dark clark had campaigned as a democrat while senator pope was sounding off as a per cent new dealer I 1 have been wondering since the hyde park condemnation of the republicans public ans how mr Roosevel ts position tion in the two phases of his course can be reconciled it never has seemed to me to be so terrible for the president or the head of the democratic party or the head of the republican party if the president be a republican to state his views about candidates probably the presidential office ought not to be used that way but I 1 can not get so excited about it as some writers and some newspapers and some politicians itic ians have done I 1 am inclined to regard such action as the purest of politics and politics is a game and the voters have to recognize that it is a game there has been a lot of meaningless gushing going on about mr Roosevel ts course that just fails to impress me at all but on the other hand there is an old old quotation consistency thou art a jewel in remembering and applying that thought it appears to me that mr air roosevelt has gone off the deep end of the pool without an inflated rubber tube for an arm rest indeed it a rather silly thing an utterly stupid piece of business to claim the right to interfere on his own part and tell the common ordinary garden variety of voter that he can not take a position because he once played on the other team Is Roosevel ts Forg Forgett ettery cry working wording well these days further I 1 am wondering whether mr air Roosevel ts forg ettery works so well that he fails to recall his appeal in 1932 and again in 1936 for republicans to follow him elect him as the savior of the country it seems to me if it is sauce for the goose the old gander can eat the same food further there is a bit of logic about the whole thing that ought to be examined take the state ot of georgia for example where the democratic nomination means election A republican in georgia would be sunk without a trace as far as selection of someone to represent him in congress is concerned it if he wanted to have his real choice recorded his only course it he preferred one democratic candidate to another would be to enter t the ie democratic primary and vote for one of those candidates assume assum that the republican voter lives in in idaho if that voter felt that neither of the candidates for the republican nomination for the senate measured up to his ideas why should he not be allowed to vote in the democratic primary in order to express his preference it might well be that a republican voter in idaho would feel that the democratic nominee had a better chance of being elected in november than did the republican nominee if he felt that way it appears to me that he would be showing good sense common horse sense to express his preference on that side of the fence I 1 believe mr Roosevel ts record would look very much better at this point if he had extended his congratulations to representative dark clark in idaho and promised him the support of the democratic national committee in the forthcoming election as was done by national democratic chairman farley surely that would have been sportsmanship and the attitude of a good loser it may be however and this is an implication from the indications of the day that mr roosevelt is trying deliberately to force a realignment of voters throughout the tha country he may be seeking to drive radicals into his camp in case of a third term urge and the conservatives into another camp 0 western newspaper Newt poper union |
