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Show Bruckort's Washington Digest Democratic Political Pot Now at Boiling Point, but Lull Is Due Attack on President by C. I. 0. Lewis Is Followed by Exaggerated Claims for Roosevelt Delegates in Florida and Ohio ; It's All Part of the Game. fit I 'iV'""s lv aQ If I...- M A They Part Company 'No Third Term,' Thunders C. I. O. Lewis. litical students that Mr. Lewis can not pull the entire labor vote, or even a strong majority of it, for anybody. I personally have believed for a long time that political catering cater-ing to the "labor vote" was simply catering to a myth. But there have been other things happening along the Democratic front. In Florida and in Ohio, the pot boiled over. We were treated, in each instance, to some of the usual political bunk. Senator Pepper, who frequently By WILLIAM BRUCKART WNU Service, National Press Bldj;., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON. The Democratic political pot has come to the boiling point. High political temperatures have prevailed now for several weeks. The condition probably will continue for several weeks more before be-fore there is a lull. But a lull will come. Political strategists, presidential presi-dential aspirants and wheelhorses will not be able to maintain the current pace until convention time. If they attempt it, there is only one end possible: the Democratic party will be split beyond any hope of repairing the damage. There is one thing to be noted, even now: New Dealers, near-New Dealers and New Deal payrollers have put on one of the really great drives to insure the renomination of President Roosevelt for a third term. They have hit in every direction. direc-tion. Some blows appear to have been effective. The payrollers hope all of their efforts have brought favorable fa-vorable results, but that seems improbable. im-probable. In the period under discussion, there likewise has been a terrific attack upon the present New Deal leadership. This came originally from John L. Lewis and his C. I. O. labor organization. It dragged with it some others who might or might not have become so active at the moment Sell. Burton Wheeler of Montana, for instance. Lewis Support Like 'A Kiss of Death' The Lewis attack was important solely because it represented the final stage of a break between himself him-self and Mr. Roosevelt. I have heard many persons say it was a break of luck for the President. Mr. Lewis doesn't rate so much, any announces his importance as a Democratic leader in his native state of Florida, came into Washington Washing-ton and announced that the Florida delegation to the Democratic national na-tional convention would be for Mr. Roosevelt for a third term. That sounded all right. Closer investigation, investiga-tion, however, seemed to indicate that Senator Pepper was talking through his headgear. If my information infor-mation is correct and it came from a trustworthy source, the facts are that every move to direct the Florida Flor-ida vote towards Mr. Roosevelt was badly licked. Indeed, the word that came to me from Florida was that Senator Pepper was spanked by his home folks. He tried to steer the Roosevelt ship and had the rudder taken out of his hands by the state convention by the rather lopsided vote of 72 to 37. And the important, impor-tant, yet unpublicized, phase of the meeting was that the boys who wielded the paddle upon the loquacious loqua-cious Senator Pepper are known to be for Mr. Garner. In Ohio, State Chairman Arthur Linback apparently tried to do the same thing as Senator Pepper did in Florida. He made a lot of announcements an-nouncements about where the Ohio delegation would go. Again, upon my own information, the Ohio delegation dele-gation appears likely to go in a different dif-ferent direction from any of those pointed out by the state chairman. Those Making Clamor more. That is. his affirmative support sup-port is something like a "kiss of death." It will be recalled how Mr. Lewis called Vice President Garner "a poker-playing, whiskey drinking, evil old man," last summer. That attack at-tack by Mr. Lewis surely did more to boost the Garner presidential candidacy than any other one thing that has happened. It convinced hundreds of thousands of voters that Mr. Garner must be a pretty good guy if he disagreed with sit-down strikes and attempted dictatorship of the government by the C. I. O. The evidence is that Mr. Lewis gave Paul McNutt a boost, too, by his espousal of a declaration that the Democratic party had not kept faith with organized labor. Mr. McNutt, Mc-Nutt, former governor of Indiana and present federal security administrator, admin-istrator, is sticking right close by the New Deal; so close, indeed, that he is not going to seek the Democratic Demo-cratic nomination unless Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt gets out of the way. It is held, i therefore, that when Mr. Lewis tried to pin back the Roosevelt ears, he inferentially helped Mr. McNutt for the reason that only a few political students here believe Mr. Roosevelt was damaged by desertion of the Lewis following from the New Deal to which they gave half a million dollars in the 1936 campaign. As regards the Garner candidacy, observers seem to feel that the Lewis Lew-is outburst was another feather in thnir ran Mr Hfimop .... .. . Mr. Linback obviously wants to curry favor with the New Dealers. But Ohio sources, political observers observ-ers mainly, advise me that there is small chance of Mr. Linback controlling con-trolling the delegation to the Democratic Demo-cratic national convention. In the first place, there has been no slate of delegates made up and the primary pri-mary is quite a way in the future. So, it is made to appear that Mr. Linback, like Senator Pepper, was doing a bit of popping off in the hopes that he could start a bandwagon band-wagon movement, with him in the driver's seat. has said he wants the nomination and wants to be elected and he made no mention at all of the possibility possi-bility that Mr. Roosevelt may want to run for a third term. Thus, when Mr. Lewis said the Democratic party par-ty had broken faith with labor he obviously meant with his own faction fac-tion of organized labor he could not have hit Mr. Garner as much as the out-and-out New Dealers. Mr. Garner certainly is not of that stripe. Strange That Wheeler Should Encourage It The demonstration of the United Mine Workers in favor of Senator Wheeler at their Columbus, Ohio, convention, obviously was staged, conceived and promoted by Lewis. The C. I. O. boss has been getting closer and closer to Senator Wheeler. Wheel-er. He has given every indication of wanting to endorse the Montana senator, openly. I cannot help wondering won-dering why Senator Wheeler encourages encour-ages it. It strikes me that Senator Wheeler must know how a C. I. O. endorsement will be taken out in the country the small towns and among the farmers. ' Moreover, there is a growing belief among po- From Mississippi, some days ago, there came word of an effort to get a resolution through the state legislature legis-lature that would have praised the New Deal administration and New Deal policies. It fell flat. These states that I have mentioned, men-tioned, however, give some indication indica-tion of the scope of the drive by the New Dealers. Obviously, they want Mr. Roosevelt renominated and re-elected, for in that direction lies their political future. They are unlikely to get anywhere, to hold their jobs, unless Mr. Roosevelt leads. I doubt that Paul McNutt would keep the bulk of them in office if he were to be elected. It is absolutely abso-lutely certain that Mr. Garner would get rid of them. Another thing: the last few weeks has shown the same group in the van of the demand for a Roosevelt Roose-velt third term. Men like Secretaries Secreta-ries Wallace and Ickes, Senator Guf-fey Guf-fey of Pennsylvania, Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy. Ambassador Davies, are making the original pronouncements. pro-nouncements. The lesser lights pick up the song and sing it. It would be interesting to know what the total payroll is of the men now heading the Roosevelt third-term drive. But soon the lull will arrive. Senator Sen-ator Wheeler's demand that Mr. Roosevelt announce now whether he is, or is not. going to seek a third term will get exactly no further than the front pages of newspapers. The Peppers and the Linbacks will have had their say and their pronouncements pro-nouncements will measure exactly as much as a summer shower in ultimate importance. It is all a part of politics. I believe I am go-ing go-ing to have a lot of fun around the middle of June when I look back over the files and see who was im portant in January and February |