OCR Text |
Show WASHINGTON, May 2 (Auto-caater) (Auto-caater) The developmentsresult-ing developmentsresult-ing from Germany's seizure of Denmark, Its invasion or Norway and threats against Sweden, coupled cou-pled with the possibility of the German capture of Holland and with it the immensely wealthy Dutch East Indies, have brought the war and its possible effects upon the United States back to the dark horse already picked and Mdden in a stall under the convention con-vention stage, ready to be trotted out on a moment's notice. That is the time-tried way in which politics has been played in the past. Whether it will succeed this time is another question, ine general run of voters are going to have more to say at this Ke-publican Ke-publican convention than the machine ma-chine politicians and big capitalists. capital-ists. Dark Horses Still, however, people are talking talk-ing of dark horses, of whom at the moment Wendell L. Wll kie, of Commonwealth & Southern Power Company, is the best liked. Nobody questions for a minute that Mr. Willkie would make a good President. Most believe that he would make a pretty poor candidate. The latest bit of Washington gossip, which may have some bearing bear-ing on Presidential intentions, is the rumor that Mrs. Roosevelt has taken a house in Southern California Califor-nia and expects to live there from next Spring on. But, on the other hand, she has just signed a new Mr. Roosevelt is inclining again toward the idea of running for a third term, say that those reports originate with people who have observe d his pleased smile when such a suggestion is made. Those better versed in the intricacies of administration politics continue to believe that the President has made up his mind not to take the third term nomination which would be his for the asking. These same people, however, are a little concerned with the war-like tone of his utterances in regard to possible evasion of the American sphere of influence in the Western hemisphere by Germany. Ger-many. Some of the veteran observers observ-ers think that if there was anything any-thing in Mr. Roosevelt's remarks indicating that he expected or wanted this country to take part in the war, he had scraped the excuse pretty thin. Third Term Talk Increases It is noticeable, however, that third-term talk not only in Washington Wash-ington but elsewhere throughout the country began to increase among Democrats very shortly af- the fore-front of political discussion. discus-sion. The United States is not going to get into or take any part in this war to save anybody else's property, under any circumstances. circum-stances. That can be set down as fixed and definite. If Germany and Japan, or either of them, can seize the Dutch East Indies, the United States, as official Washington views the situation today, will not make a move to stop them. For that matter, we probably would not make a move to stop the seizure of the Philippines by Japan. The Philippines asked us for their freedom and we gave it to them a few years ago, with only a few slender strings attached. at-tached. Washington, with its ear to the ground, does not hear even a whisper of a public demand that we ought to go to war with anybody any-body save the Philippines. The same goes for our assumed interest in China. Nobody who represents any important body of public sentiment believes that there is any justification now or likely to be in the future for getting get-ting into a scrap with Japan. Yet the war talk will not down. It is becoming more apparent every day that there is a genuine war propaganda movement under way and doing some effective work in the national capital. Just why anybody either wants this country to go to war, or wants to scare the American people into the belief that somebody is going to make five-year contract for her daily newspaper feature at a price which only the wife of a President could possibly get. ter Mr. Dewey had demonstrated to the Republican voters and the rest of the country that he would be a mighty hard man to beat if his party should nominate him in June. Washington has stopped referring refer-ring to Tom Dewey as the "panty-waist" "panty-waist" candidate, and is measur-I measur-I ing his chances with those of Bob Taft, the only other Republican war on us, is not easy to see at first glance. It takes a bit of digging dig-ging in the inner laybrinth of politics poli-tics to find even a plausible reason. rea-son. War Talk Originators There is a belief strongly held by the most audacious and irresponsible irre-sponsible group of New Deal favorites fav-orites that if the situation can be j made to look as if this country was in danger, the people will rise and call upon the only man who, these war propagandists will tell thm, can possibly save us. That sort of talk is said to be very ; pleasant to Mr. Roosevelt's ears. It is always flattering to any head of a government to be told that he is the one man who can save his country. Not all of them believe it in fact, most of them j know it isn't so. But it is hard to J avoid looking pleased when somebody some-body hands you that line of ban-I ban-I ana oil. Many of the shrewd observers ' i here, who have been saying that contestant still out in front. The undercover scullduggery of national na-tional politics is already at work to try to kill off both Taft and Dewey. None of the "big money interests" inter-ests" who have financed Presidential Presi-dential campaigns in the past, wants either of these men. Neither will stand hitched or take orders. So the scheme seems to be to try to develop a deadlock on the convention con-vention floor, where it will be impossible im-possible for either Dewey or Taft to get a majority, and the convention conven-tion will be forced to pick a dark horse. Rather, the idea is to have |