Show 1 K Can Roosevelt Be Drafted g r TODAY i TODAY ODA Y with the Democratic party convention convene conven jj C tion opening in Chicago attention of ot the entire entire en S tire country is focused on t the e question Will Vill Willii ii I Roosevelt accept the nomination and run for br bra fora S a third term as president There is no longer any question as to whether he can ean be nominated Already more than convention votes are pledged to him sufficient to sweep him in on the first bal bal- lot Almost with one voice Democratic political po po- po leaders have declared themselves in fa la S 2 oh of a Roosevelt nomination Ij No question about it ft the president can and vill be nominated if he wants to be But ButS S whether or not he wants to be is still tam tain There has been some talk that Mr Roosevelt Roosevelt Roose Roose- velt would be drafted by the convention against his wishes in wishes in other words that he would be forced to run despite an expressed declination on his part of the nomination It is extremely doubtful i if such a situation could develop Political history reveals that S ho no presidential nominee has ever ever- been actual actual- Jy ly drafted ly-drafted drafted against his wishes and despite his refusal to accept the nomination Washington perhaps came the closest to being a drafted candidate He expressly statS stated stat stat- S cd ed he did not want to be president Nevertheless Never S despite initial declinations he did accept accept ac ac- ac the nomination for two terms But when it came to a third term which he might easily have had if he had desired it he flatly refused to be a candidate A number of ot presidents have refused to be drafted for a third term nomination Almost all the thc Republican Democratic-Republican state legislatures legisla legisla- S tures importuned Jefferson to run again but he 55 declined to be a candidate It was generally generali said at the time he was president that Jacks Jackson JacksonS S 1 gould uld have been elected president as long as asS S hj P. P lived Jived but he put down the pressure for br a third term Theodore Roosevelt who could easily have been nominated for a third term in 1908 refused to consider the nomination He did run f for r president four years later but bute buthe buthe he e rejected a second nomination by the Progressive Progressive Progressive Pro Pro- party in 1916 after it was tendered to him Perhaps the classic example of refusal of ofa ofa ofa a man to accept the nomination for president was that of General William T. T Sherman who is 1884 declared that if nominated he would not accept and f if elected he would not serve That flat blat refusal effectively stopped any effort to draft him If history is any criterion therefore there will vili be no actual drafting of Mr Roosevelt at Chicago If II he is the nominee it will be because because beS be be- S cause he is willing to run even though he may not particularly desire to carry the tremendous t. t burdens of the presidential office for another O t four bour our years |