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Show Ururliart's Washington liigpst Does F. D. R. Seek Third Term? President Has Many Reasons If Roosevelt Is Sure of Victory He'll Run; Meanwhile Mean-while It's a Waiting Game with President Holding Cards, Says Observer By WILLIAM BRUCKART WNU Service, National Press BIdg., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON. Senator Burke, the Nebraska Democrat, has come forward with a proposition fixing the term of the President of the United States at six years and limiting an Individual to one term. It is not a new proposition. It has been suggested sug-gested before as long ago as President Presi-dent Jackson's term but it takes on a -new significance now. Its new importance is not because of Senator Sena-tor Burke's declared intention to press the thing through to enactment enact-ment so much as in the fact that "third term talk" is all over the place these days. I do not profess to know what is in Mr. Roosevelt's mind about a third term. That is one subject upon which he has kept his own counsel Precedent-Maker The third-term precedent will he no barrier to Franklin Frank-lin Roosevelt if he thinks four more years will help him to achieve history's rating rat-ing as a great president, thinks William Bruckart. Two of Mr. Roosevelt's outstanding out-standing characteristics are his enjoyment of the power of the chief executive and his willingness to create new precedents. quite severely. He is completely capable of keeping his own counsel when he desires, and I can say without with-out equivocation that he has kept it in this case. The Washington correspondent corre-spondent or observer usually can get a tip-off as to the presidential mind in ordinary matters, but not so regarding the third term. Thus, having made a reassuring statement that this is only a guess as to the future, I shall try to put the puzzle sections together and make a prediction. There are many, many factors to be examined. Without With-out them, there can be no judgment as to the circumstance. With them in full view, cerain conclusions appear ap-pear inescapable. Note that I said, "appear." I use that word for the reason that Mr. Roosevelt is one of the few men ever to occupy the White House whose whole attitude may change completely overnight on any given subject. Mr. Roosevelt Revels In the Presidency Mr. Roosevelt has a consuming desire to go down in history as a great President. There can be no doubt of that. He wants history to show him as an outstanding friend of the people, the masses. He will let nothing prevent him from that course if it is within his power. If there is one trait in the makeup of the man that transcends others, I believe it is his desire to establish new precedents. We speak of him as precedent-breaker. That is incorrect. in-correct. He likes to make new ones. No other President has ever done more than make motions about a third term. Mr. Roosevelt would not be disturbed by the fact that never before had any President occupied oc-cupied the White House for 12 year3. I suspect that he would enjoy doing do-ing that sort of thing. And when I mention enjoyment, I need to refer at the same time to the very well known fact that Mr. Roosevelt enjoys being President. That is, he has what ve say is a "good time" on the job. There is no real weariness for him as Chief Executive. Ex-ecutive. Within the range of my quarter of a century as an observer, observ-er, there has been no other President Presi-dent who so reveled under the generally gen-erally accepted tremendous burden of the presidency. President's Popularity lias Religious fervor Behind the scenes, no President has ever had a hallelujah chorus of so many voices around him. There has never been a President with such great personal popularity as Mr. Roosevelt. The combination of these Uiings. the continual songs of praise that he hears from his close advisors and the adoring multitudes well, I firmly believe that no living liv-ing man can maintain the equilibrium equilibri-um necessary for sound and sane thinking while such semi-religious fervor tovard him Is shown. Seldom, if ever before, has any President had the same type of promoting pro-moting theorists, starry - eyed dreamers around hlrn. The country never has had an administration as radical as Mr. Roosevelt's regime. At no time have as many crack-potg, crack-potg, schemers, theorists with untried un-tried panaceas had a chance to get their plans put Into action. Some Bre workable; most of them are not. The fact that some have worked, however. Is the very reason the whole crew sticks around and keeps plui:i;iri(; for further trials of thif!, that or the other, for most of these folkn. It is the first time In public life, their first entry Into national na-tional oflico with authority. They like It. Also, they like the payroll. II is natural that they want to slay. Effort to Restore. Party To Old-Line Democrats There is, beside all of these factors, fac-tors, the differences within the party of which Mr. Roosevelt Is the titular head. I believe that the Democratic party machinery was completely taken over by the radical wing, and so now there is a definite effort under un-der way to restore the party control to old and tried Democrats. That is to say, the effort is to unhorse the type of men like Ickes, Wallace, Corcoran, Minton of Indiana, and others of that stripe. Men like Senator Sen-ator Harrison and Vice President Garner, and even Jim Farley, do not like to see those other fellows in a position of responsibility. They believe in the Democratic party for Democrats. So, it is quite apparent that the struggle for party control is a rough and tumble fight from now on, because be-cause there is a convention of the party to be held in 1940, and it is not too early to line up delegates. Were it not for the battle ahead and the desire of those surrounding Mr. Roosevelt to keep on with his reforms re-forms and the jobs Mr. Roosevelt would control the 1940 convention. His declarations of a "purge of the party" has made it impossible for him to control the convention without with-out a fight. That is to say, he will be unable to pick the 1940 nominee (to carry out his plans) without a battle. President Is Playing Waiting Game Now, there are many who believe that Mr. Roosevelt's personal popularity popu-larity will be the only thing sufficient suffi-cient to swing that party control. He will not be able to nominate his own pick, but he will be able to nominate himself, say these observers. observ-ers. When we have reached that stage, therefore, we have reached the point of determination of the course which Mr. Roosevelt will follow. My own conclusion is definitely that Mr. : Roosevelt is preparing for any eventuality. even-tuality. He is unlikely to say he will or will not run. He will wait, i If the situation makes it appear that he can win, he will "accept" the j nomination; if, however, he believes i that he will get licked, he will try j to pick the nominee. He will select a man who will do his bidding, if he ' has not lost control of the party j convention. I am convinced Mr. Roosevelt would like to run, but he will not run if there is certain defeat de-feat staring him in the face. j And when we talk of third terms i and precedents, etc., I must recall J a certain vote in the senate on Feb- ruary 10. 1923. President Coolidge j had said he did not "choose" to j run, but there were many Demo- crats who thought that was a trick to invite the nomination. So the j senate adopted a resolution, a prec- edent-making resolution, saying it was the sense of the senate that no President ought to have a third term or something to that effect. How Will They Vole This Time? It gave me quite a laugh when 1 looked up the vote on that resolution, resolu-tion, because I can see some very delicate situations developing for some of the senators who voted for that resolution. It wa3 good politics poli-tics then, of course, but what, I wonder, are some of those men going go-ing to do if Mr. Roosevelt moves in on them with a third term campaign? cam-paign? Of the present Democratic members mem-bers of the senate, we find the following fol-lowing as having voted their expression expres-sion that no President should have a third term: Ashurst of Arizona, Earkley of Kentucky, Gerry of Rhode Island, Glass of Virginia; Harrison of Mississippi, King of Utah, Thomas of Oklahoma, Wagner Wag-ner of New York, Wheeler of Montana, Mon-tana, McKellar of Tennessee, Neely of West Virginia, Piltman of Nevada, Ne-vada, Sheppard of Texas, Smith of South Carolina, and Tydings of Maryland. We find also that Senator Sena-tor LaFollette of Wisconsin, the great Progressive leader, voted against a third term, and we also note Senator Norris, another Progressive, Pro-gressive, who said by his vote that no man should have a third term. Well, it struck me as being funny. Take such men as Iiarkley, the New Deal leader In the senate; and Neely and McKellar, who continually have popped off In praise of Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt and who have no complaint about any phase of the New Deal. Or consider the plight of Thomas, of Oklahoma, who probably will be reelected re-elected and who, therefore, will be faced with a decision if Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt decides to seek a third term. It will be easy for Pat Harrison, or Wheeler or Smith of South Carolina, to vote for a similar resolution In the next ei:,ion; but It won't be so easy for the others to decide, because be-cause those who have opposed some of Mr. Roosevelt's program will bo able to say they are hcimj consistent. consis-tent. C WrqW-rn Nrwfipuprr Union. |