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Show Bmckart'i Washington Digest Politicians Believe Roosevelt Now Campaiging for Third Term Bombshell by Ickes and Blast by Secretary Early Accepted Ac-cepted as Having Presidential Approval; Attacks Upon Garner Are "VTitbout Justification. Ey WILLIAM BRUCKART WN'C Service, National Press Bldg., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON. Politics long has been described as a game, and It is. In consequence, there are certain cer-tain rules to be followed. They are rules that are born of experience, and the participants In the game of politics know full well what will happen hap-pen when those rules are violated. Outstanding among these rules none of which are written, of course is a thorough understanding by a President of the United States that he must remain 6ilent about his choice of a successor just as long as It Is possible to do so. Otherwise, he obviously loses some of the support sup-port that he can command from members of his party. Any pronouncement pro-nouncement that he favors this one or looks with disfavor upon that one Immediately produces a split. Those not blessed with the presidential smile become embittered and assert their enmity. Another rule is that once a man Is elected President, he automatically automat-ically becomes a candidate for a second term. This results from the fact that whether he is good, bad or Indifferent as the head of the political polit-ical party that sponsored him, that party cannot dump him overboard for the sake of the party itself. Now, however, there is a new condition con-dition developing one for which no apparent or obvious rule exists. Tradition has set up a rule in this country that no President shall seek a third consecutive term. All Presidents have followed it, heretofore, here-tofore, and some indication has been given by them as early as was convenient con-venient that they intended retiring. The most recent situation of this kind, of course, was the famous statement by the late Calvin Cool-idge Cool-idge who was the author of "I do not choose to run." Mr. Coolidge had served a part of the term to which Warren G. Harding was elected elect-ed and was elected for one full term. He considered he had served two terms, and thus stated his plans for return to private life, albeit the announcement an-nouncement had people guessing. Believe Roosevelt Is Planning for Third Term The problem that now confronts the politicians, and about which there is no rule, concerns President Roosevelt's course. According to old precedent, Mr. Roosevelt is under un-der no compulsion to suggest whom he favors as a successor. Indeed, he would be borrowing trouble were he to do so at this time. But members mem-bers of his own party and voters generally are wondering more and more whether he intends to' seek a third nomination and election, and thus climax his record as a breaker of precedents. There are many political leaders and students of politics who are convinced con-vinced .beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mr. Roosevelt is campaignig even now for his third nomination. They base their conclusion on countless count-less small indications, and the drive for this result that is being carried on by a small group of White House intimates. And to make the confusion worse, there has come the announcement by Secretary Ickes of the interior department that Mr. Roosevelt must be renominated and re-elected. This was like a bombshell in the ranks of the anti-Roosevelt Democrats who read into those lines, printed in the magazine, "Look," the first publication pub-lication of united efforts on the part of the President's advisers with the consent of Mr. Roosevelt. But if the Ickes statement was a bombshell, a subsequent statement by Stephen Early, one of the secretaries sec-retaries to Mr. Roosevelt, must be regarded as an explosion of an entire en-tire powder storehouse. To the onlooker, on-looker, Mr. Early's statement cannot can-not be ignored; it must be accepted as having presidential approval because be-cause of the intimate relationship between the two men, and if it has presidential approval, it is tantamount, tanta-mount, as far as I can see, to an announcement of Mr. Roosevelt's intentions. Early Declares Voters Will Not Be Confused Writing in the Saturday Evening Post. Mr. Early concluded his discussion dis-cussion of unfair criticisms of Mr. Roosevelt with a fervent declaration that the voters will not be confused. With the gracious consent of Mr. Wesley Winans Stout editor-in-chief cf the Post, I herewith reprint the salient paragraph from Mr. Early's article that has served to spread in new and broader form the feelir.g that Mr. Roosevelt wal seek reelection re-election to a third term: "Certain it is that with the approach ap-proach of 1940. as has been the case every four years sir.ee this democratic demo-cratic form of government was adopted by the people cf the U:'.:".ei States, new rumors, new whispar-ir.gs. whispar-ir.gs. variations cf truth ar.i untruth wiil come to mix with the old. Fortunately, it is equa'Jy true that the vast majority of those who vote in the next presidential election will take salutary pleasure in expressing their contempt of all tits', the double tongued scandal-mongers and their ilk may do to confuse the real issues." I find the general question being asked: Why is notice being taken now of rumors and half-truths which have thus far been ignored through six years of the administration, unless un-less it is the purpose to dispose of them in advance of another campaign? cam-paign? I hear also this question: How can the voters express "contempt" "con-tempt" for these false rumors and vilifications unless by a vote for Mr. Roosevelt, personally? The answers to these questions, of course, will vary. Those who are heart and soul with Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt are saying naturally that he wants to put an end to the unfair and poisonous attacks by answering them openly. Those who want to stand by the two-term tradition are reading into those lines Mr. Roosevelt's Roose-velt's determination to go ahead and seek re-election. Why, they ask, should the Early article and the Ickes article be published simultaneously, simul-taneously, especially since Mr. Roosevelt has remained silent on his future course. Every Reason to Wonder What the Answer Will Be There has been considerable criticism criti-cism of Mr. Roosevelt because he has kept his own counsel concerning the scads of favorite-son candidates that go shouting about the countryside. country-side. Such criticism is silly. The President, whatever his thoughts may be abouf the third term, is not called upon at this time to say whether he likes any one or all. It accomplishes nothing for those who dislike the President to stir up a stink along that line. But the determination de-termination of the President, or lack of it, to run for a third term is quite a different proposition and there is every reason under the rules of the game as it has been played for people to wonder what the answer is to be. The record of history being what it is, a tradition of two terms for a President, there can be no justification justi-fication of the New Deal attacks upon Vice President Garner, whose friends are now openly seeking delegates dele-gates for him. Mr. Garner's friends surely have the right to assume that the time has come for them to cultivate cul-tivate votes in the next national convention con-vention of the Democratic party. Such attacks as Mr. Ickes made against Garner in the Ickes statement state-ment favoring Roosevelt for a third term sounds like spoiled fish to me, and you know what a mess that is. The vituperations by Mr. Ickes, however, are not different than his usual line of thinking. As a part of the general picture of confusion resulting from the activity ac-tivity of Mr. Roosevelt's friends, the recent tour of the country by Postmaster Post-master General Farley must be examined. ex-amined. Ambitions of Jim Farley Are Rather Well Known The Farley transcontinental tour, however, is not impossible of analysis. anal-ysis. First, Mr. Farley's ambitions ambi-tions are rather well known. No man can be blamed for wanting to be elected President of the United States. If he were seeking facts about the political situation for use in behalf of Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Farley would have made exactly the same tour that he has made. But if the tour were in Mr. Roosevelt's Roose-velt's behalf, it is only natural to suppose that Mr. Roosevelt himself would not find it necessary to make a trip to the Pacific coast himself. So, as the guessing continues and the number of political leaders who suspect Mr. Roosevelt has started out to be a candidate for a third time continues to grow, the movement move-ment on the Republican side is completely overshadowed. Few persons per-sons are heard to talk about the pronouncement by Senator Vanden-berg, Vanden-berg, of Michigan. Now, Senator Vandenberg has come forth with a real issue. He proposed, in replying reply-ing to " an urge by the Michigan representatives in congress that he run for the Republican nomination, nomina-tion, that the presidential term be limited; that is, he says no man should have more than four years at the job. It is a new thought. It is a hot one at the moment. Whether Sena-tor Sena-tor Vandenberg can smoke out Mr Roosevelt on the issue is something else again, but the Michigan sena tor has taken a position that will I provoke debate. Along with thai sideswipe at Mr. Roosevelt, how ; ever. Mr. Vandenberg has raised a rumpus in his own party. Many Rt-pubiicar.s Rt-pubiicar.s are getting pretty c c!t about their own outlook for i04 ' and the injection of the Vandenberr philosophy ir.-.o the picture p: fj:bi; I could stir up as much fus amom I the Rc-pubiicans as h2s tetn stirrer ! up on the Democratic side by th ! ger.ora! uncertainties of the Pi ts ' cent's course. 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