Show national topics 0 interpreted by william bruckart press building washington D washington from this seat in the grandstand the view is quite clear that new about deal leaders are politics going out in this summer s prima ries to nominate new dealers against the conservative old line democrats I 1 have looked into the local situation in a number of states and congressional districts and ev ery where the line of cleavage is showing and these things are happening notwithstanding the declara eions of postmaster general nation al committee chairman parley farley that there will be no interference it is not the purpose here to re port on every one of the states or districts where the battle is impend ing between new dealers and old line democrats I 1 shall attempt however to outline a few of them to establish what is going on and how the new dealers are maneuver ing to get a better grip on demo cratic party machinery to do this clearly it seems to me it ought to be recalled how dent roosevelt and numerous of his spokesmen have threatened those democrats who have disagreed with new deal policies in any serious way the fight over the president s plan to rebuild the supreme court of the united states caused a se rious split in the president ent s s sup UP port and it was immediately there after that threats were forthcoming about those who had refused to go along on the court reorganization about the time that fight was in its most bitter stage it will be remain bared senator guffey of pennsyl vama made a radio speech in which he attempted to kick certain demo brats out of the party the white house denied any connection with that speech but there were few who believed senator guffey was acting on his own initiative that is to say it appeared to be a new deal policy for the pennsylvania demo crat often has served as the mouth piece in that way there was comparative quiet for awhile but those with ears to the ground noted many minor rum beings that to the political wise could mean only one thing those rumblings presaged another earth quake they are increasing in in too we hear them fr from om many directions young james roosevelt son and secretary of the president who is just now serving on a tour of duty as a lieutenant colonel in the marine corps was in florida last month while there he took occasion to say publicly that sen claude pepper a new dealer ought to be renoma bated and re elected well senator pepper is such an ardent new deal er that he once said if anyone want ed to know his position all that was needed was to ascertain mr roose velt s views because he would sup port the president on any question I 1 am told from sources that I 1 believe have an understanding of the florida situation that young mr roosevelt s endorsement may be the deciding factor in a close race that is to say the race was so tight between senator pepper and the able young rep mark wilcox that one guess was as good as an other now however presenta Re tive wilcox is asking the voters whether they shall determine who their senator shall be or whether they shall be told by the white house it is said that broad re sentiment sent ment already has been creat ed so much resentment indeed that recently mr wilcox made the statement that no campaign would be necessary on his behalf if only and buzzie dall grand children of president roosevelt would give senator pepper their en dor over in pennsylvania another kind of a situation has bobbed up in that state the pennsylvania bosses have had situation trouble agreeing on their candi dates and finally they took their troubles t to the white house 1 I mean the democratic bosses which have supplanted the republican bosses who used to rule pennsyl vania the result of the white house confab was that governor earle will run for democratic nom to the senate so he will be alongside another new dealer sen ator guffey and charles A jones pittsburgh attorney was picked as the nominee for governor these selections were made by the state committee which is controlled of course by new dealers and there fore those are about the only names of importance that will be voted on in the statewide primary but the significance of these things is not so apparent until it is known that two or three important democrats in pennsylvania have withdrawn and have retired from politics as a result of the situation now in indiana there is still an other picture it is probably the most interesting of any now taking shape in the hoosier state we are started off with an announcement from the steps of the white house by governor townsend that van nuys must go he referred to the democratic senator van nuys who had the temerity to oppose the president presidents s court packing bill and who generally is regarded as much much more of a democrat than his col league senator minton who remains inside the new deal fence always the indiana picture is further complicated by the smoke rings paul mcnutt is blowing around mr mcnutt a former governor of the state and now high commissioner to the philippine commonwealth is running for the new deal nomma nomina tion for the presidency like the well known jackrabbit he says how ever that he is not a candidate for anything it is a statement that is hard to believe because the mcnutt airplane flight from the remote is lands the speeches across the unit ed states the free food free drink free publicity party given for dvir mr mcnutt at an outstanding washing ton hotel all combine to spell the launching of a political boom of some kind so in indiana the dem dern socratic state committee soon will be setting up a slate of its choice and that choice will be satisfactory to the president it means that these will be new dealers that is apparent because of the death sen tence already pronounced for sen ator van nuys of course mr van nuys isn t licked yet but that is the picture then the indiana situation is or ought to be of great interest to the republicans I 1 am interests told that if the G 0 P democratic corn com cittee controlled as it is should ditch senator van nuys he may decide to run as an independent candidate for re elec tion he probably would not get anywhere in a machine controlled state like indiana but he might draw enough away from the demo cratic vote to enable a republican to win now out in indiana there is a right up and coming young fighter on the republican team he is rep charles halleck by virtue of the fact that he is lone republican con gressman from hoosier territory mr halleck is in a splendid tion to set off some fireworks mr halleck is highly regarded by dem and republicans in the house he is young vigorous and keen furthermore mr halleck is neither a conservative nor a radical and we are hearing more and more of a swing in the country that ably will land our political policies in the middle of the road instead of on the wild eyed programs of of most new dealers or the moss backed policies of hide bound re publicans of yesteryear As I 1 see the picture in indiana therefore it is not impossible to conjure up a situation in which the new deal attempt to drive senator van nuys from politics would back fire to the extent of electing a re publican senator Iten kentucky tucky also provides a battle ground in that state I 1 think new dealers made a great mistake and it may eventuate that the mistake will cost them dearly senator barkley the roosevelt spokesman in the senate is going to have to fight his hardest to win re nomina tion over gov happy chandler kentuckians here who know the pol tics of their home state tell me that the governor is a real challen ger and that he is a campaigner of genuine ability concerning the new deal mis take it will be remembered when mr roosevelt in new deal in senate error affairs by ing his choice for the leadership upon the death of the great senator robinson of ar kansas that was the occasion when the president wrote to senator barkley addressing him as dear alben and thereby attached a ti tie tle that has proved such a source of levity when it became apparent that mr barkley would meet appo the new deal promoted a tes ti dinner for the senator and sent numerous new deal wheel horses to louisville to attend among them was marvin mcintyre assistant secretary to the president well the chandler folks built up a testimonial luncheon for the gover nor on the same day although mr mcintyre reached louisville in time he just could not make it to get to the chandler luncheon so that was that and hundreds of ken tuck ians at once decided that the new deal was going to have mr barkley and that made them say i to themselves that they would choose their senator it is of such incidents that political victories and political defeats are made another battleground yet to be mentioned is iowa senator gil lette was among those who did not like the president presidents s court bation scheme and said so from there on he has been a marked man he will have to fight for mation therefore against a new dealer rather an opponent of new deal selection representative has announced that he w will I 1 cratil be a candidate for the Demo democratic c nomination 0 western newspaper union |