Show W washington ashi e n tow N da digest 40 f national Nal jonal topics r 1 interpreted A by 2 V WILLIAM I 1 MO 7 CM C M Q washington the arrival of the first robin does not guarantee the immediate arrival the smith of spring but when bolt the first robin is observed folks 7 0 generally consider that there is little left of winter an out and out bolt by an individual in party politics likewise does not guarantee important defections but like the arrival of the early robin an individual bolter it if he be a man of consequence has a story of its own to tell A bolt in party politics never attracts attention unless the bolting individual is of some consequence and therefore has a personal i following thus it is that when we observe a bolt by a nationally tio nally known individual from his lifelong political affiliation we ne immediately understand its significance the scope of this significance however is the things thing that concerns us nearly everyone knows now that former gov alfred E smith of new york democratic presidential nominee in 1928 has made known that lie he cannot support president roosevelt for reelection election re they know as well that the four other individuals who asked the democratic national convention to push mr roosevelt aside and nominate a democrat can be classified as important individuals along wit with h governor smith no one dare say that former sen james A reed of missouri former governor ely of massachusetts bainbridge colby secretary of state in woodrow wilsons Wil sons administration and daniel r F cohalan one time tammany i chieftain are unimportant in politics they have consistently e figured in democratic party councils and thus it becomes apparent that these five robins presage something more than just their own departure from the ranks of roosevelt supporters I 1 make this statement notwithstanding the declaration by james A farley that he would not dignity ty their statement with a reply of course mr farley as postmaster general chairman of the democratic national committee chair man of the new york state democratic committee and delegate elegate Al to the democratic national convention necessarily was a very busy man at the time the smith statement refusing support to president roosevelt was released for publication nevertheless I 1 am in in a position to know that the smith statement threw quite a scare into new deal ranks frankly they did not like it how much they do not like the smith statement remains to be seen I 1 believe that no one can forecast exactly how much strength this group can pull away from mr roosevelt in the november election much will depend upon their personal activities henceforth if men like smith and jim reed and ely take the stump if they go out onto the li hustings stings and actually campaign for governor landon the republican nominee it seems to me obvious that such campaigning will damage the roosevelt cause materially it was the natural strategy for mr parley farley to follow in declining comment on the smith defection his assertion that the smith statement was so unimportant as to require no reply will be convincing to a very great many voters who already have made up their minds to support mr roosevelt but the truth is that the election has not been won yet by either side and any votes that are influenced by such a group as that headed by governor smith will have weight in the final determination of our next president the smith detection defection becomes the more important in my opinion because it occurred lemke almost third party bously with the development of a third party under the leadership of rep william lemke of north dakota this picture may not be entirely clear to everyone it is substantially this lemke and his colleagues are attempting to draw together the extreme radicals the leftist groups the bulk of these will come from the democratic party it if the lemke organization develops any particular strength i the smith group represents the conservative or rightist element in the democratic party thus we tee see detraction irom from the roosevelt strength en two sides I 1 do riot not mean to say here that the combination of these circumstances will insure president Roosevel ts defeat anyone who would make such a declaration at this time demonstrates his lack of knowledge of political maneuvers what I 1 am seeking to show however is that robins have arrived in the back yard and in the front yard of the new deal party and it if the leaders tot of the two obstreperous groups engage viciously in this campaign the time may come when mr parley farley will recognize their importance there already has been evidence of the influence of the lemke radical segment I 1 think every everyone one agrees that the announcement of the third bartys organization vitally affected the type of platform that was written in washington and adopted by the democratic convention at philadelphia from many sources comes information that the democratic platform was made much more liberal some critics describe it as more socialistic than would have been the case had representative lemke stayed out of the political picture he has the backing of father coughlin the detroit radio priest and his national union for social justice and he has the backing of the remnants of the late huey longs share the wealth adherents in addition the townsend a month pension followers will be found behind lemke to some extent I 1 have observed these third party movements many times before and usually they have failed to live up to expectations they nearly always have developed fights among themselves because the very nature of and the very reason for their existence lies in their varied conceptions of what government ought to be or ought to do their sincerity precludes them usually from compromise and when politicians refuse to compromise their organization whatever it may be naturally disintegrates this may be the year when the leftist segment will stick together and it if it does it naturally threatens mr Roosevel ts success I 1 confidently fi expect to see overtures seeping out from new deal sources in an eff effort ort to placate some of the lemke followers it is a logical piece of strategy tor for the new dealers to seek to wean these recalcitrant folks from the third party 0 0 the european disturbances continue apace it is a situation that trouble in europe is extremely interesting te and one that probably will unfold old as the weeks go by in curious ways I 1 say ay curious because to us jn america itaas bein been rather difficult to understand the meaning of many of the maneuvers that followed the outright subjugation of ethiopia by the power thirsty mussolini of italy word that c omes comes rather direct from inner councils in europe indicates a tremendous fear on the part of italy and france about german plans the british likewise are displaying nervousness and the present alliances and combinations bi of power existing in europe are none too stable it is just possible that germanys germanas Germ anys hitler may by his present activities force a new cementing of these alliances and understandings among other powers but at this time there is is no mistaking the fact that europe outside of germany is a bundle of nerves it seems that the basis for this nervousness is rooted in the clever scheming of dr hjalmar schacht clit who is something of ah economic economic dictator under hitler dr schacht is a brilliant negotiator he understands der stands economics trade and finance as well as any man in europe today and when you couple such knowledge with diplomatic keenness you obviously have a man capable of accomplishing results dr schacht is employing the methods he knows best namely economic understandings in making new connections with central european power and the balkan states in the case of italy an economic weapon in the hands of germany might east easi italis ly prove dasas case trous arous because italy virtually exhausted her gold reserve in the late war and her government cannot go on much longer in furnishing purchasing power for her people france has been able to open certain markets to the little entente and to the balkans and has in addition provided some financial aid thus when dr schacht pats the neighbors of germany on the back and points out where markets can be made for them in germany france and italy quickly develop cases of jitters it seems that austria and hungary cannot depend fully on italian markets because ol of the low gold reserve in italy in the meantime as well france has been losing millions in gold as her own domestic situation has been embroiled in a political whirlpool the austrians Aust rians and the hungarians Hung arians and some of the other central europeans recognize that unless france gets straightened out there will not be purchasing power available there for their surplus produce so dr schacht is cultivating what api appears cars from this distance to be a fertile field 0 worm western union |