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Show VVwl ail ft i j t: i t Difficult Job Confronts New Democratic Leaders Chairman Hannegan, Publicist Porter, Must Rebuild Party Machine; Answer GOP Attacks on Bureaucracy. By BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator. i f ' M : j -. . Jim Farley took over la prettj well running machine built up by Raskob. Farley did a splendid jot of keeping it spinning until 1936. II was a hundred-per-cent-Roosevelt-for-President machine that far. Then Farley got other ideas one, that two terms was enough foi Roosevelt, and the other was thai the next term, it would be Farley. The machine changed to a one-man one-man dog which, for four years, would only come when its master spoke and its master was Farley. After the historic split, it fell aparl except as the states kept their segments seg-ments intact. So all Mr. Hannegan has to do is to put it together again if he car find all the parts. That is the first job as far as the Democratic offensive goes. As to the defense, they feel they already have a pretty clear picture of the Republican war plans as revealed re-vealed in activities to date. They point to the campaign that WNTU Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C. Bombs one day will cease bursting, burst-ing, ships will sail the seas undisturbed undis-turbed by torpedoes, and cities will no longer be levelled, but politics knows no armistice. The political forces are already laying down their preliminary barrages. bar-rages. Two weeks ago, I reported a visit to Republican headquarters up on Connecticut avenue and I attempted to outline the job that Chairman of the Republican National committee, Harrison Spangler, has laid out for himself. Since then, I have been admitted Into the front lines in the Democratic Demo-cratic sector and now that I am back safe in limb and, I hope, sound in mind, I shall attempt to report the strategy that Field Marshal Hannegan's cohorts seem to be employing. em-ploying. Democratic Chairman Hannegan Han-negan is a young man, who has served in the ranks and worked his won the Republicans another seal in the House of Representatives from the first Congressional district of Colorado. The Democratic candidate candi-date was a young war hero. His Republican opponent was a business man. He had a very simple line of attack. He hammered bureaucracy, bureauc-racy, he placed the present ills of the community squarely on the head of the administration gas rationing, for instance. The OPA Fight The Democrats say this pattern-damning pattern-damning the administration's administering ad-ministering has been revealed in congress too. The fight over the OPA is a current example. Minority Leader Joe Martin announced at the beginning that nobody wanted to dc away with price regulation but that present regulation must be im-proved. im-proved. What the Democrats expect is that the Republicans will drag out the hearings as long as possible, parade what they call "a chamber of horrors" before the people, attempting at-tempting to associate all the irritations, irrita-tions, limitations and restrictions which are annoying the public, on the administration. There are other obstacles which are a product of the time which the Democrats have to meet. They are realistic about them. , One is the fourth term, of course. That may partially be offset by the "don't change horses in the middle of a stream" argument which is counted upon to influence a great number of people who think it might be disastrous to shift leadership, whether you like it or not, while way up from ward politics to City Chairman for St. Louis whence he leapt to the national chairmanship. Just to give you a little of the atmosphere in which the Democratic Democrat-ic GHQ operates, let me say a word about a ' gathering held recently in the Mayflower Hotel (which also houses the Democratic headquarters) headquar-ters) just a few blocks down Connecticut Con-necticut avenue from the old resi-deree resi-deree that the GOP has taken over. This gathering was the occasion of the retirement of Charley Michel-son Michel-son and the assumption of his duties as Number One publicity man for the Democratic committee by tall and personable Paul Porter, who said he felt as if somebody had put him down in Carnegie Hall, handed him Kriesler's violin, and said: "Now play." That was a pat remark. We all know Charley Michelson. We all know Porter, who has been around Washington in one important job or another ever since the New Deal began dealing. And we know the typewriter of Charley Michelson is as hard for anyone but its possessor to play upon as Kreisler's fiddle would be. However, when I was up at Democratic headquarters a few days later, there was Charley apparently ap-parently giving such aid and comfort com-fort and encouragement as might be needed from the wings. One thing that makes it hard for the Democrats is that the Republicans Republi-cans are in a position to lift their copyright. As one Democrat explained it to me, it is like this: the war is going on. Another situation which the Democrats Demo-crats face and about which there is little or nothing to do is the great migration of voters who have failed to establish residence in their new homes or who are in the armed forces and will not be able to vote. As one Democrat put it to me: "We know we are going to suffer more than the Republicans from this change of residence business. It isn't the man and woman who lives in a Park Avenue penthouse who moves to San Diego. to work in an airplane plant; it is the hill billy who has voted Democratic all his life who moves to a war boom town and forgets to register." Campaign Weapons "And," he added, "it is the sokliei son of families which have been reelecting re-electing Roosevelt who isn't going to get his ballot in from Kwajalein atoll or Middlescx-on-sticks, Wangle-shire, Wangle-shire, Hereford, England." Here are two main dishes the Democrats probably will offer the voter! The first, I have already mentioned. men-tioned. Don't change horses . . . The second can be encompassed in one word work! You can call it security, or any other name thai smells as sweet. But the Democrats count on the fact that the average American fears another depression, or at least temporary unemployment unemploy-ment when the boys come home. The argument is, "They (the Democrats) Demo-crats) did it before, they can do II again . . . the Republicans brought you panic, the New Deal got you through It." Circumstances alter the best laid plans of mice, men and national committees, but that seems to be what they are shouting at along Connecticut avenue today. "Nobody will have a chance to do the job that Charley Michelson did for us from 1922 on until the election elec-tion of FDR. The trouble is the Republicans are in a position to use his theme song adapted, of course, to suit their needs. "They have already started to do to the administration just what Michelson did to Hoover. They have started to attack the war agencies and all of the administration departments depart-ments and activities, exposing every ev-ery blunder, playing up failures and trying to show that everything the people think are burdens and annoyances annoy-ances can be traced directly to the administration. "And you know," this wise old veteran added, "what you write and Bay about how bad the other guy is makes a lot better reading than what you say about how good you think YOU are." That is one obstacle Chairman Hannegan is up against although the real responsibility falls en the shoulders shoul-ders of Michelson's successor, Paul Porter, and they are broad shoulders shoul-ders with a very good newspaper head between them. But Hannegan has another, bigger problem. It is a Job for a master mechanic. It is a repair Job on the Democratic machine which is euphemistically designated In the language of party politics as the "organization." "or-ganization." Broken Machine Hannegan Is a young, energetic, open-faced Irishman, and it Is a good thing he Is young and energetic and optimistic because he has had to start his job of organization at scratch. Anyono at Democratic headquarters will admit that. The reason is revealed in this simple sim-ple chronology: |
