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Show Difficult Job Confronts New Democratic Leaders Chairman Hannegan, Publicist Porter, Must Rebuild Party Machine; Answer GOP Attacks on Bureaucracy. By BAL News Analyst an (VNU 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 qo longer be levelfed, but politics mows 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 !o outline the job that Chairman of he Republican National committee, Harrison Spangler, has laid out for nlmself. Since then, I have been admitted into the front lines in the Democratic Demo-cratic sector and now that I am oack safe In limb and, I hope, sound !n 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 lerved in the ranks and worked his ay 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 bout a gathering held recently in the Mayflower Hotel (which also louses the Democratic headquarters) headquar-ters) just a few blocks down Connecticut Con-necticut avenue from the old residence resi-dence 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 laid he felt as if somebody had put aim down in Carnegie Hall, handed aim Kriesler's violin, and said: "Now play." That was a pat remark. We all fcnow Charley Michelson. We all Imow Porter, who has been around Washington in one important job or another ever since the New Deal began dealing. And we know thei typewriter of Charley Michelson is as hard for anyone but its possessor to play upon as Kreisler's fiddle cvould be. However, when I was up at Democratic headquarters a few iays later, there was Charley apparently ap-parently giving such aid and com-tort com-tort and encouragement as might oe 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: "Nobody will have a chance to do She job that Charley Michelson did or us from 1922 on until the election elec-tion of FDR. The trouble is the Republicans are in a position to use lis theme song adapted, of course, lo 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 peteran added, "what you write and say 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 on 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. Anyone at Democratic headquarters will admit that. The reason is revealed in this simple sim-ple chronology: IKIIAGE id Commentator. Jim Farley took over a pretty well running machine built up by Raskob. Farley did a splendid job of keeping it spinning until 1936. It was a hundred-per-cent-Roosevelt-for-Presidcnt machine that far. Then Farley got other ideas one, that two terms was enough for Roosevelt, and the other was that 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 apart 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 can 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 won the Republicans another seat 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 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 do away with price regulation but that present regulation must be improved. 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 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 soldier son of families which have been reelecting re-electing Roosevelt who isn't going to get his ballot in from Kwajalein atoll or Middlesex-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 that 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 it 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. |
