Show ag 0 national topics interpreted by williaim Willi air arr bruckart national Kat lonal press building wahington D C washington ton with the national con intention of the republicans only a week away new veal oeal seek to fo strategists are arc G 0 P bending every effort toward a program designed to make a knockdown knock down and drag out fight of that session it Is not disclosing any secret to say that the new kew dealers are using this weapon up to the hilt because disruption ot of the republican party would make victory easy for candidate roosevelt predictions in politics always are perilous governor alt alf SI landon of kansas seems to be in the lead at this time for the republican nomination but there are many observers throughout the country who contend that the kansas coolidge cannot win and that various other aspirants for the nomination men whose ii lints ats are in the ring likewise must be counted out this Is to say that a feeling Is growing that a dark horse will be nominated from the strictly washing ion viewpoint which may be different thin limn elsewhere in the country astute political observers are convinced that there must be a swift change in sentiment to keep the nomination away from governor landon yet it must be said that politics Is fraught aught fr willi wilh just such things and so it Is entirely possible that the republican nominee may be someone other oilier than the present apparent leader in the race those who feel that governor landon will be the nominee claim he has played his bis cards well but others insist that the kansas governor made a bad mistake in allowing his name to be linked with the hearst fa faction action in california indeed I 1 have heard comment that this fact alone will defeat governor landon a it has been interesting to observe the maneuvers of the new deal strategists with ith reference toabe to the new deal L landon andon boom some strategy egy observers contend that the efforts being put forth from new deal quarters in an attempt to discredit governor G governor landon were being engineered because the new deal fears governor landon as a roosevelt roosevel t opponent more than it fears some of the other candidates for the nomination frank R kent the washington commentator for the democratic baltimore sun asserted that the new deal activity against landoas Lan dons nomination constituted the best evidence of the increasing probability of the kansas governors nomination mr kent did not say that which some other informed writers feel namely that the landon candidacy would me mean an a bitter campaign on the part of the roosevelt forces to reelect re elect the president nevertheless it has been interesting to note the various ways in which roosevelt spokesmen and democratic publicity men have hare been trying to show the country that governor landon Is not the man who should be nominated I 1 have no quarrel with these efforts it Is the game of politics virtually lly anything goes it Is to be assumed that present republican maneuvers will be concentrated in a few weeks on mr roosevelt personally as the democratic candidate in fact one hears expressions around washington that for the first time in sir mr Roosevel ts political career he is going to be directly under fl fire re just in this connection one can recall that through most of the new deal administration criticism of new deal policies and plans almost without exception cep tion was directed at roosevelt ap pointe the president himself lias has been exceptionally free from the type of personal attack that frequently characterizes acte political opposition lie he has had absolutely none of the kind of criticism that occurred in the hoover administration and was directed at herbert hoover personally so ns is we look at the campaign picture juat ahead abbat of the republican convention contention and only a month in advance of the meeting of the democrats at philadelphia where president roosevelt will be without opposition in his own party I 1 think it can be said without fear of contradiction that both candidates this year are going to be smeared personally just as last fast and as long as the ammunition holds out while we are talking about the f forthcoming quadrennial conventions the two keynote speak the ers naturally enter keynoters Keyn oters into any y discussion senator alben W barkley of kentucky wll will do the key noting noti for the democrats at philadelphia and nd senator frederick of oregon will deliver the main address to the cleveland convention of the republicans public ans senator barkley was the keynoter at the chicago convention when mr roosevelt was nominated by the democrats four years ago and although it Is a subject lot freely ds discussed it Is said in high places that mr roosevelt wanted the same man to do the job again believing the kentuckian to be an owen omen of good luck the selection of senator was one ct those things that cao can be said to be a surprise and yet not a surprise lie ile Is without doubt a good man for the job yet in some quarters there la Is ai conviction ahat senator was picked liy by the so called old gu guard ard of eastern republicans some observers still hold the belief that the selection of senator was not wholly pleasing to the landon forces but bo be that as it may there has been no particular III feeling created by it IL if it represents a piece of strategy by the eastern republicans who were dealing with their problem by remote control they apparently have played into the hands of the more liberal win wing of ile he publicans public ans it Is being predicted rather freely that the oregon senators key hey note speech will lean strongly to the liberal side but that it will stress sound economics the best advance information obtainable on senator Bark leys plans Is that he will devote the bulk of his time on the convention platform to a review of roosevelt accomplishments in the belief that such a review will take his presentation out of the class of a defense speech those with whom I 1 have hare talked the speech believe he has adopted a smart political course that he feels there Is no need to defend anything that has been dono done and that the record itself is the thing upon which the democratic party can mike make a plea for re rp election reelection of sir mr roosevelt having observed senator barkley in action in the he senate for a number of years I 1 believe I 1 am justified in saying that lie he ts is a squire square shooter and a fighter in this respect he be and senator St Steh elwer vcr the republican keynoter are much the same type of 0 man and therefore if either convention gets ot off on a wrong foots foot the fault will lie ile with the convention managers rather than with the proposals offered by the men who are supposed to lay before the delegates a rough outline of their respective bartys concerning the record of the key naters in the senate each stands foursquare senator barkley lins his consistently battled in behalf of the president and new deal policies throughout mr Roosevel ts administration senator has been just as consistent in his bis opposition certainly senator has been much more outspoken against new deal policies than most of his republican colleagues and much more so than senator mcnary for many months washington has heard the plaint of business leaders who wanted to fight fear socialistic schemes crack down Dow dowland nand and unsound sound economic policies given birth by new deal brain but were afraid to do so because of retaliation tall atlon almost constantly information has filtered into washington to the effect that if a corporation undertook to oppose new deal plans vigorously there was danger that some agency of the government would crack down on them much of this information has been taken by washington observers with a grain of salt but a different aspect has been placed on the situation lately it was in the senate that a new deal democrat senator nomer homer T done cone of washington broke loose with statements that seemed to substantiate inte the f fear car voiced so frequently by business senator done bone charged that there was a veritable and budding or organized an iced within the government the as most persons realize Is the secret spy system of the russian soviet and I 1 think no one in this country has a complete knowledge of its vicious character so when senator bone likened the espionage system in our government to the he was making to my mind one of the most serious charges yet leveled at the roosevelt administration of course senator rone bone was attacking I 1 this espionage system because of a feeling that it might be used to coerce members of congress and even executive or administrative officers of the gore government rement who were opposed to plans plan propagated by presidential advisers ills his thought obviously concerned the political phases of such a system but the fact that he be brought the matter to public attention serves in a measure certainly to substantiate some of the claims that business interests have made I 1 am unable however to rec reconcile onelle senator bones position respecting the which he charged was in operation within the government and his utter silence when the obnoxious senate lobby committee headed beaded by senator black democrat of alabama engaged in the wholesale seizure of private telegrams it will be recalled that I 1 reported in these columns how bow senator black and agents of the federal communications commission went into the flies files of the western union telegraph company and carried off literally thousands of private telegrams I 1 was convinced men and I 1 repeat it now that the slack black seizure was nothing more than an attempt to dig up dirt on anybody against whom they could find discrediting information yet senator bone by his silence condoned that courie course only to denounce later the systems of so called inspectors used by secretary ickes of the department of the interior and reputedly by several other agencies of the government 1 can only hope that if senator bones charges are true that the usual condition will result namely that there will be other spies to spy on these spies 0 western newspaper caloa |