The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-12-04
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3. 1881
Ware The Tilson Boom

If Representative John Q. Tilson should forego his congressional seat next year to aspire to gubernatoria honors it might mean one of two things. It might result in his final retirement from Connecticut politics. The situation is replete with angles and cubieles that are extremely interesting From a democratic standpoint the announcement should be received with caution. Ofhand we would say that Mir Tilson has little chance of receiving the gubernatorial noml- nation provided that the state chairman. J. Henry Roraback, continues to display as much interest in nominations as he has Tn the past The rumored alliance of the Tilson -Roraback forces this year suffered greatly Monday at Washington.
 If anybody cares to inquire into the vote of last Monday at the republican caucus for the Speaker nomination he or she will ind that, while the Connecticut congressional delegation supported Mir Tilson, there was no word from the national committeeman who in this instance happens to be MT Rorabaek. Perhaps none was in order, but some sign of approval might have meant the nomination to Mir Tilson. As it now stands Mir Tilson is about 10 make his farewell bow as republican congressional leader He claims that he is still the party leader because he was nominated for that office last spring when the late Nicholas Longworth was nominated for Speaker.
 However. republicans know just as well as democrats that the latter will organize the House next Monday. Therefore Repre- sentative Bertrand H. Shell wasn't looking for an empty honor this week when he sought the nomination for Speaker. As has been the past custom if one partys nominee for Speaker is defeated he automatically be- comes the minority floor leader Mir Shell will be that next Monday despite the claims of Mir Tilson and his friends and despite the injustice of it. After all his years of service to the party and republican administrations all Mir Tilson gets is merely his seat in Con- gress. Not even ranking place on the low Hest committee will be his. He will simply be one of the minority.
 In such an event we wouldn't blame him to aspire to the gubernatorial nomination as the Washington Herald claims he will. Better to be governor in Connecticut than mere congressman in Washington, How ev,r, it might be like Mir Roraback to wreck the Tilson congressional career so that he could also blast his hopes at home If the winds blow favorably in Governor Crosss direction next year there won't be too much republican opposition. It might be good policy for the state organization to approve of Tilson nominate him, sacrifice him. and then retire him. What an ignominious end to an ilustrious career that would be.
 On the other hand Representative Tilson would be wise enough to steer clear of the nomination if he thought there was such de- liberate intent behind any boom for him. And if he was seriously inclined towards the gubernatorial nomination we think he would choose some other time than l932 to contest the fight with Governor Cross and the dominant democratic party. This lil- son boom has too many complexities to be digesed in one swallow. It needs to be studied from all those angles which it con- tans. It may be ght-forward move, but we are inclined to call 1t political strat- egy behind which lies well-eoneeived plan of aetion