Evening star., 1932-06-19

nomination.
Smith will find it hard to beat Roose-
welt. True, 1t takes 385 delegates, a
third OF the convention, to vote some
thing over 500 delegates who are either
: opposed to Roosevelt or are, SO to speak,
, non-Roosevelt delegates. That looks,
: on paper, as if Roosevelt could be reid.
But every politician knows better.
; Roosevelt cannot be stopped with a bare
: third Of the delegates. He can hardly
!, be stopped with 500. When candi-
. date is as close to success as Roosevelt
Will be when he has all but 500 Of the
delegates laws Of human nature work
; powerfully in his favor Such rearners
TO success constitutes temptation to the
non-Roosevelt delegates. There is pro-
spective favor for those Of the dissent
ing 800 who sec the light and leap for
, the band wagon.
Moreover. 1t will be particularly hard
for Smith to weld this particular group
OF 500 or so non-Roosevelt delegates
INTO solid force.
zoo Are His Own.
About 200 Of them will be Smiths
own. These he can control. These
Will follow any signal Smith gives. They
are from New York, New Jersey, Mas
sachusetts, Rhode Island and Pennsyl-
vania, and they are Smiths men; first.
last and all the time, for any purpose
Smith has.
But 80 OF the non Roosevelt dele
gates are Gamers. Not really Gamers.
1hey are Tor Garner, but they are not
Garner,s delegates. They are the 46
from Texas and the A from Califor-
MA. The ones from California GER
talnly are much more under the leader
ship OF William G.. McAdoo than of
Garner Perhaps those from Texas
might do what Garner asks
But can there be cooperation be-
tween Smith and Garner? Garner per-
soralIy IS a genial and flexible person.
VINO can cooperate with anybody if it
Is TO MS interest. But could Garner
deliver those IS Texas delegates to
smith for project Of stopping Roose-
veit? IS 1t not mere likely tha. those
Texas delegates would refuse to unite
IN last ditch opposition to Roosevelt?
Especially would they refuse 10 work
With Al Smith to that end Between
smith and Roosevelt they like Roosevelt
better
And the California delegates under
McAdoo-could McAdoo cooperate with
Smith? True, McAdoo dislikes both
Smith and Roosevelt McAdoo. tince
his experience in New York CITY IN
1924, has little reason to like ANYBODY
from that city. But as between Smith
and Roosevelt, McAdoo should nor
mally prefer Roosevelt. 1t is hard to
conceive-and the country would emile
II 1t should see-Williarl G. McAdoo
and Alfred E. Smith hand in hand op-
posing Franklin Roosevelt. That would
be the final proof that politics really
does make strange bedfellows The spec
tacle, If anything, would help Rocse-
ve!t: Even if McAdoo personally were
willing to unite with Smith, could Nc
Aooo deliver those "A California dele
gates?
And so all the way down the line.
It IS going to be extremely difficult
for Smith to weld those roughly 500
non-Roosevelt delegates into a battalion
CT death. Many of them are in COM
paratively small units from Missouri
and Oklahoma and Virginia. In each
Of the State units. probably more dele
gates like Roosevelt than like Smith.
More than that. to considerable 6e-
gree Smiths opposition to Roosevelt
has the effect of helping Roosevelt If
Roosevelt is to be beaten, if the de:c-
gates opposed to him are to be drawn
together, Smith is not the best man to
do it. Many of the Southern and
Western delegates want to get away
from the titular leadership that Smith
acquired in 1923. Smith reminds them
CT grief. the trouble they had in 1923.
and they want to get away from all
that
Moreover, they think there is a feud
between Smith and Roosevelt. They
shrink from the spectacle of feud.
They recall what feud (between Smith
and McAooo) did to the party in 1924.
They want, above ell things, to avoid
another such tug-of-war as Madison
Square Garden in 1924 And they
think the best way to avoid the raising
of feed is to go ahead and nominate
Roosevelt quickly.
Smiths Reasons.
Why doesn't Smith tell the country
Just why he opposes Roosevelt? The
average man, lacking any specific rea-
son of a public nature from Smith,
; thinks Smiths objections must be per-
; sonal. That presumably is unfair to
Smith; and Smith, in failing to give
public reasons for opposing Roosevelt.
is unfair to himself. The only objec-
; ton Smith has ever made to Roosevelt
, on public grounds had to do with just
, one speech that Roosevelt delivered.
That speech, Smith said, was "oema-
: gogic."
But "demagogic" is not terribly
, harsh word for one politician to use
, about another whom he does not like.
1t was not convincing to the public.
The average Democrat in Topeka,
Kans., or San Antonio, Tex, assumes
Smiths opposition to Roosevelt must
be personal Listen to any talk about
, it in a smoking car. There, the oracles
will say that Smith is jealous OF Roose-
, velt; that Smith wanted the nomination
for himself and resents Roosevelt's 60
ing out and getting it; that Smith
, thinks he could win this time and IS
sullen over Roosevelt's running away
, with the nomination; or that Smith
wanted Roosevelt to play second fiddle
to hin-wanted Roosevelt to get it, If at
! all, as a favor handed down by Smith.
This feeling on the part of the aver
, age man is universal. 1t makes Smith
. cut less a man than most of us think
he is If Smith is going to fill sue
!; cessfully the role he is undertaking
the coming week, he should make a
. statement in simple and Unconditional
words of just what reasons he has,
, public in nature, for thinking that
, Roosevelt would be an undesirable
! candidate or less than perfect Presl-
, dent. What reasons does Smith have?
) 1t isn't Rooseveit's health; some one
, is said to have asked Smith about
5 that and Smith is reported to have
! said: What do they want in the White
, House-an acrobat?"
5 Does Smith think Roosevelt Is too
close to the radicals? Roosevelt is very
e close to Senator Wheeler of Montana
r or perhaps it is that Wheeler makes
! himself very close to Roosevelt. Any
how, Wheeler is real radical. One
S who follows Wheeler in the Senate
e feels sure he has real wish to see
= the present order of things in Ameri-
e ca blow up. A goea many folks are
more than a little dismayed about the
4 apparent sympathy Of spirit between
| Poocevelf and Uhee1er Is that Smiths