Evening star., 1932-06-29
ROOSEVELT CAMP
HOLDS UPPER HAND
Lines Up 654 Delegates and
Defeat Would Be Regarded
Sensation.
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

CHICAGO June 29.-To look for
ward to the balloting on the presiden-
tial nomination, Roosevelt should have
about 654 available on the first ballot.
His strategy may or may not be to vote
his full strength on the first ballot. The
question is, can Roosevelt increase this
strength on the second and subsequent
ballots. II he can, he will win. II he
begins to slip, however, he will go all
the way down. If Roosevelt loses, the
whole situation will be thrown into fiux.
One of the most likely men to emerge
would be Newton d. Baker, though this
is by no means certain.
What is happening here now can
best be made clear in terms OF the op-
position to Roosevelt. There are,
roughly, 500 non-Roosevelt delegates.
If the 500, or as many as 385 of them
stand together, they can defeat Roose-
welt under the two-thirds rule. The
500 are not mainly delegates who hope
to name candidates Of their own. Not
more than a handful have candidates
they hope to nominate. Gov Albert
Ritchie, with his 16 from Maryland, Is
almost the only candidate among the
non Roosevelt forces who has good
faith, serious hope to win.
Smith Has No Chance.
Ex-Gov. Smith has the largest group
Of the non Roosevelt delegates-about
$50 out of the 500. And he has abso
lutely no chance to win. 1t is the same
or nearly so, with Speaker Garner and
his 80 from Texas and California. and
ex-senator Jim" Reed, with his 36
from Missouri, and Gov. alfalfa Bill
Murray. with his % from Oklahoma,
and Gov. George W. White, with his 81
from Ohio. and so on.
If few of these delegates hope to win
with candidates of their own, why,
then. will they stand combined in the
opposition to Roosevelt? One answer
is they may not Many individual del
egates would like to go to Roosevelt,
but are held back by their leaders.
Most Of the 36 from Missouri, for ex-
ample, would like to go to Roosevelt.
Reed, however holds them back and
makes them promise to go on voting
for him. The individual delegate who
wishes to go to Roosevelt fears to incur
the enmity in his State of SO powerful
a man as Reed.
We must inquire, then, the reasons
why these leaders, such as Reed OPP
pose Roosevelt. The tl-RooseVelt
leaders have some one reason and some
one, "Al" Smith, are commonly sup
posed to be personal. They are not
wholly so. Smith sincerely thinks
Roosevelt has qualities Of temperament
and intellect which make him an un6e-
sirable candidate. Many other anti
Roosevelt leaders feel the same way.
Senator Glass of Virginia is a COM
pletely high minded, disinterested man,
and he opposes Roosevelt. Any fair
picture of the situation must say that
many Democratic leaders think Roose-
welt is short Of the highest equipment.
Some very important leaders are dis
turbed about some of the men who
make an impression OF being close to
Roosevelt. Among these are Senators
Burton K Wheeler of Montana and
Huey p. Long of Louisiana. Both these
are strongly for Roosevelt. Wheeler
has been almost the principal indi-
yidual supporter of Roosevelt. Long s
delegation was embraced by the Roose-
welt forces here. These two and some
other conspicuous supporters OF Roose-
welt are really pretty radical. This
type of Roosevelt support Is the cause
of opposition to Roosevelt by some i'm
portant national leaders.
Campaign Of the Ants.
Let us now look at the plan Of the
campaign Of the anti-Roosevelt leaders
which has had some degree of success
Smith and his associate. Frank Hague
of New Jersey. began with characters
tic boloness Hague made an announce
ment which amounted to saying. In
effect. that if. Roosevelt should be NOM
mated the Democracy Of New York and
New Jersey would not support him in
! the election. That alone is formida-
bic reason for hesitation to nominate
Roosevelt Other anti-Roosevelt lead
ers have gone about among the neutral
or lukewarm Roosevelt delegates charg-
4 ing that Roosevelt is not really strong
/ and able man This has had some
effect Some of Rooseyelts own dele
! gates are in a mood to leave him. Un-
fortunately for Roosevelt, some actions