Evening star., 1932-01-11
The Political Mill
BY G.. Gould Lincoln.

The political pot, which has been
simmering for long time, boiled ovel
curing the last week In the first place
Gov. Albert C. Ritchie of Maryland sci
the pace for the Democratic presiden-
tial candidates by announcing his own
candidacy formally. This promptly
brought Jim" Reed of Missouri into
the field, who admitted that he would
be glad to have the support Of the
State delegation at the Democratic Ma
tional Convention which is to be held
June ~ in Chicago. 1t also brought
from supporters Of Gov. Franklin D
Roosevelt who were in Washington to
attend the Jackson day dinner and the
subsequent meeting of the party's Ma
tional Committee predictions that Roose-
velts candidacy for the presidential
nomination would be in the open within
few days, with the Democratic State
Committee of North Dakota cracking
the way for the Roosevelt bandwagon.
~ X
On the Republican side there was
great excitement because OF the resig-
nation, or pre-announcement Of resig-
nation, of Ambassador Charles G.
Dawes from his post at the court oil
ST. James Immediately Gen. Dawes
determination to quit public life was IN
terpreted as the first step to enter II
again via the White House. Gen
Dawes himself has said 1t was al
damn nonsense" But that will not quiet
the report that he is preparing to seek
the Republican nomination for Pres
ident, not by jugfull. 1t may be ex'
pected that he Dawes rumor Will gro"
and expand with the lengthen1ng Gays
The truth of the matter, however, ap-
pears to be that Gen. Dawes Is MOI
likely to become a candidate for Pres
ident unless President Hoover shoule
say, as his predecessor said on occasion
Il do not choose to run for President.
II the President should utter any
such phrase. there is every probablllty
that Gen. Dawes friends would i'm
mediately put him forward for the pres
idential nomination. Some OF then
are already attempting to do so, includ'
ing Mrs. Ruth Hanna Mccormick, Wht
was defeated in the senatorial race II
1890 in Illinois by the stupendous vote
of 100000 in State which has usually
gone Republican by many hundreds o.
thousands. In that particular cam
paign Mrs. Mccormick, according tt
Illinois politicians, made so many po'
litical mistakes that she could not pos
sibly have hoped for victory. Just why
the G.. o. P. should listen to her now
when she urges Mr.. Hoover to ak
himself out of the picture, as she die
in her Newspaper before Gen. Dawes
intention to resign his ambassadoria
post was announced. it aot clear.
If Gen. Dawes is to be a candidate
for the presidential nomination he viii
have to come out and admit it. He
might have had good chance for tht
nomination in 1923 if he had not hung
back behind his friend, former Gov
Frank o. Lowden Of Illinois. He gave
Gov. LoWden his chance and Gen
Dawes friends, expecting Mr.. Lowder
to help tie up the convention II h;
could not actually be nominated, hoped
for swing to Gen. Dawes. The plar
was too complicated. In the end, Gov
Lowden, in huff, did not even permit
his name to so before the Republican
National Convenl lion: Mr. Ho3ver wa,
nominated Oh. the first ballot, and Gen
Dawes friends were, to say the least
disappointed.
If Gen. Dawes had any idea that
President Hoover was going to declare
himself out of the race, he might just
as we'll have hung on to the office oi
Ambassador for a while. He could
when the announcement was made from,
the White House, have become candi-
date just as readily from his office ir
London as from his office in Chicago
AS a matter of fact, 1t will not be long
before the delegations to the Repub-
lican National Convention are selected
in some States. via the primary route
And If Mr. Hoover has any intention o1
asserting that he will not be candl-
dat6 for reelection, he could not well
putait off much longer But no one
today expects Mr.. Hoover to declare he
will not run, despite the fact that q
number of people talk about it. Gen
Dawes, those say who are close to him
is retiring from his London post so thai
he may return to Chicago and look after
his own business, banking, which re-
uuires his attention. That sounds rea-
sonable in these days.
The Republicans up in New Hamp'
shire received a severe setback In th'
first congressional district when then
candidate for election to fill the Hale
vacancy in the House was defeated b.
the Democrat, Rogers, by almost 5000
majority. Former Gov. Bartlett, tbs
Republican nominee, defended the
Hoover administration. The Democrat!
attacked it. Good arguments in sup.
port Of the Hoover administration moi
only can be made, but were made. But
arguments are not likely to convince
voting public which Is down in thu
mouth because Of hard times and lacl
of employment. The G. o. P. candi.
+,,rr q
as though, no matter what the Demo.
Gratis may do from now until election
time, the same disgruntled attitude Of
the voters will assure them victory
They no longer appear to vote for any
one or anything, but against some one
and something. Therein lies the par
ticular danger of the Republicans thi.
year.
Senator Moses of New Hampshire is
no trimmer. Immediately after the de-
feat of Bartlett in the congressional race
he announced that he was for the re-
election of President Hoover, that he
would seek election as a delegate at
large from New Hampshire to the Re-
publican National Convention as Hoo
YER delegate Senator Moses himself is
up for reelection this year. There has
been talk in the past that Gov. Winant
the young and progressive Republican
who smashed precedent and won for
himself a second election as Governor
Of the White Mountain State, would an
nounce himself a candidate for the Re-
publican senatorial nomination. But
friends of Senator Moses believe now
that this matter of the senatorial nomi-
nation is Strengthening itself out salts
factorily and that Gov. Winant will re-
strain his senatorial ambitions for few
more years. Winant, too, is expected to
be delegate to the Republican National
Convention and is expected to run along
with Senator Moses in the primary for
this honor. without friction between the
two.
X
The anti Roosevelt Democrats, mean
ing the supporters of all other possible
Democratic candidates for the presi-
dental nomination, are taking no little
satisfaction from the fart that Chi