Evening star., 1932-07-11
The Political Mill
By C.. Could Lincoln.

horizon today is the price Of hogs. In
three short months the price paid for
swine has increased more than 81 a
hundred pounds. If you don't think
that is something to give the Democrats
cold chills, ask the reaction IN Iowa,
Kansas, Indiana and Illinois. Had 1t
not been for hard times. In all
probability the Democrats would have
had scarcely a look in this year in the
presidential election. II hard times go
bad" on the Democrats at this stage in
the game. it won't be funny for Gov.
! Roosevelt and Speaker Garner. The
price of hogs. and the increases in
prices of cattle, too, may be only a
small cloud In the sky today. but If
thue is a better break for the Amer
ican farmers in the price Of wheat, the
Republicans will begin to sing Happy
Days Are Here Again" Talk to the
Propressiyes from the Middle West and
the Northwest They know their farmers.
If wheat should get to 80 or 85 cents
busheI. 1t would take more than the
name of Roosevelt to carry these Re-
publican States of the West for the
Democratic ticket. Furthermore, the
wet atmosphere which prevailed in the
Stadium in Chicago during the national
convention period is not altogether a
true gauge of what the farmers are
thinking about the prohibition issue.
4 X 4
An upward turn in the price Of
hogs will mean, in all probability. better
prices for the corn the farmers grow
Most of the corn goes to feed the
hogs and cattle anyway. And corn is
the second largest grain crop OF the
country. Perhaps this depression, after
all, will be broken by the hog. All
good Republicans will take to eating
ham II they have the interests OF the
G.. o. p. at heart.
Financing the coming presidential
campaign looks like tough PROPOSE
ton. There has been no rush. so far
as can be seen at present. to contribute
money to the campaign funds. The
Democrats many months ago launched
their victory fund" campaign. They
hoped to raise about 81 5000 OF
| this in round numbers one-third was
! ing over from the 1928 campaign. An
Democratic activities up to the time
of the convention and S500,000 was to
| be nest egg in the Democratic treasury
to start the campaign a-rolling. The
convention has come and gone. and
the Democrats still have a deficit in
their treasury of approximately
$425 900, victory drive or no victsry
drive OF this amount about SIPS ,000
is owing to John j. Raskob. who re-
Gently retired as chairman of the Ma
| tional Committee and who has very
graciously declared that he need not
| be paid until after this years campaign
Mr.. Raskob, who has been the fnan-
cial angel Of the Democratic party
for the last four years, is out. lie may
continue to contribute to the party
1t must be habit with him by this
time But Mr.. Raskob, despite re-
peated denials on his part, was re-
ported to be anxious that some other
candidate for the presidential nomina-
ton than Roosevelt be the party
choice. Just how much money he
wishes to put into the fight to elect
Mr.. Roosevelt Is not now clear. Other
angels may be found.
4
Speaker Garner is making it diff
cult for the Democrats, it is said, to
open the Golfers of the men in the
East with money by his insistence on
radical measures in Congress which
do not meet the approval Of hard
headed business men. Furthermore,
there was first-class propaganda job
done in the preconvention campaign
10 make the business interests all over
the country believe that Franklin D.
Roosevelt is radical and not to be
trusted in the White House. His DEM
ocratlc opponents were among those
most responsible for spreading such re-
ports. Out in Chicago Frank Hague,
Democratic boss of Jersey City and Al
Smiths floor manager, issued state
ment after statement declaring that
Roosevelt could not carry New York
and New Jersey and the country, in
deed, and the inference was that the
business interests in these great in
dustrial States did not trust him.
x x x x
The G. o. P. is not going to find it
easy to raise money, either. But the
Republicans at least do not start with
a huge deficit in their treasury. What
they collect can go wholly into the
campaign. They have several very
astute and very capable raisers of
money in the Republican party. They
may need all their wiles to bring the
dollars into the party treasury this
year. however. Treasurer Joseph L.
Knutt, a Cleveland banker who knows
what he is talking about, has warned
the party that the campaign must be
run economically this year; that
volunteer workers must be lined up, and
that paid workers will be the excep-
ton, not the rule. The campaign in
this respect is likely to be in N.id con-
trast with the 1923 fracas. Both parties
spent money regardlessly four years
ago The Democrats were so regardless
that they found themselves with some
thing like million-dollar deficit at
the close of the campaign. The Re-
publicans paid as they went. But they
spent even more than the Democrats.
\ X \ \
Since the Republicans adopted their
national platform, three weeks ago
there has been no attempt on the part
of President Hoover to interpret the
| much-discussed plank on prohibition
The President will have an opportunity
to make his position clear on this sub
ject when he delivers his speech of &C
ceptance. He can indicate that he con-
Siders it dry plank or a wet one. just
as he pleaseS. His Democratic oppo-
nent, Gov. Roosevelt. has already made
his acceptance speech, and in it, Roose-
welt declared that he stood firmly upon
the wet plank in the Democratic plat
form II am for repeal" he said, and
the galleries cheered in Chicago. The
Republican plank declared for the sub
mission of an amendment to the Con.
stitution revising the eighteenth amend
ment, not repeating it. SO that States, il
they desire, can vote themselves wet
but leaving in the hands of the Fed.
eral Congress the power to see that
there be no return of the saloon. II
did not undertake to commit the party
the President or Republican member.
of Congress to vote for revision of the
eighteenth amendment; it merely com.
mitted them to support submission oi
this question to the people of the va
/, Nous States, acting through constitu.
tional conventions.
For while in Chicago it looked as
though the whole world had turned
"wet"-that is. the whole voting world
in America. Perhaps it has But some
of the politicians and the voters them
selves are beginning to catch their sec
ond wind and wonder whether there
had not been a bit of hysteria in the
national conventions The Democrats