The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-05-28
SURE TO BEAT
TESS, BOASTS
CHARLIE TRUAX
Sturdy-Lunged Congress.
man Must Hurdle Primary
First, However.
BY NED BROOKS
Times Special Writer

WAOa4NG4ON, May write
it down in your hat" says Con-
gresham Charles Truax, "that
Charlie Truax is the next sena-
tor from Ohio"
MIR. Truax, auctioneer, hog
raiser, editor and owner of a pair
of the sturdiest lungs in the house,
pounds hamlike fist on his desk
as he tells you he's out to break the
twenty-three-year winning streak of
Senator Simeon D. Fess, former Re-
publican national chairman.
"Oh, know the big bankers will
be out to get me-" The bushy-
haired siX-footer is belligerent. But
Ohio'S got more sensible voters than
it has bankers"
And SO under the Capitops broad
roof is developing the possibility
that the Buckeye state will witness
a senatorial battle between two men
who typify opposite extremeS-Mr
TTuaX, the extreme left-wing Dem
ocrat, and Mr.. FeSS, the ultra-con-
sentative right-wing Republican.
But before such a battle can &C.
cur Congressman TruaX will have to
beat two formidable opponents in
the primary. Or perhaps only one.
The Democratic field now in
cludes Governor George White,
serving his second term; former
Governor Vic Donahey, who served
three terms, and the redouDtab BILE
Congressman T'ruax. Mr.. White has
the organization backing; Mr..
Donahey, although he has been
out of politics for some years, still
has a goodly following among the
liberal farm element, on which Mr..
TruaX also depends for support.
TireIess Campaigner
Mr.. Truax served as director of
agriculture throughout Mr.. Dona-
hey's administration.
TruaX is as robust as the Duroc
Jersey hogs he used to raise and
which he still likes to describe to
his often sparse audiences in the
house. He is tireless canpaigner.
He never misses an opportunity to
harangue an audience at a county
fair or village church social. He
knows farmers in every township
OF his state. In his campaign for
congressman-at-large in 1892 he
rolled up a vote of 100000.
Just watt" he confdes, I'll take
the hide off of FesS." And as an
afterthought: "Off of Governor
White, too"
The political-minded gentry had
gained some idea of his platform
from his speeches on the floor. He
favors imitation via the Frazier
Lemke farm mortgage route, con-
fiscatory inheritance taxes, drastic
limitation of incomes and a national
moratorium for farm debts. None of
his many bills has passed, but his
latest, proposing the abolition of the
10 per cent amusement tax on
circuses, got him congratulatory
letter from Ringing Brothers.
Once Beaten by Tess
MIR. Truax is willing to forget the
trouncing Mr.. FesS gave him in the
senate race of 1923. Mr.. Fess won
by more than a half-million.
That was the year of the Hoover
LANDSLIDE he reminds you. Things
are different now"
Between the congressman and the
senator there is no love. Mr.. Truax
recently refused to attend a dinner
for the Ohio delegation because
Mr.. Fess had been invited. He didn't
propose, he said, to "break bread
with those responsible for the state
of our people"
Mr.. FesS has taken cheer from
the victory of Senator David Reed
in Pennsylvania. Like Mr.. Reed, he
has been one of the senate'S most
outspoken critics of the new deal.
Mr.. Fess is 70. Mr.. Truax is
giant beside him. But the little
former college president still is
alert and a surprisingly agile cam
paigner.