Evening star., 1935-08-14
HOOVER'S CHANCE
HELD NEGLIGIBLE
Challenge to Roosevelt Seen
Bid for Next G. O. P.
Nomination.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

expression of his right as citizen to
ask such a question. but almost every
body in national politics considers 1t
a bid for the Republican nomination.
Rightly or wrongly. this Is one OF
the penalties of prominence. and
particularly of public debate, by one
who Is still technically the titular
leader of the Republican party.
Mr.. Hoover may never have in
tended his public statement to be
anything but passing comment on
the political battle or the day. He
may have pondered upon it as a public
duty in a critical period in the history
of the Constitution. But politics is
politics. And the reasons why the
Hoover statement gives the impression
that it is political are the very ones
which would seem to disqualify Mr..
Hoover from being nominated again.
The American people may admire
the conscientious fight Mr. Hoover
made against great odds, a large
number may even believe that he
might have succeeded in preventing
bank holiday had it not been for
the insistence of Democratic House
of Representatives on publicity" for
r. F. G. loans, which incident started
so many bank runs, and millions of
Republicans who voted for Mr.. Hoover
may feel that he is still the most avail
able candidate. But the fact remains
that as possible winner in 1885 he
suffers from a handicap he cannot
overcome. 1t is that the Hoover name
and the depths of depression and
misery are inseparably interviewer.
Hoover's Weaknesses.
Mr.. Hoover's weaknesses are in a
sense Republican weaknesses, but most
of the Republican leaders will not ad-
NIT it. When the Hawley-Smoot
tariff came to the front Mr.. Hoover
did not fight it as he should. It was
too Republican a measure. But the
consequences Of that law, which
brought widespread reprisals abroad
and thus forced American companies
to open large plants in foreign coun-
tries and abandon the jobs of Amer
lean workingmen at home, are still
being felt today.
AS one who did not have the oppor-
tunity to vote for either Mr.. Roosevelt
or Mr.. Hoover, the writer perhaps
can be forgiven the observation that
If we could combine into a single
personality the economic background
possessed by Mr.. Hoover with the un-
derstanding of popular psychology
possessed by Mr. Roosevelt. we would
have an ideal President of the United
States.
There are qualities in both men
that appeal to large groups to voters,
and it is undeniable, for instance, that
nobody as yet has arisen in the Re-
publican ranks who can poll 1000, 900
votes, as Mr.. Hoover did in 1882.
Mr.. Roosevelt, Of course, and many
OF his colleagues would like to have
Mr.. Hoover as the opposing candidate
The feeling is that the former Presi.
oent would be easy to beat. Supersti.
ton plays part in politics and the
fact that the Nation experienced a
good deal of hard luck in the Hoover
administration would cause millions
OF voters to fear to try the same man
again. But, apart from this, is the
fact that Mr.. Hoover comes from a
party which. as between Eastern and
Western factionalism, Is really split
wide open; that he has never taken a
definite position, and nobody else has,
tnat would express the views of a
united party. All this Is a handicau
which Mr.. Roosevelt is astute enough
to use to the utmost political ad-
vantage.
1882 P0st-Mortem Feared.
Indeed, it would not be surprising
If Mr.. Hoover has unintentionaIly
furnished Mr.. Roosevelt with an irnag-
mary antagonist who is not the antith-
esis of the New Deal at all. Unfor-
rnnately, many persons mistakenly
insist that anybody who opposes the
New Deal wants to go back to Hoover
or to the alleged Republicanism of
1882. And regretably, too, the mis-
takes and blunders of the New Deal
are likely, if there is a Hoover-Roose-
welt debate, to be overshadowed by a
post-mortem Of 1892 days, which isn't
particularly important or valuable at
this time.
What the American people want is
recovery and not at the expense of
precious liberties.
What virtually 80 per cent of the
100000 unemployed want is Jobs
and not doles.
What the American business man
wants is a square deal instead of a
raw deal.
What the rank and file of voters who
feel themselves independent in mind
want is a riddance of hypocrisy, po-
litical chicanery, waste and extrava-
gance in the handling of public money
and the return Of some fashioned
patriotism which puts country above
self every inch of the way.
The program that seems to assure
this will not be accepted from a party
that has not cleaned house Of It's
stupid, reactionary influences or from
party or leader whose broken prom
ises make questionable any future
pledges that might be made.
But II the choice Is to be between
Herbert Hoover and President Roose-
velt, the American people at this
writing would appear to be ready to
re-elect the man in the White House
today. This may be Disappointing to
the millions Of voters who think Mr..
Hoover's blundering was in the right
direction, whereas Mr.. Roosevelts is
not; it may be unpalatable to the
Hoover followers, but it is the truth
Of present-day politics. If Mr.. Roose-
welt is to be beaten, it must be not
by patterning a party after "the"
New Deal, either, but by giving the
country "a" New Deal in public
service. a disinterested, unselfish and
truly patriotic leadership within the
Constitution.
(Copyright. 1882
OLSON BACKED FOR SO