Evening star., 1935-07-21

Mr.. Roosevelt can come to agreement
eupon some kind of moderate radical
program and Senator La Toilette will
keep the agreement and be satisfied
with reasonable fulfil.ment Of it, But
with Senator Long, Mr.. Roosevelt can
make no agreement. Nothing the
President can do will satisfy the Lou
iSiana Senator or cause him to pre-
tend to be satisfied However far Mr..
Roosevelt may go, Senator Huey Long
will 60 farther. If at any stage Mr..
Roosevelt should adopt the whole OF
Senator Longs program the Senator
would Immediately set up another
program much further To the left. Mr..
Roosevelt can never outbid Huey
Long. And SO far AS Mr.. Roosevelt
attempts to play the same game as
the Senator, the President is sure to
be outsmarted.
1t seems almost an indictment OF
President Roosevelts political acumen
that he should think he can placate
the Louisiana Senator. Perhaps he
does not hope to placate the Senator
personally, but merely hopes to go SO
far to the left, to absorb so many OF
the radicals for himself. as to leave
not enough for Senator Long to form
q third party.
Nevertheless the course Mr.. Roose-
velt is following works badly for him.
to say nothing of the country. 1t Is
Mr.. ROOSeVelt'S reaching out for the
radicals, trying to prevent the arising
of formidable third party, that has
alienated SO many conservative Demo-
Gratis and Is causing these now 10
proceed toward organizing a conServa-
tive third party. 1t Is Mr. RooseVelt's
driving Congress to enact measures
more radical than they like that causes
much Of his party IN Congress to feel
Sullen toward him. The Presidents
course works to his disadvantage in yet
another way. 1t poStponeS industrial
recovery. The gestures the President
makes toward the radicals frighten
business. From the beginning, and
even yet, Mr.. RooSevelt'S best course.
for himself, looking to next year, and
for the country permanently, was to
concentrate on promoting recovery. II
the President had led the country into
an upward march from the depression,
nothing could prevent reelection OF
him next year. But perhaps-indeed
probably - Mr.. RooSevelt'S leftward
course is not merely an act of political
judgment; quite likely it arises out OF
qualities deep in his own tempera-
ment.
In the Republican party are four
men who by common consent would
be ranked above all others as presiden-
tisl material. One is the only living
ex-President, Mr.. Hoover, two are
justices of the Supreme Court, Justice
Harlan F. Stone and Justice Owen J..
Roberts. The forth is Ogden Mills,
former Secretary of the Treasury.
To these four should be added per-
haps one more. II Senator Borah is
really a presidential possibility, if in
his own mind he is willing to regard
himself as such, he, of course, by rea-
son Of his experience and standing
would rank in the highest group. But
it is doubtful if Senator Borah wants it.
Every four years, during the more than
quarter of a century that Mr.. Borah
has been in public life, newspaper
stories, beginning about a year in ad-
vance of the presidential nominating
convention, have talked about a
"Borah movement" But throughout
all those years 1 doubt if Senator
Borah ever said to one human being
that he would like to have the NOM
ination.
Courts Sure to Be Issue.
AS to the two justices of the Su-
preme Court, many thoughtful per-
sons have come strongly to think it
would sbe inexpedient to nominate
either. The reason Is plain. The
issue next year will be in part the
court itself.
AS 1t seems now, Mr.. Roosevelt is
driving through Congress at least four
measures as to which practically
every adequate authority has strong
doubts of their constitutionslity These
measures, after enactment, will go
before the Supreme Court II the
common judgment is correct the court
will be obliged to find them uncon-
Stitutional. Apparently it is Mr..
Roosevelt's strategy to assume that
these decisions, adverse to measures
which will be popular with various
groups, will give him the backing for
a movement. either to change the
Constitution or to limit the powers
of the Supreme Court, or to do BOTH
In any event, there is Soundness in
the theory that when the court itself
is an issue the candidate opposed to
Mr.. Roosevelt should not be taken
from the court.
AS for Mr.. Hoover no movement to
renominate him is apparent anywhere.
Without doubt Mr.. Hoover has a
larger personal following than any
other Republican-hardly even his
bitterest critics would deny that. But
as yet there is no sign Of this fol-
lowing crystallizing, or being led, into
activity directed toward giving the
nomina ton to Mr.. Hoover next year.
AS Mr.. Hoover has large and devoted
AOAOWAA6s oO AAcc
and critics. About the opposition to
Mr.. Hoover there is a significant fact.
The opposition to him comes from
the two extremes, from the so-called
Progressive Republicans in the West
and from the extreme conservative
interests in New York and the East.
This curious distribution of the
opposition to Mr.. Hoover is a sign
of where he really belongs in the
political spectrum.
AS to the other one in the major
Republican group, former Secretary
of the Treasury Mr.. Mills, here, too,
there is no apparent activity looking
toward nominating him next year.
The so to speak second group of
Republican possibilities is so large
that one might mention 20 names
and yet find, year from now, that
the man then having the Republican
nomination was not in the list made
up today. For a few of the Repub-
lican possibilities in this group, some
slight organized activity is beginning.
There is a certain amount of or