Evening star., 1935-10-31
Fishing.

Hamilton Fish of New York and Sem
ator Borah of Idaho agree that the Re-
publican party must get away from the
domination of the Old Guard. They agree
that the candidate selected by the party
to oppose President Roosevelt next year
must be of the progressive type. They
agree that the Constitution must be
upheld. Here, at last. New York and
Idaho are in accord. When the Idaho
Senator not long ago sent his letter to
Col. Theodore Roosevelt, jr, preaching
fire and birthstone against the Old Guard
in the Republican party and urging the
son of the late President Roosevelt to
get into the battle against these Old
Guardsmen and to make the principal
issue of the coming campaign 'monopo-
lies" the response was lukewarm, to say
the least. 1t looks now as though Mr..
Borah picked the wrong New Yorker.
Representative Hamilton Fish has been
considered candidate in his own right
for the Republican presidential nomina-
ton. In statement issued yesterday,
however, Mr.. Fish holds his candidacy
in allegiance. He has never, he says,
thrown his hat in the ring. Whether
he is finally to become a candidate
depends largely on the type of candidates
that are presented. If he does not
approve of the field or any one of the
AL AFr E1icL, hn
to become candidate himself. He wants
a candidate like the late President Theo-
dore Roosevelt. In that he is probably
joined by lot of other Republicans. He
wants candidate who has had national
training and experience, who has cour-
age, capacity for hard hitting, American
ism land a political record based on
constructive liberalism and square deal
for labor, the farmer, the business man
and private property, within the confines
of the Constitution" Who would not
want such a candidate?
Mr.. Borah in the opinion of Mr.. Fish,
more nearly fits the picture as a man
who is widely known to the country and
who is able to express himself strongly
Perhaps some of the political prognosti-
Gators will come forward now with a new
Republican national ticket, Borah and
Fish, the West and the East. Generally
speaking, it has been agreed among
Republicans that their presidential candi-
date should come from the West, in order
to recapture that section of the country.
What more natural, then, than to have
the vice presidential nomination 60 to
an fastener?
What Mr.. Fish had to say about
favorite son candidates is interesting.
He fears that these favorite sons, with
delegations pledged to them in the ma
tional convention, will make it possible
for a small group of Old Guard Repub-
lican national committeeman, in a hotel
back room, to pick a candidate and put
him over on the party. 1t has been
done before. Also it is gathered that
Mr.. Fish does not look with favor on un-
instructed delegations, on the theory that
such delegations, too, might become
pawns in the hands of few leaders.
The New York Representative believes
that all candidates for the Republican
nomination who have qualifications and
issues to present should enter the presi-
dental preferential primaries, wherever
they are held. These candidates can
there demonstrate their strength with
the voters. can become better known to
the country at large. In this way, he
contends, candidate may be developed
who has real popular support and who
can be elected.
Mr.. Fish may be entirely right in his
diagnosis of the political situation for
the Republicans. There are two factors
which will enter prominently into the
situation next year, however. The first
is, to what extent the country swings
against Roosevelt and the New Deal
The second is, what the conditions of
employment and business may be when
the campaign gets well under way. The
answers to these questions probably more
nearly will spell victory or defeat for
the Republicans than anything else.