Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-07-14
DEMOCRATS HELDLOSINC
OLD FAITH In ROOSEVELT
Believers in State Rights May Choose
Irregular" in 1886 to Avoid Clashes,
Says Political Commentators.

determine to prevent denomination Of
the Democratic President, who has
set himself against the most important
Of Democratic traditions and prin-
ciples. If the South should, with any
degree of unanimity, determine that
the Democrats must not renominate
Mr.. Roosevelt, he would not be renom-
mated.
Six months ago, or three months, TO
have suggested that the Democrats
might not renominate Mr.. Roosevelt
would have been fantastic. 1t is no
longer so. If Mr.. Roosevelt were not
already in the White House, if he did
not already have the nominal status
of Democratic President, there would
not be the fainteSt possibility Of his
being nominated next year.
Any discussion of Mr.. Roosevelt's
denomination or his reelection must
take into account one possibility.
One mentions it, however, only to
dismiss it. The hope of the Demo-
cratic leaders is that they can, so
to speak. re-make President Roose-
welt. They hope they can drive
out the coterie of radicals and queer
intellectuals around him, that they
can substitute themselves as the
Presidents advisers, that they can
create, so to speak, party regency,
and that they can cause the Presi-
dent from now on to conform .
Democratic and American traditions.
n he tir loa
base all their expectations of being
able to get through next year without
a chaotic split in the party.
Radicals Move Ever Leftward.
The hope is thin. Mr.. Roosevelt
has gone so far in the radical d.
rection that he can hardly turn back.
Even if he should attempt to turn
back, if he should try now to make
his course, from the present on, salts
factory to conservatives, they would
hardly trust him. The probabilities
point strongly the other way. Mr..
Roosevelt has started on a course Of
holding the radicals to him. But in
order to hold the radicals he must
be himself constantly more and more
radical. Always the extreme radicals,
such as Senator Huey Long, will out
bid him, and always Mr.. Roosevelt
viii be tempted to increase and en-
phasize his appeal to the radical
voters.
In the condition in which the
Democrats find themselves, denial of
denomination to Mr.. Roosevelt, and
nomination of some orthodox Demo-
crat in place of him is by far their
best way out. denomination Of Mr..
Roosevelt means party split. And a
party split would mean not only de-
feat for the presidency, but embar-
rassment to practically every Demo-
crat running for election to any Office
next year.
Consider the case of Senator Carter
Glass of Virginia; he will be up for
reelection next year. Probably Vir-
GINA would re-elect Mr.. Glass in any
circumstances. But he, and prac-
tically every other Democrat running
for any Office anywhere, would be
happier if the party nominee for the
presidency were some one other than
Mr.. Roosevelt.
Glass Course Questioned.
Senator Glass is, in the whole pub
lie life of America, the outstanding
critic of the New Deal. If he is run
ming for reelection on ticket which
bears at its head the name of Frank
lin D. Roosevelt as candidate for
President, what will Mr.. Glass do?
He will not stultify himself-any
course that would involve self-stulti-
fication by Carter Glass can be dis
missed at once. But what would be
open to him? He could not indorse
Mr.. Roosevelt as the head of the
ticket. Would he, in his campaign
speeches, merely ignore Mr.. Roosevelt?
That would be hardly what one would
expect from any one so fortnight and
candid as the Virginia Senator.
Would Mr.. Glass, running in a cam
paign for reelection, denounce the
New Deal as heartily as he has al
ready denounced it?
That course would tend to make
Republican votes not only in Virginia
but throughout the country; that
course would not stop with merely
taking votes away from Mr.. Roose-
welt; it would take votes from every
Democrat running for any offce-and
Mr.. Glass would not like that.
As Senator Glass is situated in Viz
ginia, so are Democrats everywhere
situated. BY far their best course
would be to act in common judgment
and by their united strengths nomi-
nate some orthodox Democrat for the
presidency. If they do not do that, a
party split is inevitable. The split,
indeed, is already here. The only
question is what form it would take
in the election next year, assuming
Mr.. Roosevelt is able to force ths
party machinery to renominate him
(Copyright 1881