Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-09-26
THE POLITICAL
MILL.
By C. Could Lincoln.


a national ticket will be chosen and a
national platform written, the Repub-
lican national organization is launching
its campaign to defeat the Roosevelt
New Deal The meeting of the Executive
Committee of the G. o. p. National Com
mittee here yesterday adopted definite
plans for the opening of q Midwestern
headquarters in Chicago, arranged for
the appointment of Finance Com
mittee to raise the funds for the pre-
convention campaign, and heard glow
ing reports of tide turning against the
Roosevelt administration.
~ x*
The object of the Republican organi-
zation, as explained succinctly by Chair
man Henry P. FletRher, will be to keep
the tide turning land churning -
against President Roosevelt. The cam
paign will be to convince the people that
the New Deal is unSound, expensive and
destructive OF American ideals and the
Constitution. 1t will not be conducted
in the interests of any particular Re
publican candidate. The chairman and
the other members of the National Com
mittee insist that selecting candidates
for President and Vice President and
writing platforms is far from the province
of the committee. The campaign will
be conducted to beat down the Roose-
welt New Deal and to show the voters
it is to their interest to throw the New
Dealers out.
When the Republican Executive Com
mittee gathered at the Mayfiower Hotel
yesterday for their meeting the con-
ServativeS seemed to be in the saddle.
But even so, the disposition was not to
attack the A. A. A. and its checks to the
farmers of the Midwest and the West.
The electoral votes of the Western States
are regarded as a sine qua non for Re-
publican victory next year, even by the
conservative Republicans of the East.
These conservative Republicans, how
ever, are going to give up just as
little as possible to win the West.
They are greatly disinclined, for example.
to consider the possibility of nominating
for President Senator Borah Of Idaho.
Nor do they look with any great degree
of satisfaction on the prospect of nomi-
mating any other progressive Republican
from the West. Some of these conserva-
tive Republicans attending yesterdays
meeting go so far as to insist that II
Borah is the Republican nominee. then
the States of the East might go for
Roosevelt next year. They harp upon
the record OF Senator Borah as a friend
of currency imitation.
The Eastern Republicans are chary
of talk about Senator Vandenberg OF
Michigan and Gov Landon of Kansas,
disinclined to give either of them sup
port for the nomination at this time
They are wondering about Col. Frank
Knox, publisher of the Chicago Daily
News. The colonel shocked some Of
them when he came out the other day
for an export bounty on wheat and
other farm produce as a substitute for
the Roosevelt A. A. A. program. How,
they demand, can the Republicans OF the
East ever stand for such plan?
And yet, the Republicans. even these
Eastern conservatives, feel that they
must give something to the farmers OF
the West as substitute for the A. A. A.
The reports from the Midwest are to
the effect that wheat farmers. the corn
and hog farmers, etc. are still mighty
fond of the Government checks that roll
in for compliance with the crop reStric-
tive program of the administration.
These farmers may not be willing to
change their political allegiance unless
they are convinced they are to receive
aid from the @. o. P. if it is put in
power.
There is always the possibility that
a decision Of the Supreme Court hold
ing the A. A. A. unconstitutional may
come along and upset the whole Roose-
welt farm program. Probably nothing
could give the Republicans greater
pleasure. But even that would not
obviate the necessity OF farm plank
in the Republican platform which would
promise the farmers real help. And II a
decision of the Supreme Court upsetting
the A. A. A. will be pleasure to the
Republicans it will be a sad blow to
the Democrats. No more checks TO the
farmers next year when the campaign
is or would change the picture con-
siderably The Democratic Congress
doubtless would be called upon to enact
something new for the farmers without
delay.
So far as Senator Borah Is con-
cerned, many of the conservative Repub-
. lican leaders continue to insist that
the Idaho Senator will never permit his
name to 60 into presidential preferen-
tial primaries and that he will run again
for the Senate and not for President,
when the time comes. This, however, is
the first time that the Idaho Senator
has ever been seriously put forward in
the press and by many Republicans as
a presidential candidate. He may yet
toss his hat in the ring. and he GER
tainly will do So if he listens to the
advice of many progressive Republicans
and some Democrats.
X X
Although 1t is not generally known,
Senator Borah had chance to become
President in 1912. Had he done so, the
whole course of history might well have
been changed in this country. For
for the Senate and not for President
again during the World War period. 1t
happened this way During the uproar
in the Republican National Convention
in Chicago in 1912, with the forces of
Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard
Taft at each others Threats, the floor
manager for Taft went to the floor
manager for Roosevelt with a proposal
that a compromise be reached-that the
convention nominate one of three men
for President Borah of Idaho, Hadley of
Missouri or McGovern of Wisconsin.
Taft. the floor manager. who was
former Senator James E. Watson de-
clared would step aside, provided Roose-
welt was willing to do the same. 1t was
the thought of the Taft people that
the G. O. P would simply be pulled
anort hv q continued row hetwoop Taft