The Daily Alaska empire., 1935-10-10
A MEASURE OF COMIC RELIEF.

Somewhat earlier than during the last Pres dential campaign, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee is being afforded relief from arduous endeavors. And the situation gives promise of providing for the public a measure of comic relief
 It is from the irrepressible MT Robert H Lucas, who having attained to the rank of closest political adviser to former President Hoover while serving as Commissioner of Internal Revenue, promoted to the post of Executive Director of the Republican National Committee As such he relieved the tedium of a one-sded political contest and he relieved Senator Simeon D. Fess the venerable National Chairman, of practically everything except re- sponsibity and routine.
 And MT Lucas is again in action. He was around at the grass gatherings those held and some that were called off. He sat in at divers when the regional conference plan of ing interest among the rank and file of the party discussed and approved And it was evident that these affairs hopeless unless manhandled at Springfield Illinois They promoted the spirit of democracy and also open resentment at the mere presence of Charles D Hilles James E. Watson and such other overords of the Old Guard. Worse still the chief accomplishment of these open meet ings was to accentuate to the country at large the very apparent success of President Roosevets agri- cultural adjustment program and above all it's in- creasng popularity right in the midst of the grass roots.
 So another method of sounding out sentiment and arousing ambitions was suggested the result of several serious sessions at Palo Alto. Col Frank Knox, the Chicago publisher: James M Beck and other eminent corporation constitutionalists; Gov ernor Nice Of Maryland, quorum of the former Hoover Cabinet; ct cetera, there. Sentiment was sounded as to the Mountain States regional conference in Yellowstone Park and at the Far Western Republican session in Oakland Several of the guests had been flying around the Northwest and could report anything conducive to Old Guard comfort.
 Thereupon after listening to Chairman Fletchers mildly boisterous radio speech which the press had been informed was his opening blast" of next years campaign, MT. Lucas longer restrained himself. He too got in touch with the press and announced that while there would be continuance of the grass roots formula, it would be by mail. Thus he handed to the Washington correspondents copies of letter he sent to 3O0o Republican county charmen 450 city leaders and 800 young Republ- cans" which led off with the assertion that "The campaign to save the country from the Reds should be going at full blast right now" He referred, he said, to the Roosevelt administration adding
 There has been an utter lack of courage
 ous opposition by patriotic Americans to
 the activities of the Socialists and the Con-
 munists in governmental affairs. I
 therefore want your dSSlSCdIce ana dQVlce
 To extraordinary interest in his renewal of MT. Hoovers recent Gall to Arms" MT Lucas gave assurance that he acting" as liberal seeking to wrest control of the party from Wall Street and return it to the rank and file"
 Then this startling statement:
 Today Charles D. Hilles Republican boss
 of New York, top man J. P. Morgan and
 Company's selected list and director of Nor
 pOrDOr ic fha aipati ipfl,,
 ence on the Republican National Committee
 It is most desirable that the Republicans
 nominate candidate and write platform
 that will avoid the appearance of dom
 ination by big business, Wall Street and the
 utilities
 It will be observed that the writer was acting as" liberal and that he regarded it as most desirable that both candidate and platform should avoid the appearance of domination by the special interests.
 Having ndulged in this bit of banter about MT Hilles, MT. Lucas injected the contest complex considered indispensable in tooth paste and shaving cream advertising campaigns. He invited attention to the ballots" he enclosed each providing first and second choices for the G. o. P. Presidential nom- ination from list also enclosed
 The list contains the name of MT Hoover but alphabetically. It leads off with the name of James M. Beck Then follows Senator Borah Charles Curtis, Senator L. J. Dickinson the 1892 keynoter; Congressman Hamilton Fish Senator Dan iel O. Hastings and Mir Hoover Ogden L. Mills Patrick J. Hurley, James E. Watson Arthur M Hyde. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. ct cetera
 MT. Lucas letter concludes in this manner:
 members of the party get behind their
 real leader (sic) there will be a re-blrth of
 Repubcanism within 40 days It will go for
 ward electrified, militant patriotic under the
 banner of Americanism and with the battle
 cry Save the Constitution sweeping all
 before it.
 The intrepid MT. Fletcher; the irrepressible MT Lucas; the inevitable Mir Hoover