Evening star., 1935-10-13
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

~ RESIDENT ROOSEVELT has
- given some clear cues pointing
toward his policies leading up
i to the election next year. His
speech to the farmers in Nebraska, in
which he stood sQuarely behind A. A.
A., means that he will rely for his elec-
ton mainly on the farming West,
plus, of course, the South. And the
present evidence Is that he will have
those two sections.
I see no present sign that any part
Of the South will desert Mr.. Roose-
welt. Individuals from the South,
some Of them well informed, assert
there Is strong hostility to Mr.. Roose-
welt among the more thoughtful lead
ers in that section, who foresee what
the New Deal means for the South
and for the country. One well in
formed person says that Texas, pc
culiarly hard hit by the restriction Of
cotton growing, will make a demon
stration against denomination Of Mr..
Roosevelt (which, Of course, will
amount to nothing) and thereafter will
vote in the election for the Republican
candidate, providing the latter is at all
satisfactory. I record this prophesy
with extreme doubt. About the South
as a whole I see no anti Roosevelt
movement by conservative Democrats
formidable enough to disturb the
President. And since the death Of
Huey Long there is little likelihood Of
any formidable radical anti-Roosevelt
movement in the South.
The South, as it appears now, will
b. for the Democratic candidate. as
usual. This is illogical. Practically
every reason the South has had since
the Civil War for cleaving to the
Democratic party has disappeared.
Some of the more important ones have
disappeared since Mr.. Roosevelt came
into ONCE, and through his actions
or the actions of his heutenants.
State rights would have been largely
restricted by N. r. A. had it remained,
and State rights would be directly
nullified by the constitutional amend
ment which is suggested as a means
Of making another N. r. A. possible.
The whole tendency Of the New Deal
is toward Capitalization of power at
Washington. Furthermore, the ira
ditional Democratic attitude about
Negro voting and Negro equality has
been reversed since control Of the
party passed into the hands Of Demo-
cratic leaders rejecting the great
Northern cities. 1t is now a Demo-
cratic colored man who sits in Con-
gress. not a Republican one And in
several Northern States, Democratic
leaders have taken steps to get into
the Democratic party the large COL
ored populations that have come to
the North since the Great War and
during it.
South Seen in Line.
Nevertheless. the sum of all the
signs Is that the South next year will
continue to vote according to its
familiar tradition.
II to the South Mr.. Roosevelt can
add all these Western and Midwest
ern States in which farming is a prin-
cipal occupation, he would have in all
close to enough States to elect him,
even assuming he carries no industrial
State. That the West favors Mr..
Roosevelt Is the gist of dependable
information from every observer. In
that section, as elsewhere, Mr.. Roose-
welt has "slipped''-but his slipping is
only by comparison with where he
stood year ago and two years ago.
Compared to hypothetical Republi-
can candidate Mr.. Roosevelt has not,
as Of today, slipped enough to en-
danger his carrying substantially all
the farm States he carried in 1882.
All the information which says the
West Is still for Mr.. Roosevelt, predi-
Gates the information on one basis
the farmers are better of. That fact
is SO clear that no one can question it.
For the improvement, the farmers
credit Mr.. Roosevelt and the New Deal.
Any one can argue that the low point
Of the depression had passed by the
time Mr.. Roosevelt took Office, that
recovery was due anyhow, that the
recovery might have been sounder and
gone farther had some one else become
President in 1888. ANY one can argue
that; and I suspect historians years
hence will say the election of Mr.
Roosevelt. and the steps he took,
amounted partly to q holding back of
recovery, partly to q diverting of re-
covery into o new, narrow and dis
torted form.
But 1t Is Mr.. Roosevelt's good for
tune, and perhaps his planned politics,
that recoverysin the West is tied up,
In the eyes Of the farmer, directly to
Mr.. Roosevelt and his measures. Mr..
Roosevelt set out to raise the price Of
crops-and the price Of crops rose.
The relation between these two con-
ditions may not have been cause and
enect-I think they were not wholly
that. But the method Mr.. Roosevelt
took for improving the condition of
the farmer included the payment of
checks sent direct to the farmer by
the Government at Washington. These
checks make the connection between
Mr.. Roosevelt and farm prosperity too
convincing to be argued against.
Quips and Checks.
There are, in political circles in
Washington, jibes about those checks,
humor that is shared by Democrats
triumphantly. by Republicans carbon
ically. One quip says: A farmer finds
in his mail box on the same morning
two letters from Washington, one Is an
argument for the Constitution by the
Republicans, the other q check from
the Roosevelt administration. Query,
which does the farmer read? And fur
ther query, which way does the farmer
vote?
VIII Mr.. Roosevelt keep the support
Of the farming part Of the West during
the fun year until election day? There
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