Evening star., 1936-04-03
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Among the joints in Landon's armor
which the Democrats plan to assail as
particularly vulnerable, should the Kan
san be President RooSevelt'S opponent,
is the Governors prohibition record.
Hints have been forthcoming that his
bone-dry past, even though the liquor
issue is hardly live proposition, would
be revived to smash any chances Landon
might have of making headway in the
wet East. The Governor, apparently
taking canny note Of these Democratic
schemes, has moved to nip them in the
bud He refused to serve on the Kansas
Anti-Saloon Leagues Board of Trustees.
The superintendent of the league, an
nouncing it had long been the custom to
elect the Governor of the State as a
trustee at large, said Landon had asked
that his name not be used and declared
that if it had been used in the past it
was without his consent. Whether this
will persuade the Democrats to lay oil
Landon'S arid history, in case he's the
man they have to beat, remains to be
seen. The Governor, at any rate, ap-
pears anxious to show he's not identified
with present water-wagon activities.
y x
Although Roosevelt leaders contend,
any many G. o. P. authorities concede,
that the Presidents reelection prospects
are improved, some Democrats are prl-
vately concerned on one score. They
wonder just how many of the several
million Republicans who voted for
F. D. R. in 80 are going to repeat. The
Roosevelt landslide was to an enormous
degree due to the insurgency OF regular
Republicans. If substantial numbers re-
turn to their old allegiance the effect
on the New Deal vote in November will
be appreciable, and in certain sections
possibly devastating. On this score Sem
ator Borah says everything depends on
the alternative to Roosevelt which the
G. o. P. presents. If it's nominee with
unmistakably old guard affiliations, the
Idahoan declares all hope of retrieving
those who left the reservation four years
ago might as well be abandoned.
At least one Republican prominently
mentioned in connection with his party's
presidential nomination is now rejecting,
according to some of his friends, Ger
tain reluctance to tempt fate this year
and a preference to bide his time until
1910. He is young enough to wait. The
coyness of the politician in question is
supposed to be based on a feeling that
1886 is not sure-fire Republican bet
and that it might be the part OF wisdom
to put his ambitions in cold storage until
conditions are more promising for the
elephant than some of its cohorts believe
them to be this year.
u y y
Steadily growing sentiment for the
Kansas Governor indicates that the Re
publican convention, from the start, will
be stop Landon" affair the field
against the Topekan from the word go.
In that respect the Republicans will be
more or less patterning after Democratic
precedents. In 1924, at Madison Square
Garden, it was a case of stopping
Smith" In 1892, at Chicago, though the
wrecking crew never got very far, it was
a matter of stopping Roosevelt Lam
don's friends exude increasing faith that
there's going to be no stopping" him
at Cleveland.
State Department plans to broadcast
worldwide radio news service OF its own
arouse lively interest in Washington in
quarters. Nobody thinks
Uncle Sam aims to drench the globe with
propaganda" on certain European mod
els. The service q, Of course, not de.