Evening star., 1936-05-31
DEBATES ON NOMINEES
IGNORE SECOND PLACE
Little Thought Given Vice Presidential
Notwithstanding Held
Appropriate Choice.

resourceful. a good rough-and-tumble
debater. True. geographically, both
come from the same section, the Mid
die West. According to old rules,
candidates for President and Vice
President should come from different
sections, one from the West, the other
from the East. But the present con-
dition is new. Republicans are gen.
orally agreed that the Midwest Is the
section they most need to carry. To
select both ends of the ticket from
that section would fit the needed
strategy.
So far as there has been any con-
sideration at all of the Republican
nomination for Vice President. most
of 1t has dwelt on the suggestion that
this year the Republicans should give
second place en- the ticket to a Demo-
crat, to some one who Is at once
good Democrat and also a strong op-
ponent of the New Deal. The name
most often mentioned is that of Mr..
Lewis Douglas, who was President
Roosevelt's director of the budget.
but who resigned because he seriously
mistrusted Mr.. Roosevelt's policies.
Suggestion Has Merit.
This particular suggestion has great
merit, and so has the broader sug-
gestion that if not Mr.. Douglas, then
some other Democrat of the same
! type About this there has been much
talk, but so far as I know, no action.
no steps taken. AS reporter of pres
ent facts, I should say the thing is
not likely to be done. A suggestion
may have all the merit in the world,
but it does not become actuality unless
some one goes actively about the busi-
ness of making it actuality. The situ-
alton is covered by the adage-the
man who gave it currency was Will
Hays: Things don't happen-they
are brought about"
So far, not only have the Repub-
licans taken no concrete steps toward
giving their vice presidential NOM
ination to an anti-New Deal Demo.
crat. No step of any kind has been
taken by the Republicans in the form
of an invitation to those Democrats
who are against the New Deal and
against Mr.. Roosevelt as the source
and symbol of it. What is to happen
about those Democrats must appar-
entity arise from themselves. That
something will happen is certain. For
in the whole gamut of American po-
litical thought today there is no group
Of voters more earnest than those
Democrats who are opposed to the
New Deal. 1t may be that the Re-
publicans will yet take some step de-
signed to be an invitation to the dis
senting Democrats. But the present
fact, which any reporter must set
down, is that so far the Republicans
have taken no such step.
1t is an old story that in both par
ties the nomination for Vice President
is made in a hurry and without
. thought. Yet the Vice President is an
, official who, through one skipped
heart beat in the President, may head
the Nation. The process of choosing
the candidate Is familiar to every
convention goer. For the first three
or four days of the convention the in
terest of the delegates is focused on
|
comes to a climax in the balloting
The balloting for the presidential
nomination comes to an end on the
concluding day-usually within the
concluding hour of the convention
There follows an interval of chaotic
emotion, of exaltation in those who
supported the winner, let-down ir
those who had been supporting losers
With the ebb Of both emotions, the
thought in the minds Of the delegate,
Is the time of leaving on the mex
train home. In a convention thus re-
laxed and inattentive comes the bust
ness of nominating the vice presi'
, Dental candidate. Often 1t is dificul
: to hold the delegates together for thi
: concluding business. Without examin
; ing the records I suspect 1t would b
found that never has the number o
votes cast for vice presidential can
didates been as large as the numbe
cast for the head of the ticket-som
Of the delegates have gone home.
Gift From Gods" Cited.
r That we have got, as rule. fairl
. good candidates for Vice President
8 a gift from the gods. That severa
, Presidents have died In ofice; tha
> the Vice Presidents who succeede'
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