Evening star., 1936-09-28
THE POLITICAL
MILL
BY G.. COULD LINCOLN.

munists, are backing Roosevelt in the
presidential campaign in the hope that
q defeat for Landon and victory for
the New Deal President will forward
their own plans in the future. If the
matter becomes live issue in this sec
ton of the country, it may have very
marked influence on the vote in Novem-
ber. The farm vote in the great agri-
cultural States of the Middle West is a
potent factor. The farmers have never
been radicals in the past, they live too
close to the ground.
The New Dealers Immediately made a
strong bid for farm support. In the
A. A. A. with its Government checks
for the curtailment of crops, they swung
a potent weapon. There is no slightest
doubt that the farm benefits have been
highly instrumental in keeping many
of the farmers in line for the New Deal.
Along with the Government checks,
however, went control of the farms from
far of Washington. And now the farmers
of the Middle West are trying to figure
out what it all means. The Republicans
are telling them one thing-that it means
regimentati0n of the farmers under Gov
ernmeZt control; that it means q lessen
ing of the markets for American farm
produce both at home and abroad. The
New Dealers on the other hand are de-
claring that the administrations farm
program has been the salvation of the
farmers; that the farm planning as di-
rected from Washington must continue.
Whatever the administrations farm
program will bring eventually if it is con-
tinued, 1t certainly means a strongly
centralized Government in Washington.
And gradually liberals in this part of
the country as well as in others are
moving away from that idea. Take the
case of the st. Louis Post-Dispatch. That
newspaper, which was founded by Joseph
Pulitzer, has been independent and lib
eral. In the last five presidential elec-
tions the Post-Dispatch supported the
Democratic candidates for President
from Woodrow Wilson to Franklin D.
Roosevelt. 1t has just announced that
it cannot support President Roosevelt
for reelection. 1t does not charge the
President with being red" 1t does
attack him, however, because he threat
ems to set up in Washington "a Govern
ment with vast and centralized authority
over the economic life of the Nation"
The PoSt-Dispatch asserts that it stands
for IAN economy of free enterprise" 1t
attacks Federal bureaucracy with un-
restrained power to impose its fats upon
the daily affairs of the citizens" Such
power, the newspaper holds, will in the
end destroy political freedom. In an
nouncing its opposition to the reelection
of President Roosevelt, the Post-Dispatch
sounds very like the Baltimore Sun,
which recently made a similar declara-
tion in opposition to the reelection of
Roosevelt.
The Chicago Tribune, which has been
anti-RooSevelt from the inception of the
New Deal, might be expected to 60 for
ward with the charge that Roosevelt is
the pet of the Communists and that he
is playing into their hands. 1t is doing so.
Yesterday it published a front page
editorial in which it called Roosevelt the
Kerensky Of America, reviving a charge
made couple of years ago by DR.. Writ,
Of Gary, Ind. "As SUCH" the Tribune says,
"the Communists today welcome him
Roosevelt) and throw their influence to
him." and it makes reference also to the
charges that Roosevelt is seeking to
build UP a more and more powerful
and centralized government. At the same
time, the Tribune publishes long article
quoting from the writings and speeches
Of Tugwell, Wallace, Frank, Ezekiel and
others in the administration to prove its
point that the Roosevelt administration
is moving toward a collectivist state.
The appointment of Assistant Secre-
tary Of War Harry Woodring to be Secre-
tary of War by President Roosevelt brings
up an interesting family tangle in poll
tics. The new Secretary of War is a
son-in-law Of Senator Marcus A. Cool
idge of Massachusetts,. Senator Coolidge
is the Democratic Senator whom Gov.
James M Curley, ardent Roosevelt sup
porter in the Bay State, has pushed aside
so that he, Curley, may aspire to the
Senate seat now held by Coolidge. Sen
ator Coolidge has another Son-in-law,
Robert Greenwood, mayor of Fitchburg,
Mass. Greenwood took up the cudgels
for Senator Coolidge in the Massachu-
sets Democratic senatorial primary and
offered himself as an opponent to Curley.
Curley won by big vote, but Greenwood
rolled up more than 100000 anti-Curley
Democratic votes. Greenwood has also
sought to 60 on the ballot in the Novem-
ber election as an independent candidate
for the Senate. If he goes into the race
and draws a hundred thousand Demo-
cratic votes, it is quite clear what is
likely to happen to Gov. Curley. And
what happens to Crrley may have its
effect on the Roosevelt chances in Mas
sachusetts. A story was published in
Boston to the effect that Curley had
sought the aid of Woodring, to call
Greenwood off, with a promise that he
would try to help have Woodring ap-
pointed Secretary of War. 1t was re-
ported, on good authority, however that
Curley had not called on Woodring, and
that Woodring was keeping entirely out
of Massachusetts, politics.
A good many eyes are turned in this
final month of the campaign to Boise,
Idaho, and Senator William E. Borah.
The Republicans have hoped ardently
that Borah will take the stump for Lam
don. They see in such course victory
in Idaho and some of the other Mountain
States which look now as though they
probably will 60 for Roosevelt. So far,
however, Borah has kept his own coun-
sci. The Democrats are hoping he will
continue to remain aloof from the ma
tional campaign. His reelection to the
Senate. which Borah Is now seeking in