Evening star., 1936-06-08
THE POLITICAL
MILL
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

quarters ana InrOuSn anonymous cir
culars passed around the streets, have
grown to large proportions. RESPONSE
bility for the anonymous circulars has
been denied by the Borah and Knox
people They are part, however, of the
attempt to discredit the Kansan and to
make the delegates to the national con-
vention believe he is not fit to be the
presidential candidate of the Repub-
lican party. And some of them sound
strangely like the pronouncements of
spokeSmen for the Idaho Senator and
the Chicago publisher.
Here are samples of couple of these
circulars. The first reads as follows:
Lets get away from this grass
hopper Storm" the circular said.
Let's pass up the Landon claims as
just another duStStorm.
Lets dispel the myth.
"They have claimed EVERYTHING,
including the New Deal.
Lets not just nominate candidate.
Lets nominate one we can ELECT.
"And we can elect the right man-but
Landon-and you know it,"
~ X X
Reference to the "graSshopper storm"
is scarcely calculated to please the dele
gates from the Prairie States 1t smacks
too much of the idea contained in the
famous remark of former Senator
George Moses of New Hampshire-now
Knox SpokeSman-When he referred,
during his Senate career, to the progress
Sive Republicans of the West as the
"sons OF the wild jackaSs." Moses re-
mark at the time stirred up hornets
nest among the Republicans of the
West-and this "grasshopper storm"
talk is having pretty much the same
effect among the Western delegates in
clined to support Landon.
A second circular, also anonymous,
starts off: DO you suppose he Oandon)
can talk. If he can, why don't he?
Why don't he tell us what he is for if
he knowS?" While this is bit I'M
grammatical, 1t is clear that it is hitting
at the failure of Gov. Landon to answer
all the questions propounded to him
by interviewers and his failure to make
wide speaking campaign during the
preconvention campaign. The circular
continues:
William Allen White has said: Lam
don has followed me in and out of the
Republican party -four times We know
IIllS, IlE always 1OllOWS, IGfCT lGdUS. WIlO
is he following now?
He is at this very moment following
William Randolph Hearst any place
Hearst cares to go.
by the way, Hearst nominated one
New Deal, now he wants to tear up the
deck and Landon is his stooge. The
records show that the Governor bolted
the Republican party in 1912, 1924 and
1880. In 1880 he took John Hamilton,
his present campaign manager along,
and together they supported the Demo-
cratic nominee. Harry Woodring, for
Governor of Kansas.
Significantly enough, Woodring de-
feated the regular Republican candidate
by a plurality of 236 votes, the re-
mander of the Republican ticket being
elected by $4,000 votes. So, they don't
make deals, eh?
DO you suppose Hearst has one?"
This is the character of some Of the
attacks made on Landen by his oppoSi-
ton. The official statements eminating
from the opposition headquarters, while
not quite so outspoken, and often dealing
innuendo, are Of the same general tenor.
How far this kind of thing will affect
the delegates to the convention is i'm
possible to estimate. There is a strong
possibility, however, that they will help
rather than hurt Landon's chances.
~
The Republicans have a chance to
establish precedent-one that President
Franklin D. Roosevelt has not had an
opportunity to try out. The League for
a Woman for Vice President and Other
Public Ofhce-which sounds rather
mythical-has announced that it will try
to have the Republicans pick a woman
for the Republican vice presidential
nomination. In this connection, the
women suggest that Mrs. Alice RooSe-
velt Longworth. one of the delegates to
the Republican National Convention
from Ohio, would fill the bill to the
queens taste for the G. o. P. as vice
presidential nominee. If the league fails
to impress the Republicans, it plans to
try out the Democrats in Philadelphia a
couple of weeks hence. 1t is likely to
have hard time convincing Vice Presi-
dent Jack Garner that he should step
aside, for example, for Mrs. j. Borden
Hartman.
One of Ohio's political Browns, Walter
F., now Republican national committee
man for the State and formerly Post
master General in the Hoover admin
istration may have a real battle to have
himself reelected national committee
man. Two of the other Ohio Browns are
Clarence j. Brown, a Knox-for-President
leader, and Mrs. Katharine Kennedy
Brown, the Republican national COM
mitteewoman. Walter Brown has been
power in Ohio politics for long time.
He started his career in 1903 as CAM
paign manager for Myron T. Herrick,
when the latter was running for Gov
ernor. His fate rests in the hands of
the Ohio delegation to the national con-
vention, which caucuseS tomorrow morn
ing half hour before the convention
meets. At that caucus vote will be
taken on Ohio's national committee
women. Mrs. Brown, who is no relation
of Walter F., is expected to be reelected.
She is the official hostess of the conven-
ton, and may become the woman vice
chairman of the Republican National
Committee when it organizes immedi-
ately after the convention adjotrns.
Frank F. Taggart of Massillon, banker
and coal operator, is seeking the Ohio ma
tional ommitteemanship, and Clarence
j. Brown, former secretary of state for
Ohio, and James M. Linton are possible
dark-horse candidates Some of the
opposition to Walter F. Brown as ma
tional committeeman comes from the
colored voters, of whom there are about
120 Ol0 in the State Brown during the