The Washington times., 1936-08-28
HARD BATTLE
TOWN FACES
ROOSEVELT
BY EARL GOODWIN

Frank Murphy out of the Philip
pines and tossing him headlong
into Michigan politics was not
such a good thing for the Roose'
velt ticket after all, is simply one
of the many items of late political
information which have been
handed President Roosevelt, as
honest-to-g oodness ''nofoolin'
guides for the campaign.
The President has recently been
given the lowdown on what his
campaign managers really believe
about the election; and boiled
down it means that they think he
will win, but he will have to hump
himself-do some splendid cam,
paigning.
The time has gone by when any
body listens or believes any more
Chairman Farley'S claims that the
President will carry 48 States
That may have fooled some Of the
infants in the country, but it
never fooled Chairman Farley. He
admits now that he was claiming
everything, so that he would not
offend his Democratic managers
in States where the spirit was
strong but the votes weak. Like
Vermont, which apparently is on
the way to becoming As solidly
Republican as South Carolina is
Democratic.
Fight to Finish
The loWdoWn on the campaign,
in terms of conservative figures
is that the Presidents friends be-
lieve he will receive-Say between
300 and $50 electoral votes out OF
53l. but to do so he will have
to fight every inch Of the way
He himself will have 70 head the
campaign; and he intends to, 1t
seems, with a great circle tour
of the country going as far west
as he can get-to the Pacific
Coast. He will start the cam
paign, presumably, about Septem-
ber IS. Until then, officially poll
tics are "out"-anything he has
to say with a political tinge is
not to be interpreted as any,
thing partisan. So he says.
The Solid South is solid, Of
course, but interesting is the
Roosevelt scouts report to him on
New England. They tell him
that Massachusetts, Rhode Island
and Connecticut may give him
their electoral votes. Privately
Chairman Farley believes Rhode
Island will be easy to carry.
Maine, of course, is going back to
the G. o. P. column and will be
tremendous cheering factor
when it goes Republican in a
few days.
Ohio Real Test
Millions of people still believe
that as Maine goes so goes the
Union" Of more practical i'm
portance is Ohio, which has voted
with the winner for so many years
past that no one can remember
when it didn't become part CT
the national trend; like Maryland
which has voted for the winner
ever since Cleveland. And this
year Ohio is tough State to pick
because of the cross currents from
Father Coughlin 80. President
RooSevelt'S scouts report that his
chances are none too good in Ohio.
but are improving; they can stand
a lot of betterment there.
On the surface Illinois looks
good for Roosevelt. Now that the
internal dissensions between
Mayor Kelly of Chicago and Gov
ernor Horner allegedly have been
settled, there seems to be a chance
that a huge Democratic majority
will be rolled up. But cold-blooded
politicians warn the leaders here
not to put too much faith in the
patched-up truce between the Chi
cago mayor, who represents Cook
county Democracy, and his Demo
cratic foe, Governor Horner-that
row may break out again. At any
rate, the Presidents crowd be-
lieves there is a better chance to
win than to lose in Lincoln'S State,
where the grass roots" movement
started, by the way. Independent
observers might say that F.. D. r. S
chance there was fair to middling.
but likely to be OK
Iowa Question Mark
There seems to be strong indi-
cations for a Democratic win in
Indiana, according to the high
commands scouts. The President
thinks it is in the bag right now,
but although his scouts give him
Iowa, that State is certainly not
going to vote Democratic without
an awful struggle. Iowa is an old
Republican State. A former United
States Senator from that State,
Allison by name, used to say that
Iowa would stay Republican until
"hell turned Methodist" And now
that the State has been Demo
cratic for a brief period of years,
there are signs of the old tradi-
tional RepublicaniSm gripping the
emotions of the farmers there. For
that reason alone, the fact that
President Roosevelt and Governor
Landon meet face to face and talk
business at the Iowa State Fair
this week makes the Tall Corn
Belt throb with excitement. There
hasn't been a situation like that
for 1onU time