Evening star., 1936-10-25
Farley's Prophecy.

Farley FrOpnecy'
On the 9th of January last James A.
Farley, chairman of the Democratic
National Committee, addressed that body
at it's meeting held in this city to make
arrangements for the holding of the con-
vention of the party. In the course OF
his remarks he said: Our opponents
will make this the bitterest and certainly
the dirtiest political struggle that any
of us here can remember" He added:
This will be a campaign of defamation,
financed by the largest slush fund on
record contributed for the most part
by those who have neither public con-
science nor private scruples."
The campaign up to this point has
been far short of Chairman Farleys
prediction on both counts. He did not
specify or clearly indicate what he
meant by the phrase 'dirtiest political
struggle that any of us here can re-
member" The implication, however,
was plain that he expected the cam
paign of defamation" to be couched in
terms of malevolent personal abuse OF
candidates In fact, however, there has
been remarkably little of that sort of
thing up to this time and the campaign
will doubtless close in the same vein.
Those opposed to the reelection of the
President have mainly pitched their
attack in the key of criticism of his
policies and the influences with which
he is surrounded. They have accused him
of seeking the subversion of the eStab-
lished form of Government in this coun-
try by the adoption of measures of ad-
ministration contrary to the principles
of constitutional government and of ac-
uiring dictatorial powers under pretense
of meeting a national emergency. They
have criticised his enormous expendi-
lures in the name of relief, which have
had the effect of accumulating an
enormous deficit and the piling up of an
Indebtedness that will require crushing
taxation for long period with resultant
Generalization of business and heavy
addition to the cost of living.
In these assaults upon the administra-
ton none has been more bitter in de-
nunciation than those Democrats who
have revolted against what they have
termed the betrayal of their party in
the reputation of the platform upon
which Mr.. Roosevelt was elected in 1882.
The most scathing terms of criticism
have been uttered by these Democrats
rather than by the Republicans. 1t may
be that Mr.. Farley had these men in
mind when he forecast the "dirtiest po-
litical struggle" in the memory of the
members of the Democratic National
Committee, though they, in fact, have
not engaged in the political pastime OF
what is known as mud singing.
Upon the whole, the campaign has
been remarkably clean in point of per-
sonalities and vituperation. There have
been no "smears" of the personal char
acters of the opposing candidates. Some
attempt has been made to cast reflec-
tions upon Mr.. Landon in respect to
his conduct of the Office of Governor of
Kansas-that typical prairie State the
characterization of which with that
phrase by Mr.. Farley has boomeranged
to his own discontinue. Governor
Landon has been assailed without effect
for alleged relations with oil combines
in the course of his career as pro-
ducer, for his closing of a number of
schools in Kansas at the instance of the
State Board of Education, and for his
dispatch of militia to the scene of
strike at the request of the local au-
thorities. These charges have been
"duds." He has not been attacked on
personal grounds.
AS for the largest slush fund on
record" which Mr.. Farley forecast. it has
been completely discounted by the use
of public funds expended for direct
relief and indirect relief in the guise of
q wide variety of works of more or less
questionable character. For every dollar
the Republicans have raised, from the
small change of individuals to the large
sums of economic royalists," the Demo-
cratic campaign has been the beneficiary
of a hundred dollars, perhaps thousand
dollars, from this source.
Chairman Farley may not repent his
prophecy of last January, even though 1t
has been so plainly refuted by the facts.
If he has a quarrel with the political
opponents of the administration, it is
with those of his own party who have
rebelled against what they term the vio-
lation of Democratic trust by its leaders.