Evening star., 1936-06-23
BOLTS OF WINGS
WORRY COUNCILS
High Command InWardIy
Fearful, Says Observer.
Forecasts Landon.
BY SAMUEL G. BLYTHE.

-Outwardly, yesterday, the New Deal
status quo was triumphantly main
tained. Farley, Nicholson and the
other militant Democratic mouth
pieces fervently asserted that President
Roosevelt next November will carry
each Of the 48 States, all our terri.
torial possessions, British Columbia,
part Of Alberta, Albania, and the
Windward Isles, with an excellent
chance in Australia and Finland. 1t
Is so all over that already Landon and
Knox have been thrown on the politi-
cal dump. Pathetic, really; and pitt
full.
That was the outward and visible
and audible sign at the Farley head
quarters. But inwardly, in the rooms
marked private" there was some
thing else going on There wasn't so
much triumph there as there was
trepidation. What was feared, and po-
litically dreaded. has begun to happen.
The sappers and miners have gone
to work under that magnificent New
Deal structure, reared with so much
theory, so many blueprints and speci-
f1cations of the more abundant life.
to say nothing of the expenditure of
so many billions of the peoples money.
and are driving tunnels, laying ex-
plosives, drifting slopes for future
dynamiting. 1t was very disconcert-
ING II UoS oyoY1 1iey,,
'tJust Forget It."
OF course, the Farley boys make
light of it all. Nothing to it but this:
The lunatic fringe on the extreme left
has organized some sort of rump party
which may-may-may-a some
Of the extremists, and, over on the
right, number of "ore-time" Demo-
cratic leaders, conservatives and JET
fersonians are showing a few signs of
obstructive activity. Mere flashes in
the pan. Mere exhibitionism. Sap
heads on one side, and sore-heads on
the other. Forget it.
How heartily the Farley boys wished
they could forget it, dismiss it, laugh
it of. But they couldn't, and they
cannot. There it is, concerted and
duplicate movement from the f1anks
to that little left of the center" posi-
ton the President says he occupies.
On the far left there is the Union
party, headed by Representative
Lemke, of the Frazier-Lemke bill, that
has tortured and terrified non-in-
fiationist Presidents and Congresses
for long time, with great potential
strength in Minnesota, and the Da-
kotas, and elsewhere in the Northwest
that is essential 10 Roosevelt If he
shall win.
Right Wing Converges.
! On the right there is the great
body of old-line Democrats who still
believe the name and style of their
party is the Democratic party instead
of the Roosevelt party, the Jeffer-
sonians. the Jacksonians, the Cleve-
landers, the Wilsonites, who have
begun their attack from this tradi-
| tional point. Both are converging
on the little left of the center" oc-
cupied by President Roosevelt and
his New Deal and ballyhooed oy
Farley and the other managers and
mouthpieces.
Can the Roosevelt position with
stand successfully these converging
| flank attacks? The answer to that
| question is the answer to this preSi-
| do,1fio1 oloafinT M uy1a
knows anything of the politics of this
country, talking frankly, but will ad-
nit that a large proportion of the
| strength of the Roosevelt party
comes from the radicals of whatever
brand and saturation they may be,
and that the real Democratic party
is intrinsically more conservative
than it is liberal, which is a milder
term than radical. If Jefferson,
Cleveland and Wilson were radicals
of the New Deal type, William Jen-
nings Bryan saw eye to eye with ].
P. Morgan on the money question.
1896 Bolt Recalled.
Democrats of the type of Al Smith
and Ely left the Democratic party in
1896, when Bryan was nominated,
and formed the Gold Democratic
party. As a party, they cast for
their candidates, Palmer and Buck
ner, less than 10000 votes, but Sev-
eral millions of their adherents vot-
ed direct for Mckinley on the corr
rect decision that it was better to
cast whole vote in opposition rather
than half a vote.
There have been several exemplifica-
tions of the strength of such a move
ment at the Lemke party movement;
for example. the Grange movement,
the Greenback movement, and the
Populist movement, all extremists OF
the sort President Roosevelt can i'll
afford to lose Also, in 1924, La Fol-
lette, running for President, received
nearly 100000 votes, and La Toilette
was no conservative. On the contrary.
he got, in round numbers, 425, 900 votes
in California, $4,000 in Illinois,
272 900 in Iowa, 100000 in Minnesota,
467 600 in New York, $4,000 in North
Dakota, and 5000 in South Dakota.
That, in this present situation, with
the Democratic presidential candidate
"a little left of the center" is making
the Farley boys ponder deeply and agi-
tatedly whether the President would
not be in better case if he shifted
avowedly from "a little left Of the cen-
ter" to, say, half way or, mayhap.
three quarters to the left, which Ia
where he is anyhow.
Landon Victory Forecast.
You never can tell in politics. Espe-
cially, in presidential politics. Or in
other competitive matters, prizefights,
for example. Farley knows all about
prizeflghts While have no inside in
formation Of the subject, I am willing
to lay a small wager that Farley
1 fbo,,ohf that TaY,iS tIyollld Wip that