Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1936-07-02

warp and wool. There will be old
line Democrats who will do as Sen
ator Copeland of New York has done,
take a walk. Alfred e. Smith is not
going to support the New Dealers nor
will great many Of his followers. So,
it is obvious that each party will be
subjected to defections Of one kind or
another.
Now, concerning mistakes that have
been made:
Chairman Farley made a bad mis-
take politically when he said that Al
fred M. Landon was
Some "just the little
Mistakes known governor of
a typical prairie
state" That remark has been rising
to haunt the Democratic chairman al
most daily since it escaped from his
lips, and unless 1 miss my guess he
will hear it repeated, thrown into his
teeth, so many times between now and
November that the words will give
him stomachache equivalent to
green apples.
The reasons this remark was Sc
rious blunder are two. First and fore
most is that every state in the Union
rightfully has justified pride Of its
people, its commerce and industry and
its future prospects. Every state feels
profound resentment when its ca
pacity to do great things is questioned.
Consequently, when Mr.. Farley cata-
logued Kansas as a typical prairie
state and its governor as little-known,
there was surging tidal wave of re-
sentiment, and it was not confined to
Kansas alone.
The second reason why Mr.. Farley's
remark cut the wrong way was that
Mr.. Farley is a New Yorker and a
Tammanyite. There is something re-
pulsive to the millions of midwest
erners about Tammany, and a very
great many residents of prairie states
long have objected to the attempt Of
certain New Workers. to "run things"
for the whole United States.
Another mistake that has been
made, really series of mistakes, is
the coercion that has been permitted
to go on among those receiving relief.
It is not exactly fair to charge Mr..
Farley and President Roosevelt with
these, yet 1 am inclined to believe
they could have prevented local
Democratic politicians from attempt
ing to force relief clients to vote the
| narooorofio fial1a+ Tbof condition hos
obtained in as many as fifteen states.
1t is one of those things in politics
that naturally causes a revulsion Of
feeling, yet it is one Of those things
with which the leaders possibly may
have had nothing directly to do. The
fact that they might have prevented
| it and did not is accepted by the
average voter in exactly the same
light as though written order direct
ing such procedure had been issued.
The handling of the tax question by
| the administration in this session of
congress has not been of a character
warranting too much praise. 1t has
! alienated many influential persons
who might otherwise have supported
Mr.. Roosevelt. OF course, in the end
the President can say that he wanted
additional funds in order to start the
balancing Of the national budget, but
know Of a great number of Demo-
Gratis in congress who have been thor
oughly displeased by the White House
insistence for reform tax law rath-
er than a revenue law. It seems to
me, therefore, that a considerable
amount of campaign material will be
developed from this fact.
And so it goes with Democratic mis-
takes.
On the other side of the picture, the
Republicans can make mistakes yet,
plenty of them.