Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1937-07-15
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By Carter Field y
By Carter Field

Washington.-The is no DISPOSE
ton to laugh off Governor George
H. Earle's opening gun in the fight
to nominate Franklin D. Roosevelt
for a third term among shrewd
Washington politicians. Very pri-
vately nine out of ten men on Capt.
toll Hill will tell friends that they
think the probability is Roosevelt
will break this precedent, as he has
broken so many others.
There are plenty of people who
knew Calvin Coolidge fairly well
who believe that he wanted to break
that precedent. ''Ike" Hoover in
his memoirs leaves no doubt as to
his own judgment on that point, and
made a very interesting case to
prove it.
Coolidge, according to "Ike"
Hoover's theory, expected too much.
He wanted to keep on declining,
in more and more forceful Ian
guage, but to have the nomination
forced on him. Roosevelt, observ-
ers think now, is not going to make
any such mistake.
The two situations are interesting
chiefly by contrast rather than by
similarity. Right up to that day in
the Black Hills of South Dakota
when Coolidge said he did not
"choose" to run, every one assumed
he would be the candidate. There
was not a hint of opposition. There
was no prospect of fight against
his nomination. There was not even
much discussion of the third term
idea. Coolidge was popular, the
country was prosperous. When the
topic did come up in conversation
most folks said the less than two
years of President Harding's term
which Coolidge had served before
becoming President in his own right
would not count as making another
election a third term.
AS a matter of fact, Coolidge
never mentioned any prejudice
against the third term idea. He
just made it partially clear that he
did not want to run again. And the
Republican convention took him at
his word. Whereas in the present
case Governor Earle and some of
the union leaders have come out
fatty for a third term for Roose-
welt, more than two years earlier,
comparably, than Coolidge an
nounced he would not be a candi-
date. Coolidge's announcement was
more than seven months after the
1926 election had returned MAORI
ties in both houses of congress to
uphold his hands. Everybody knew
the Democratic party was split so
wide open by the religious battle
which had come to it's climax
at Madison Square Garden, that
there was virtually no hope of it's
being really formidable at the fol-
lowing election. The national con-
ventions were barely year off.
Time Inopportune
The opening gun of the Roosevelt
third term campaign is fired more
than year before the mid-term
congressional election. 1t resounds
when there is a revolt against the
President on the part of conserva-
tive Democrats so pronounced that
a harmony conference between the
President and the national legisla-
tors was to begin two days later
at the Jefferson Island club.
1t came at time when nobody
really knew whether the revolt on
Capitol Hill had much popular back
ing or not. One point about it,
however, was rather obvious. Gov
ernor Earle, whose declaration at
tracted the most attention, was in
rather hot spot 1t was obvious
that no matter what might happen
later, the Pennsylvania governor
had made plenty of enemies by his
action in declaring martial law at
Johnstown. He had acted openly
when the President was aiding the
same side without any such frank
avowal. So lots of important folks
figured they could shoot at Earle in
safety, whereas they might not dare
shoot at the President.
Earle's action tended to make the
President the target for all such
shots at him, and for this reason
his timing did not make such a hit
at the White House as his subject
matter might have on some other
occasion.
Tariff Hearings
The same group of interests in
this country which so successfully
obtained the independence act for
the Philippines, long after the
armed insurrection of Aguinaldo,
the moral appeal of William Jen-
nings Bryan and the shrewd lobby
ing of Manuel Quezon had failed,
is now on the job to prevent being
deprived of the fruits of their VIC
tory.
What has happened is that joint
committee, consisting of experts ap-
pointed by both the United States
and the Philippines governments, is
conducting hearings with view to
determining the tariff policy which
shall exist between the two coun-
tries after independence is actually
achieved.
AT first this independence date,
being fixed in 1916, seemed far off
- the business interests affected.