Evening star., 1937-08-31
THE POLITICAL
MILL
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.


Greater New York will go to the polls
to pick the Democratic and Republican
nominees for Mayor. The primaries are
full of interest Mayor La Guardia, who
at odd times has run for Office on the
Republican and Socialist tickets and who
was elected as Fusion" candidate four
years ago, is candidate for the Repub-
lican nomination as well as candidate
Of Fusion" Senator Royal s. Copeland
an anti-New Deal Democrat, is also a
candidate for the Republican nomina-
ton, has had quite backing among the
members of the G. o. P who dislike La
Guardia because OF his support of Presi-
dent Roosevelt in the last national elec-
ton.
In the Democratic primary Copeland
Is running against former Judge Jere-
miah T. Mahoney. Here is split be-
tween the Tammany and the Farley
Democratic organizations. Copeland has
the backing of Tammany. He will have
former Gov. AL Smith in his corner.
Mahoney, on the other hand, has the
backing of the Democratic organizations
in the other four boroughs; for example,
of Ed Flynn in the Bronx.
The Fusionists shout "a plague on both
your houses" to the Farley machine and
Tammany. They see no good to come
out Of putting either Mahoney or Cope
land in Office. They insist that it would
be as unWise to turn the city govern
ment over to the Farleyites as to hand
it back to Tammany. They praise the
administration of La Guardia as the
most honest and free from political graft
that New York has had in years.
The election of Mayor of New York
would seem to be municipal affair In
this particular contest, however, national
politics crops out all along the line. There
are Democrats who would like to take
a crack at the Roosevelt administration
and Farley. They recall that Farley and
the administration gave aid and COM
fort to the enemy in the last mayoralty
election, when they backed Joe" Nc
Kee, candidate of the so-called Recovery
party. against the regular Democratic
nominee, and so made it easier for La
Guardia. the Fusion candidate of the
Republicans and Tammany Demo-
Gratis, to win. Also they have as their
candidate Senator Copeland, who is
about as anti-Roosevelt as any man in
the United States Senate.
Then there are the Republicans who
hate La Guardia because he jumped into
the fight to help re-elect Roosevelt last
year. And finally there are the Roose-
velt. New Deal Democrats who want to
build up the organization in New York
City and who hate the very insides OF
Senator Copeland. The American Labor
party, which was set up in the State
last year primarily to support President
Roosevelt for reelection, but also for
the purpose OF creating a nucleus for
national labor party, such as John L.
Lewis is now threatening to put in the
field, has announced for reelection of
La Guardia. The Communist party too,
has come out for the Mayor. Take it all
in all, it is finely scrambled mess.
If Senator Copeland should win the
Democratic nomination for Mayor it
would be a black eye for the Roosevelt
administration in the greatest Demo-
cratic city in the Nation. 1t scarcely
seems possible that he can do So He has
the backing of Tammany, it is true, but
that is dominant now only in Manhat-
tam one of the five boroughs. The ad-
ministration candidate, Mahoney, has
the support of the leaders in the other
four. Doc" Copeland, as the President
has facetiously referred to the senior
Senator from New York on occasion,
has great faculty for rolling up votes
in New York, however 1t will not do to
count him out entirely. A victory for
him would not only be black eye for
the administration, but would mark an
impressive reversal Of public sentiment.
His defeat, if to it is added the reelection
of La Guardia, would be terrible blow
for Tammany. That organization which
has f1ourished for more than a century,
has fed itself on political patronage 1t
has had lean years and is almost as
bloodless as pallid beet in consequence.
X X X
The gossip is that former Mayor Jim
mie" Walker who has been back on the
city pay roll in the nick of time to make
it possible for him eventually to have a
pension of some ten or twelve thousand
dollars, is expected to do yeoman service
for the Roosevelt-Farley organization in
the coming mayoralty fight Whether
Walker has any political influence left,
after being out Of the country for a
number of years. is decidedly a question
1t is strange situation that brings him
into any kind of an alliance with the
Roosevelt administration For it was
President Roosevelt who, when Governor
Of New York, virtually kicked Jimmie
out of Office
X X X
John Hamilton chairman of the Re-
publican National Committee, sees Presi-
dent Roosevelt as a candidate to succeed
himself-a third-termer for the first time
in the history of the country. Chairman
James A. Farley of the Democratic Ma
tional Committee not long ago picked
Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg of Mchi-
gan as the next Republican nominee for
President. 1t would be lot more in
teresting if these gentlemen would do a
bit of prophesying about the 1910 presi-
Dental nominees of their own particular
political parties. But neither is likely to
fall into any such error, for couple of
years to come, anyway.
+ X +
Hamilton. who spoke at Republican
club in Cincinnati Ohio, called on the
President to say whether he intended to
seek third term in the White House.
And he added that the issue in this
country today is between Republican
representative government and "Roose-
veltian personal government" The Re-
publican chairman has habit of turn
ing off pungent remarks. He said in
this latest speech of his: "Mr. Roosevelt
has worked into state Of mind In which
he repeatedly asserts that opponents OF
autocracy are opponents of democracy,