Evening star., 1937-11-05
Roosevelt to La Cuardia.

Roosevelt to La Cuardia.
President Roosevelt has congratulated
Mayor La Guardia of New York, nomi-
rec of the Republican party, on his
reelection. The President, however.
does not regard the Mayor as a Re-
publican. He recalls that the Mayor
was also the nominee of the American
Labor party-a party which was formed
particularly to support the President
himself in 1886. He bears in mind the
aid which the Mayor gave him in
his campaign for reelection to the
presidency.
The President held aloof in the
mayoralty campaign, now closed. 1t is
true that his chosen leaders in New
York, Postmaster General Farley, Sena-
tor Wagner, Governor Lehman, Ed"
Flynn, leader in the Bronx, and others, all
backed Jeremiah T. Mahoney, the Demo-
cratic nominee. But the President him.
self kept hands of. 1t is quite probable
that had the battle gone the other
way, President Roosevelt would have
called up Mr.. Mahoney to congratulate
him, just as he called up Mayor La
Guardia the night of election. And
certainly Mr.. Farley and others would
have hailed Mahoney election as
triumph of the New Deal Democratic
party.
The future political activities of Mayor
La Guardia are the topic of discussion
In many quarters today Is he to stick
to his old Roosevelt allegiance? Is he
to cast in his lot with the Republicans?
Is he to be the darling of a new party,
perhaps the American Labor party if
that is extended beyond the confines
of New York? President Roosevelt GER
tainly is giving every indication that
he prefers to have the Mayor as his
friend and supporter What does this
attitude on the part of the President
mean to his Democratic supporters in
New York City? The President has
never been friendly to the old Tam
many organization. 1t fought him for
the presidential nomination in 1882 and
supported Al Smith. 1t sought to nomi-
nate Senator Copeland for Mayor this
year, in the Democratic primary,
though Copeland is more anti-adminis-
tration than a number of Republicans
In the Senate
If the feelings of Mr.. Farley, Senator
Wagner and others who supported MIR.
Mahoney in the recent campaign are
hurt by the friendly attitude of the
President to Mayor La Guardia, they are
not likely to show it. A break on their
part with the President over the New
York City election seems more than i'm
probable-practically impossible. And
yet rank and file Democrats who went
down the line for Mahoney will be sore
enough.
The President has in the last few
months gathered quite crop of Demo-
cratic enemies, notably the men who re-
fused to go along with him in the fight
to pack" the. Supreme Court. Mr. Far
ley, his political generalissimo continues
to insist that there is no split in the
Democratic ranks. But that does not
necessarily mean that no such split ex-
lists. The Presidents apparent friend
illness now for Mayor La Guardia is not
calculated to heal wounds among the
Democrats of New York.
There has been a suspicion in some
quarters that the President is willing to
bring about a political realignment, to
cast off and out of the New Deal party
conservative Democrats and Democrats
who have opposed him, whether con-
servative or not, and to substitute for
them the various leftist groups in the
country. This may not be Mr. Farley's
idea, who believes in a united Demo-
cratic front, but it would be pleasing
enough to some of the New Dealers who
surround the administration in Wash
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