Evening star., 1937-10-02
ROOSEVELT KEEPS
VESTS AFFECTION
Retains Popularity With
Rank and FiIe'-Many Be-
lieve He'll Run Again.
BY JAY g. HAYDEN.

ICVC I1C u nun H90Uis
BY JAY g. HAYDEN.
TACOMA, Wash, october ma
N.A.).-If President Roosevelt is plan
ming to run for a third term, IS al
most every one in this section Of the
country believes, he must have been
douhly encouraged by the Nation-w wide
swing from which he now Is home
ward bound.
First, his public Appearances have
demonstrated beyond doubt that he i
today as personally popular with the
great rank and file of voters on the
farms and in the cities as ever he was.
Second, the acute differences within
the Democratic ranks which have
cropped up at every stop, have made it
evident that no other candidate could
hold together the diverse elements
which have constituted the Roosevelt
support.
There Is still another impression
that Mr.. Roosevelt may have derived
from his Western contacts. This is
that the conditions, arising from busi-
ness depression, upon which support
of New Deal legislation has been based
are disappearing and that he must
hurry If he is to coin his personal
popularity into further reforms of the
sort he put through during his first
four years.
Interest In Legislation Slight.
For while the President has been
received with great acclaim At every
stop, the same people have evinced
very little interest in judicial reform,
the proposed restoration of Federal
crop control, the wages-and-hours bill
or any other of the measures debated
IN the last Congress.
Also, the Santa Claus phase of the
new deal, which more than anything
else appears to be responsible for the
great personal popularity of the Presi-
dent, is fading out. Public improve
ments, ranging all the way from the
great power and irrigation develop
ments at Bonneville and Grand Coulee
to q myriad Of school houses, parks,
Fairgrounds and Airports, all built
from relief funds, are visible every
where, but most of them are finished.
The benefits locally, arising from these
constructions, largely have closed, and
Federal appropriations for relief OF the
destitute, 1T the same time, are being
materially reduced.
The President, again and again, in
his brief platform speeches, has warned
that the time has come to balance the
budget and that this can be done only
by = sharp reduction in expenditures.
The local politicians frankly are
doubtful whether the Roosevelt popu-
sarity will continue 1t its present high
level Is the now Of cash diminishes.
New Conditions Created.
And everywhere post-depression con-
ditions are creating new Issues which
are tending locally to divide the Roose-
welt supporters. The most conspicu-
Gus of these is the labor warfare in
all the Pacific Coast States. which
not only Is creating . division between
city labor and farmers, but has split
union labor itself into violently con-
dicting camps.
All OF these elements may continue
10 support President Roosevelt, but, as
concerns the local elections which win
occur next year, they already are 1t
one another's throats, much to the
embarrassment Of the congressional
and State officials who are seeking
reelection.
Another element that must have
impressed Mr.. Roosevelt is that inde-
pendent radical movements, 20 much
In evidence when he toured this same
territory two and three years ago, are
declining. The Townsend old-ag(
pension movement, production fol
use" and the demand for currency
imitation were mere shadows of theil
once robust selves. Local candidate!
no longer are much afraid Of them
Farm Prices High.
DISAPPEARANCE Of these movement
Is directly due to improvements il
economic conditions They fed on un
employment in the cities and bank
ruptcy on the farms. Today, busines
IN the whole region west of the Miss
issippi would be better than at an
time in its history except for the con
tinuing labor troubles. Crops ar
plentiful and farm prices profitabl
high. There are evidences every
where Of rising confidence and of re
turn to the individual initiative tha
traditionally has been so much
characteristic OF these Western people
1t may be because he sensed thi
change in the public attitude that tn
grossively more conservative as he pro
ceeded westward. He has declared tn
need for additional farm relief legisla
ton only once, and this in Iowa, o.
his first day out. He has spoken O
the wages-and-hours bill or the Su
preme Court issue not at all. His on
definite declaration, related to
pending legislative proposal, was hi
strong defense at Bonneville OF hi
plan TO duplicate the Tennessee Val
ley system of hydro-electric control /
all OF the other great river basins {
the country, and as TO this he hi
found the people of the Columbi
River Valley divided into sharpl
divergent camps.
tCopyrisht. 1887. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance, IneJ
London Waits Faxcisf March