Evening star., 1938-08-07

oppose anything
advocated by the
~ administration.
Chsr'e' "''ne'''"' l do not pre-
tend to know where the Senator gets
his dope from. but suspect that 1t
Is an inspiration begotten OF Mr.. Van
denbere's dearth Of An issue to present
to the people. At the same time he
feels an obligation. to himself. to keep
in the political picture. with view
to the Republican National Convention
in 1910. He is As destitute OF policy,
a plan or even a theory for Republic
can platform as Chairman John Ham,
ilton. or misty Glenn Frank with his
committee Of 100 that was conceived
as the BODY that would furnish the
g. O. P. with q tenable program.
DR.. Frank was anointed to his i'm
posing post year ago; he announced
the personnel Of the giant brain trust
there has come forth
up to now no constructive suggestion
of the chart the minority party should
follow. So far as the people have been
able to ascertain, to take . three-dl-
mensional view, the Republican OBJ
iectives are to abolish everything in
stituted by the President-that Is ap-
porixamtely the Gannett idea-to ap-
prove pretty much every Roosevelt
policy. but to moan at the way he Is
doing the Job and tell how much
better the Republicans would DO 1t
that's the Glenn Frank principle. The
third must be described as the Chair
man Hamilton program. which appears
to be reactionary in New York. radical
in Kansas and all-over-the-lot IN
Illinois.
Let me confess that the director OF
publicity for the Democrats National
Committee is far behind Senator VAN
derberg in information as to the tnlrd
term proba bilities or possibilities. To
the best Of my knowledge. and l have
some basis for the statement, the Presi-
dent has never discussed that subject
with any human being. That includes
political conferees. family. personal
friends. Indeed, he has not even
talked it over with Frank Kents
mythical source OF deep-down stun.
who is wont to whisper in Mr.. kents
flexible ear the innermost. and even
unspoken, thoughts Of the man in the
White House.
Just for . Guess.
OF course. am entitled to = guess,
and my guess Is that Franklin u.
Roosevelt would take . case OF the
hives rather than four years more OF
the headache that being President
means. 1t will not be SO easy cnoice'
at that. Circumstances might arise
that would make 1t impossible for him
to lay down the burden. The world
may be at war, with or without threat
OF our involvement. or some otner
equally acute emergency may even
tuate that would forbid = change OF
administration and the man in the
White House is not the kind OF in
dividual who would let his personal
desires interfere with what seemed to
him to be his duty. SO, to elaborate
nv surrnise. let me suggest that even
President Roosevelt lacks the infor-
ma ton Senator Vendenberg thinks he
has. In other words, he could not
saw today. even If he were so inclined,
that he would or would not be cam
didate in 1910.
It Is not only in the matter OF the
Presidents intentions that have to
20 to the hostile camp for definite
The other day Mr.. Waltman. pub
licity director Of the G. o. PITS
allies, aliases and pseudonyms-treated
us to a dissertation on the status and
implications OF the national debt.
Having a high regard for his statisti-
cal skill was much impressed by the
statement that Actually the national
debt under Roosevelt has-been in
creased by more than 10000, 900 .0O0,' y
and the connotation that chaos was
Just around the corner.
Then just a few days later I read
in the column OF Ernest Lindley In
the Republican Washington Post that
Mr.. Waltman has erred to the extent
of $4,000, 100000 In this connection
and that it is costing only l.58 cents
of each dollar of income to pay the
carrying charges on the debt now,
against l.66 cents under Herbert
Hoover. Moreover. according to the
astute Mr.. Lindley. whose qualifica-
tions were testified to in several blurbs
that heralded his advent to the Post,
1T will be hard to escape the conclu-
sion that, instead of being back
breaking. the Federal debt is no more
burdensome now than 1t was when
Mr.. Roosevelt took ONCE"
Now what Is an unfortunate chap,
who never got beyond logarithms in
mathematics, to do about that2
A Real Piece Of News.
One other piece of interesting in
formation CLEAN from Mr.. Waltman's
column Is that so far not . single
outstanding opponent Of the COURT
packing bill has been defeated even
though the New Deal has sought their
political scalps."
Now had thought that Representa-
tive Wilcox Of Florida. who tried to
beat Senator Pepper for nomination.
was the very spearhead OF the anti
New Deal champions, inasmuch as he
was chosen to make the first big pri-
mary fight on that issue. 1t runs IN
my mind that Mr.. Waltman hailed
h;~> -. 49, n~o.n>,ti iva vinpar ~ fhA