Evening star., 1938-11-29

l. II II MI.
Roosevelt should @&SS% lA
run, but that he David Lawrence.
must run in
order to save the many positions
and offices which would be vacated
if another administration came into
power.
Logically, there isn't any good
reason why Mr.. Roosevelt should
be denied a third nomination for
the presidency. Whether he should
or should not be elected is quite
another question, but basically there
is much justification for his being
renominated.
For one thing, there is no such
thing as a precedent in the New
Deal concept. History isn't particu-
larly sacroSanct so far as the New
Deal Is concerned. The third term
precedent is just as antiquated
so far as the supporters Of Mr..
Roosevelt are concerned as the
precedent which used to cause a
President to refrain from inter-
vening in State elections or congress
sional contests.
Leaving the matter of precedent
aside, Mr.. Roosevelt is, of course,
the logical nominee. He made the
record and he alone can stand or
fall on it at the polls. To a re-
markable degree the present ad-
ministration has been a personal
government, so if the people want
to approve or disapprove that par
ticular form of public administra-
ton, they can only do it by having
an opportunity to vote yes or no on
q third term for Mr.. Roosevelt.
The Personal Angle.
It Is being said quite often that
Mr.. Roosevelt is more popular than
his party, and it has been openly
asserted by Mr.. Ickes and others
in the New Deal encourage that had
the President been running on No
vember 8 last he would have been
reelected. Clearly if this is so then
the only way to find out what kind
of government the American people
want is to let them vote on this issue.
Mr.. Norris contends that a presi-
dent cannot pass on his powers to
others and that hence the people
voted for Republicans rather than
Democrats, irrespective Of the Roose-
velt influence in this last election.
Nobody can prove this point, Of
course, but it is nevertheless inter-
ssting to find that In many con-
gressional contests on an out-and-
out New Deal and anti-New Deal
hght, the people did not support the
administration candidate.
But 1t would be most unfortunate
If in 1910 an election were held in
which some one other than Mr..
Roosevelt were the candidate OF the
Democratic party, and If said can
didate were beaten the cry was
raised that the Democrats were
merely unlucky in their choice of a
candidate, and that the people really
wanted the Roosevelt policies sus-
tanned.
The only way to have test Of
whether the Roosevelt policies are
to be continued or discontinued Is
for Mr.. Roosevelt himself to make
the race. Republicans, to be sure,
have nothing to say about it. They
do not control Democratic nomi-
nations and should have no voice
In it whatsoever. The real persons
Of influence who might possibly
want to prevent Mr.. Roosevelt from
running are the ones inside the
Democratic party who would like to
have the nomination themselves. II
any one of this number, as for in
stance some of the conservative
Democrats, should make try at the
nomination, the position of such a
candidate would be clumsily embar-
RAISING from the outset. Such
nominee would have to try to adhere
to Rooseveltian policies sufficiently
to hold that group of supporters at
the same time that an effort was
made to retain conservative support
Independent Ticket.
The only chance a conservative
Democrat has is to run for the
presidency on an independent
ticket, because the New Deal will
control the next convention and If
Mr. Roosevelt isn't the nominee he
will name any man he wishes, not
excluding Harry Hopkins. The fact
Is the two-thirds rule was abolished
last time, and by a simple majority
vote Of the officeholders who will bo
delegates to the next Democratic
national convention, as they were
= In the last one, anybody can be
nominated who has the Rooseveltian
stamp of approval.
The conservative Democrat who
funs for the presidency next time.
however, on an independent ticket,
may possibly draw enough Repub-
lican votes from the progressive
school to win a majority in the
electoral college. There are many
persons, former Republicans, who
would rather see an independent
Democrat in the White House than
. conservative Republican. But as
for Mr.. Roosevelt, he can have a
third nomination anytime he says
the word and looking at it from the
standpoint Of what the New Deal
has done to tradition in the last five
years there isn't any substantial
reason why he should be denied the
chance to run on the record he will
have made by 1910.