Evening star., 1938-10-27


Congressmen +
the New Tory type, and hence the
heads of the State tickets must be
strong enough to pull into Office on
their political coat-tails the several
Democrats who are running for Con-
gress alongside of them. The ten
dency of the voter to poll a straight
ticket is still predominant in America,
so in this off-year election, when the
President himself is not on the ticket,
1t becomes more than ever necessary
from his viewpoint to help elect Demo-
cratic Governors.
New Method Discovered.
But how to do 1t and outsmart the
newspapers and the political public?
How could the people of State be
told that the President is for the
Democratic candidate for Governor and
yet not seem to be doing violence to
the tradition about a President letting
the people choose their own Governors?
The answer now has been found by
somebody in the White House coterie,
and Mr.. Roosevelt, after watching the
scheme work among his lesser officials,
has adopted 1t for himself.
a The idea is to find something some
body is saying-you can hear anything
you like in political campaigns-and
then issue denial" but you make
the denial" so important and so
vehement that it becomes all that is
desired by the local candidate-a fiat
Endorsement.
The technique was first used by
Jimmy Roosevelt when he issued a
denial" of the statement supposed to
have been circulated in Iowa about
something or other that was being said
.~about my friend, Representative
7Wearin" who was then running in the
Democratic primaries against Senator
Gillette.
The next time. it was Secretary
Ickes who sent forth q denial" Of
another equally vague report about one
of the gubernatorial candidates in
Oregon who was supposed to have
claimed something or other in the
campaign about the alleged friendn-
ness of the P. w. A. administrator.
>,Mr. Ickes against Representative Smith
of Virginia, Democrat, member of the
House Rules Committee. who was fight
ing New Dealer. 1t seems Mr. Smith
had claimed" credit for some Federal
project.
In all these cases, the purpose was
to let the New Deal ofdceholders know
the administrations wishes.
Applied to Michigan.
This week the technique was applied
to the>Michigan situation. The prob
lem, however, was how to find sup
posedly natural device to help Gov.
Murphy, who, according to all reports,
is having hard time in his battle
for reelection. The technique was a
bit more elaborately worked out,
though rather clumsily, to be sure.
The first step was to plant" ques-
ton in the press conference. Newspa-
permen are obliging persons and there
Is no reason why they shouldn't ask
the President any question that makes
Irnews, even If it is question on which
the White House itself wants to get
headlines.
The question offered was whether
Mr.. Roosevelt was concerned about
some testimony that WAS given against
Gov. Murphy of Michigan before the
House committee investigating Com
munism and Fascism and before which
the "sit-down" strikes had been dis
cussed
With a forebearance rather rare on
the Presidents part, especially since
he really enjoys impromptu utterance,
, he said gravely that he was deeply
concerned but thought he, had better
wait and write something out on that
subject instead of speaking extempora-
neously. Yet the long statement which
was given out within an hour after
the conference bore the earmarks of
having been carefully drafted with all
the circumstances and details of a
complicated controversy which hap
pened two years ago. Doubtless some
I one prepared the statement for Mr..
Roosevelt even before the press con-
ference began but this is not as
important one way or the other, as
the fact that the statement now will
be used in the Michigan political
campaign to arouse to action all the
New Dealers and oficeholders and
beneficiaries of Federal aid in Mich
igan.
Will Rise Up to Plague Him.
Unhappily for the President the
statement will rise up to plague him
again and again. It has in it con-
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