Evening star., 1938-05-06
THE POLITICAL
MILL
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

the political breaks had been against the
President for weeks. The denomination
of Senator Claude Pepper, the 100 per
cent Roosevelt supporter, and the defeat
of Representative j. Mark Wilcox, who
left the President, has given the admin
istration leaders chance to cheer. They
have gone right at 1t, from Chairman
James A. Farley Of the Democratic Ma
tional Committee right on down the line.
What the primary In Florida seems to
have proved is that the President Is still
potent in the ranks of the Democratic
party, in a Southern Democratic State
traditionally hidebound. Whether he Is
as potent outside the ranks Of the DEM
ocratic party remains to be shown IN the
congressional and gubernatorial elections
next fall. For example. are the general
run of the voters in Pennsylvania, in
Michigan, in New York. as ready to send
Roosevelt supporters to Congress this
year as they were in 1886?
One factor that is initiating against
the President and his administration is
the depression. The abundant life"
which the President promised, is not so
abundant after all, many of the people in
the South. the West and East and the
North are finding. President RooSevelt's
supporters are doing their best to prove
that 1t is not because of the New Deal
policies and the New Deal spending that
depression has deepened in recent
months-but rather because RooseVelts
enemies in the business world are at
fault. Debts are bigger taxes are higher,
business and employment are less. When
the workers become convinced that the
New Deal is providing less work-except
that which is paid for out of public funds
and that is far too little to go around
the political picture will change with
considerable rapidity. Indeed, there is
reason to believe that something like this
is already under way
The next primary election takes place
in Pennsylvania on May II. The cam
paign has been honey and Democratic
regulations have been smeared with
mud from Gov. Earle down the line. The
President. SO far as is known, has done
nothing about the Pennsylvania pri-
mary-except to give Senator Guffey an
"out" when the party leaders declined to
nominate Guffey for Governor. The
President said he wanted Guffey to re-
main in the Senate; that he needed him
there. Whether this can be interpreted
as meaning that the President favors the
Guffey ticket-so-called because Guffey
has Endorsed it and not because Guffey
is a candidate for any offlce-is not so
clear.
The one thing that stands out like a
sore thumb in the Pennsylvania primary
campaign is that Gov. George Earle
whether he be nominated on the Demo-
cratic ticket for Senator and whether he
be elected next fall to that Office or not
Is no longer presidential possibility in
1910. Earle has been a New Dealer from
the date of the origin of the New Deal
by the President. His name has been
mentioned again and again as the next
Democratic nominee for President, to
succeed Roosevelt. But now that some
Of his former Democratic friends in
Pennsylvania have dragged into the
limelight the fact that Earle borrowed
thousands of dollars from Matt McClos-
key, Philadelphia contractor who has
been taking on Government contracts in
Pennsylvania and elsewhere, his name
would get nowhere if presented to the
Democratic National Convention two
years hence.
y X
No one quite knows Just where Sem
ator Guftey is coming out in this Penn
sylvania Democratic mess He has brok-
en- with Earle. with Dave Lawrence. Jack
Kelly. Matt McCloskey-all big shots in
the present day Democratic organization
In the State. He has joined up with 1t,
Gov. Thomas Kennedy secretary-treas-
urer of the United Mine Workers of
America and right hand man of John
l.. Lewis of the c. l. O.
In Pennsylvania all of the advertise
ments put out by the Guffey-Lewis out
ut describe the Kennedy ticket as the
"Guf1ey ticket and make no mention of
the part John L. Lewis is playing. The
effort is made to keep Lewis out of the
picture. In the first place, Lewis is an
Illinois voter and not PENNSYLVANIA
In the second place, there are several
hundred thousand members of the Amer
ican Federation of Labor in PENNSYLVANIA
and they are ready to take a rap at Mr..
Lewls-indeed. are being urged to do so
by the A. F. of L. leaders If Kennedy is
nominated in the Democratic primary
and then should be defeated in the cleo
uon next fall, 1t would not help Guffey
much. If Kennedy is defeated in the
Democratic primary, where would that
leave Guffey? The only thing that
seemingly could help the Senator would
be the nomination and election of Ken
nedy-and then it would be Lewis, not
Guney, who would be the dominant DO
lltlcal power in the State, acting through
Kennedy. the Governor.
x+
Reports from Pennsylvania indicate
that the Republicans are likely to nom
mate Clifford Pinchot for Governor and
to renominate Senator James j. Davis.
Old Guard Republicans in the State are
backing Judge James for Governor
against Pinchot and many of them insist
that James will have the nomination,
There does not seem to be much doubt
that Senator Davis will be renominated.
James was once coal miner. Whatever
the Republican ticket, it looks as though
1t might attract considerable number of
labor votes-certainly that it would not
repel them. The chances of the Repub-
hcans in the November election appear to
be far better in Pennsylvania than they
were couple of months ago. But what
they will be after hundreds of millions
OF dollars have been dumped into the
State in the name of relief during the
summer and fall Is another question.
Registration figures in PENNSYLVANIA
show that 10000 more voters are TODAY
registered as Republicans than as Demo-
Gratis.
While the Democrats have been en-
COuraged by the Florida nrinorv racult