Evening star., 1938-05-19

we're all for Roosevelt. We conducted
the campaign on high plane and
entirely on the record of Gov. Earle,
which evidently satisfied the Demo-
cratic voters of the State"
What" I asked, was the princi-
pal issue-Was it the c. I. O.?'
1T was Gov. Earle's progressive
record We had the support of
substantial number of labor votes.
After Mr. Kennedy was put into the
race by the c. I. o. it was natural
that the A. F. Of L. would be sympa-
thetic to US
1T has been said,' I remarked.
that your candidate for governor.
Charles Alvin Jones. was an anti
Roosevelt man. having been against
him in 1932-Was this factor in the
result?"
Stumred for Roosevelt.
"Our opponents tried to work up
that idea, but the facts are that.
while Mr.. Jones was for Al Smith at
the Chicago convention Of 1882, he
was not a part of the stop-Roosevelt
movement there. Mr.. Jones stumped
the State for Mr.. Roosevelt in 1882
and 1885 and he was a liberal even
before the New Deal"
What is your opinion" inquired.
'of the large Republican vote in the
primares?'
The Democratic and Republican
registration of voters in PennSyl-
vania." replied Chairman Lawrence,
is about evenly divided We each
have about 100000 registered and
there isn't nowadays more than 100,-
900 votes between US on the registra-
ton records. The Republicans this
year had a real contest as between
Mr.. Pinchot and Judge James, SO
they had something to bring out their
vote. too. But I don't think the total
primary vote was unusually large"
G. o. P. Total.
1t turns out that the combined Re-
publican vote was somewhat in excess
of the Democratic totals, but neither
party polled more than about so to
IS per cent of the registered vote.
gathered from my talk with Chair
man Lawrence that it would be his
effort as State chairman to try to
reconcile the factions in the Demo-
cratic party, but that the task had
not been made easier by the falling
out inside the party over the selec-
ton of candidates.
National Chairman Farley's state
ment urging the election of both Mr..
Earle and Mr. Kennedy looks now
in retrospect to have been means
of trying to satisfy both factions, even
though it was probably known that
MIR. Kennedy might lose out Ger
tainly the national administration has
kept faith with the c. l. Q. and at
the same time has helped pick the
winner. George Earle, for the Senate
The latter is a pro-Roosevelt man.
any way, and, if he is elected to the
Senate, will join the rubber-st
group of Democratic Senators who DO
whatever Mr.. Roosevelt tells them to
do.
Much of Mr. Earle's political
strength as Governor came from the
ease with which he got Federal funds
into Pennsylvania from the Roosevelt
administration. so. in a sense, the
Roosevelt policy of helping Governors
get promoted to the Senate by the
use of party machinery and Federal
funds has worked out again-at least
so far as the party nomination is
concerned.
Davis Versus Earle.
The voters of Pennsylvania will
now have to decide whether they
want Senator James j. Davis re-elect-
ed or Gov. Earle. Mr.. Davis unques-
tionably had the support of the Re-
publican members of the American
Federation of Labor. He is strong
union man and for 10 years was Sec
retary Of Labor in the Harding, Cool
idge and Hoover cabinets and is held
in high esteem in labor circles gen.
orally. 1t would not be surprising if
large part of the Democratic vote
which went for Mayor Wilson of Phil
adelphia as nominee for Senator, and
which is opposed to Gov. Earle. will
be found lined up for Senator Jim
Davis in the autumn elections, so
his chances of reelection would seem
70 have been immeasurably improved.
This last inference should not be
attributed to Chairman Lawrence
who, by the way, has middle initial
in his name. the letter "L." I gather
that it doesn't stand for Lewis"
My own impression Of the primary
Is that the A. F. of L. is more Of a
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