The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1939-05-18
THE GREAT
GAME OF
POLITICS. .
By FRANK r. KENT
Copyright by The Baltimore Sun and
reprinted in The Republican by per-
mission.
The Great Demand" Idea
Washington, Dec. 10.

Washington, Dec. 10.
Around Mr.. Roosevelt there is a
group of bright young men who are
earnest but inexperienced in public
affairs and with no record of achieve
ment in either the business or profess
sional world. No previous President
ever had so many men of this type in
quite so intimate and influential re-
lationship.
More than any other factor, they
have favored his Administration and
are responsible for it's steady course
to the Left. From them have come
most of the regulatory laws and radl-
cal experiments attempted in the last
six years. From them has come the
steady insistence upon keeping tire
spigots of the Federal Treasury wide
open. From them has come the oppo-
sition to economy, to budget balancing,
to tax revision, to any form of bust
ness encouragement.
***
Their closeness to the President has
given them power utterly out Of pro-
portion to their mental stature
power in which they literally revel and
which they WELD with extraordinary
effectiveness. When the history Of the
Roosevelt regime is finally written,
one of the most incredible chapters
will be concerned with the individuals
of this group and their ability to affect
the lives of millions of people and set
the direction Of a great nation. The
fact that they have swayed and do
sway Mr.. Roosevelt has been proven
many times-proven very lately, in
deed, when they slammed the door on
business appeasement, cast the die for
further spending and killed the Treas
ury tax-revision program.
Prior to 1888 the members of this
group had not been heard of. When
Mr.. Roosevelt leaves the White House
obscurity again will claim them. If
in some way another term could be OBJ
tanned for him or, barring that, if a
man regarded as zone Of US" could
succeed him, these bright young men
would continue to be clothed with
power, to draw good salaries and have
glorious time. But if neither of those
things occur, then the bright young men
are completely through. They natur-
ally dislike that thought and struggle
against it.
So far their efforts have been wholly
futile. There was, first, the great
purge campaign of last spring and
summer. Inspired and managed by
these amateur strategists, it resulted
in a striking political rebuff for the
President and a significant triumph
for the Democratic Senators who had
opposed him. However, it was well
conceived because had he been sue
cessful in "liquidating" the nine DEM
ocrats who became his tragets, the
control by the President of his party
would have continued and his ability
to nominate the convention candidate
could hardly have been questioned.
But when the purge failed, both cor
troll of the party and the convention
went "out the window" not to return.
Actually, the question of whether
the President or the anti-New Deal
Democrats were in control was settled
in those 1888 primaries. The defeat Of
many New Deal candidates in the fall
election made that so additionally
clear that few men in politics could
fail to see it. The subsequent collapse
of booms for Mr.. Harry Hopkins, So
licitor General Bob jackson and JUS
tice (Call Me BilD Douglas, all con-
genial souls and liberal" to the eye
balls, accumulated the fact that the
party sweep is away from the Pres
ident. Anyone in even casual touch
with them knows the bright young
men are concerned about that. So
great is this concern that they now
have fallen back on the somewhat des
perate idea that the nomination CT
Mr.. Roosevelt one way or another.
must be forced. They do not suggest
that he will be drafted. That also is
too absurd. On the contrary, the the
DRY is that the President will ode
mand" the nomination of the Demo
cratic convention, and that this will
so scare the controlling conservative
Democrats, by making it clear any
other course would be fatal, that they
will at once surrender.
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