Montana labor news., 1939-12-21
ODD POLITICAL TURN
PLACES WHEELER up
Elder LaFollette's Running Mate
Has Presidency Chance.
BY G. ROSS

mutations of politics to report that
among those with a chance to win
the Democratic nomination for Presi-
dent in 1910 is the man who ran for
Vice President on the LaFollette
Progressive ticket in 1924.
Senator Burton K. Wheeler, Dem
ocrat of Montana, was the elder La
Follette's personal choice for second
place on the ticket which his Pro-
gressives of that year entered against
Coolidge and Dawes, Republicans,
and the curious Democratic combin-
Abandoned from the start-of
John w. Davis and the brother of
William Jennings Bryan.
Though Wheeler had bolted Davis,
declaring he could not support a
candidate affiliated with Wall
Street." he at first resisted the i'm
portunities of LaFollette to join him
in a third-party crusade. LaFollette
insisted, and the young Montana
senator-he was only AZ at the time,
finally agreed to run. The nom
ination was formally given him by
a committee in whose hands the
Cleveland convention which named
LaFollette had placed the selection
of a Vice Presidential candidate.
Turns Fire on Both Parties
Reluctant though Wheeler may
have been to break completely with
his party, once he got into the fight
he went after both Davis and Cool
idge with all the fire he had shown
in his famous investigation Of Harry
Daugherty. He branded the old
party nominees as reactionaries-the
term economic royalists'' had not
yet come into vogue-and called
upon the uncontrolled, liberal and
progressive forces" of the country
to Join the LaFollette movement.
LaFollette and Wheeler were de-
nounced by their opponents as dan
gerous radicals who would under
mine the Constitution.
The country has come a long way,
politically, since that time. Much
of the eradicalism" of LaFollette is
the conservatism of today. And
Burt Wheeler was found in 1887 in
the forefront of the fight to keep
President Roosevelt from packing
the Supreme Court. In all probable
ity the court plan would have car
ried the day if Wheeler had not
rallied liberal opinion to join con-
sentative opinion in opposing it.
Wheeler on this occasion saw Roose-
welt as a dangerous meddler with
the Constitution-the self-same role
in which he himself had been cast
by his opponents l3 years earlier. In
the eyes of many of the New Dealers
Wheeler was a villain who had de-
serted the liberal cause and gone
over, bag and baggage, to the
tories"
Possible Compromise Candidate
To what extent the break between
Wheeler and the New Deal has been
repaired remains to be seen. There
are some among the New Dealers
who have never forgiven him. 1t is
a fact, nevertheless-and a fact that
emphasizes the political strangeness
of the times-that Burt Wheeler
the associate Of LaFollette in the
1924 campaign and the arch foe OF
the Roosevelt court plan, may pos
sibly emerge as a compromise
nominee of the Democrats for the
presidency. The word possibly" is
important. That is as far as any
forecast can 60.
What is certain is that friends OF
Senator Wheeler for a long time
have been seeking to build him up
When the present adjournment Of
politics" comes to an end, they are
expected to intensity their efforts
Senator Wheeler will be offered as
a liberal who appeals to the con-
sentative wing of the party, with
which he fought shoulder to Shout
der in the court fight, and who al
the same time, because of his pro-
gressive record, can be counted upon
to hold in line the labor vote which
the party must have in order to win
Amounted by Lewis
The most interesting news of the
week, in this field of political high
strategy, is the amounting of Senator
Wheeler by John L. Lewis, as one Of
the great liberals of the West
Mr.. Lewis does not do things like
this without a purpose. 1t may be
that the prime purpose of his letter
to Gov. Olson was to serve notice
on the Jealous advocates of a thirc
term that they must take no steI
without his knowledge and approval
Even so, his reference to Senator
Wheeler must be regarded as sig.
%nificant. He appears to be saying
at the very least, that MIR Roose.
welt is not the only mar whom the
Democratic party ought to consider
for the presidency.
Time will reveal more clearly
what is in Mr.. Lewis somewhat
Machiavellian mind. Meantime