Evening star., 1939-06-20

TYPICAL OF the DAVID Lawrence.
embarrassment felt by would-be
nominees is the expression of Paul
V. McNutt, former Governor of
Indiana, and now en- route home
from his post as High Commissioner
to the Philippines. Mr.. McNutt says
IN an interview that, of course. he
will support the President if he
wants to be a third-term candidate.
The other day, an effort by Sena-
tor Holt, Democrat, of West Virginia
to get the Senate to adopt a resolu-
ton expressing its opinion on third
terms for Presidents was quietly
squelched by fellow Democrats and
especially by those who are some
what anti-New Deal themselves.
The real situation is that those
candidates want the nomination for
themselves so badly that they do
not wish to incur Mr.. Roosevelts
political opposition. They know
that, if he should decide he didn't
want third-term nomination, he
could defeat at the convention any,
body else who wanted it. His help
is so important that any candidate
who antagonizes Mr.. Roosevelt
might as well forget the nomination
himself, So the lid is kept on any
thlrd-term criticism on the theory
that maybe Mr.. Roosevelt will de-
eide not to run and thus any op-
position to a third term will prove
to have been utterly superfluous.
If there is anything that politician
schools himself to do, it is to re-
frain from saying anything or doing
anything that isn't absolutely re-
ouired. No anti-third term resolu-
ton, it is reasoned, is necessary for
the present anyway.
Cannot Be Foretold.
What may happen in January,
1910, when Congress comes back
and finds the President hasn't said
anything about his intentions is
something that cannot be foretold
now, but it is difficult to believe
that any Democratic leader who
wants the nomination for himself
or for some one else whose cam
palgn he expects to manage or be
a part OF would openly attack Mr..
Roosevelt for silence on the third
term issue.
So long as the President SAYS
nothing and does nothing to aid his
own candidacy, how can any Demo-
cratic leader go on the assumption
publicly that he wants third term?
Republicans can assume it and anti
+r -
but anybody active in Democratic
politics can indulge in no public
utterances without involving his own
political fortunes.
What is happening. therefore, is
unprecedented. Mr.. Roosevelt, by
sheer silence, is causing the other
Democratic aspirants to keep quiet,
too, and meanwhile time marches
on and 1910 will be here before the
politicians realize it. Will any anti
third term movement start in the
Senate or in the House and will any
attempt be made to get a resolution
voted on? And what if such a reso-
luton barely passes or by chance
Is defeated? Would not the i'm
preston then be given the country
that maybe the third term precedent
is not as sacred as it has been
cracked up to be-?
Seen Holding Whip Hand.
The President clearly holds the
whip hand in the whole situation.
One reason for this is that the op-
position within his own party IS just
simply political and apparently not
willing to risk anything for a princi-
pie. For, if nobody in the Senate
has the temerity to denounce third
terms as a matter of principle, it is
because there are too many who
want the job for themselves or their
colleagues and they are willing to
buy Mr.. Roosevelt's favor by keeping
mum on the tenuous expectation
that he may decide not to run after
all
1t may be taken for granted that,
unless the Democratic leaders bestir
themselves in opposition to a third
term very soon, the nomination of
Mr.. Roosevelt will be achieved
almost without effort. Even the
pronouncements by cabinet mem
bers Wallace and Ickes have failed
to stir the Democratic chieftains,
which would seem to indicate that
the anti-third term opposition may
have to be carried on entirely by
the Republicans, the so-called in
dependent Democratic movement
having just about gone to sleep at
this session of Congress.
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