Evening star., 1939-10-31
The Political Mill
Lewis Roises Third-Term Issue by Tossing
Cold Water on Western Conference

election had been made necessary
by the war in Europe. Today 1t Is
Mr.. Lewis and his Labor's Nom
Partisan League-a league which
was organized in 1886 to advance
the cause of the progressives and
OF labor and also to bring about
the reelection of Mr.. Roosevelt.
Would Look Before Leaping.
1t would be a strange thing to
md the league and Mr.. Lewis frown-
ing now on another term for the
President. But labor leaders have
wondered in recent weeks where
the present administration was NOV
ing and whether labor is to be
"regimented" along with capital
when the administration thinks it
Is necessary in view of the "emer-
gency" which the President has
now proclaimed. Less than a year
ago-in last November-Mr. Lewis
issued statement in which he in
sisted that the New Deal legisla-
ton In the interests of labor must
be upheld and continued. He laid
stress at that time on the legisla-
ton rather than the Roosevelt ad-
mlnlStratlon, which may or may
not have been significant. 1t was
lntlmated today that Mr.. Lewis,
who Is president of the C. I. O. as
well as chairman of the labor league,
wants to take look before he COM
mlts himself to a third term for
any one. He wants to see what the
platform will be when the Demo-
cratic National Committee writes it
and, above all, wnat the administra-
tlon does in the next six months.
More and more it looks as though
the President will have to take some
stand on the matter of another
nomination for himself early in the
coming year. With the election a
little more than year away, it may
very we'll be argued that he can
wait a while. The nomination is
usually made, however, in June, and
that is not so far off.
There are members of the Demo-
cratic party who are keenly inter-
ested in the Presidents s final decision
in this matter-Democrats who
would like to step out and seek the
nor --.lation themselves, as we'll as
Democrats who are violently against
a third term for any man and Demo-
Gratis who are opposed to a third
term for Mr.. Roosevelt because they
do not believe in his policies.
Holt Holds Resolution.
Senator Rush D. Holt of West
Vlrginia-Who has no presidential
ambitions for himself. but who is
strongly anti-Roosevelt and does
not believe the anti-third-term ira
dition should be abandoned-is still
threatening to offer in the Senate
his ti-third-term resolution. He
insists that early in the next ses-
sion of Congress he will offer the
resolution and press for action on it.
He has held off until now on the
advice of some of his colleagues.
He means, however, to put the issue
to the question. And when he does
Democratic Senators will have to
state publicly how they feel.
Since the outbreak of the Eu-
ropean war the President has had
a resurgence of popular following.
Presumably more Democratic Sena-
tors will vote against an anti-third-
term resolution than would have
been the case last summer. But
Mr.. Holt intends. he says, to find
out, let the chips fail where they
may. AS for the Republicans, they
are convinced. they say, that the
President IS going to be a candidate,
anyway. and they believe that the
sooner the issue is joined the better.
1t is clear Mr. Lewis has become
convinced that the purpose of the
so-called conference of Western
progressives has as its main pur-
pose the launching of a third term.
The call for the conference. it was
said at his headquarters, would have
gone out sooner than this had it
not been for the outbreak of war
and the Presidents insistence that
politics should pe adjourned for the
time. Salt Lake City has been men,
toned as the probable place for the
conference. In Mr.. Lewis opinion,
the promoters of the conference are
merely waiting for the passage of
the neutrality bill before sending
out the call.