Evening star., 1939-06-19

o"~es "' hoss' not happened
through any conscious design on the
part Of Mr.. Roosevelt. On the con-
trary, there have been deliberate
efforts by the inner circle of Mr..
Roosevelts advisers to build up this
or that man with view to his
succession to the presidency. These
efforts would not have been made
without the sanction of the Presi-
dent.
Mr.. Hopkins, for one, was given
every chance to improve his politi-
cal stature, but to no avail. What
ever prospect he may have had to
become the Democratic nominee for
President has faded out. A similar,
and more hopeful, endeavor on be-
half of Solicitor General Jackson
accounted by many impartial OBJ
servers the ablest man in the New
Deal next to Roosevelt-likewise
came to nothing. The idea in Jack
sons case was to give him the gov
ernorship of New York in 1893 as
a springboard. Destiny, again. had
other views. In some New Deal
breasts. the hope ran high that the
promotion of William o. Douglas
from the Craftsmanship of the Sc
curities and Exchange Commission
to the Supreme Court would lead on
to the presidency. This hope has
almost, If not quite, been aban-
doned. 1t should be added that it
never received any encouragement
from Mr.. Douglas. who was prompt
10 put his foot down on suggested
movement to draft" him from the
court.
No One Seemingly Available.
There is no Democrat. then. to
whom the finger of qestiry points
as Mr.. Roosevelt's successor, and
the reason is to be found not in any
purposeful blanketing of his subor-
dlnates by the President, but in the
nature OF things.
In the absence of a predestined
dldate-that is to say, of a man
highly favored both by the President
and by the voters-the party faces
a situation made to order for the
New Dealers who are telling the
President he should defy tradition
and run again.
These are the elements in the stu.
alton as it stands today:
l. The active Garner boom. pro-
noting man outwardly aligned
with the President but in fact ths
spearhead of the conservative Demo.
cratic opposition to the New Deal:
a man who will be 70 years old at
the time of the next Inauguration.
2. The active. though unan-
nounced, candidacy of ATTORNEY
General Frank Murphy. who is
seeing to it that his good deeds
not to be disparaged-are made to
shine brightly in the headlines of a
naughty world.
The McNutt Candidacy.
8. The candidacy of the Philip
pines High Commissioner and former
Indiana Governor. Paul V. McNutt,
which, despite that absurd cocktail
party at which it was launched in
Washington year or so ago. is
not to be despised-a candidacy now
being shrewdly promoted from head
quarters at Indianapolis.
4. Any number of receptive candi-
dacies
5. The draft Roosevelt" move
ment.
This is the confused state of af-
fairs in the Democratic party a year
before its nominating convention.
It's likely to become more confused
as time goes on. What will come
out of it nobody can tell, but it's
easy to explain how the situation
came about. 1t came about, funda-
mentally, because Mr.. Roosevelts
domination of the strange medley of
elements composing what is known
as the Democratic party has been
so great as to preclude the rise of
a leader of comparable appeal
Whether that is a good thing or a
bad thing in democracy is beside
the question; the point is that the
condition has arisen and that out
OF it springs the demand of Secre-
tary Ickes and other ardent New
Dealers that the President, to save
the New Deal, shall run again.