Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-01-31

groups-one with a strong bread
and-butter motive for keeping the
President in power, the other actu-
ated by the sincere belief that the
cause of liberalism fas liberalism is
interpreted by this group can best
be served by third term Together
they make up a powerful backing;
together they are exerting pressure
that may we'll result in the draft
ing" of the President.
Some of this pressure, however, Is
more apparent than real Some Of
it comes from political bosses, big
and little, who see the third-term
drive primarily as the perfect screen
behind which to shelter when con-
fronted with the conflicting claims
of other aspirants.
Want to Ride on Bandwagon.
1t is automatic in politics that the
practical fellows, the boys who get
out the vote, want to ride with the
winner. They can always rise above
principle. 1t isn't case with them,
as it is with the idealists in politics,
of hitching a wagon to a star, but
of catching ride on the bandwagon.
A good many of those who made a
wrong calculation at the Democratic
convention in 1882 have never ceased
to be regretful some of them have
been doing penance ever since. For
conspicuous example there was Boss
Frank Hague of New Jersey. He
was among the bitterest of the
Roosevelt opponents in 1882. From
his headquarters flowed stream of
statements, oral and written, about
what terrible calamity it would
be if the party nominated Roose-
welt. the weakest" candidate who
could be chosen.
Any one IMMERSED in the ways Of
politics might have thought it i'm
possible for Hague, after what he
said in 1882, to support Roosevelt.
But he did. His act of contrition
was outstanding among many such
acts by politicians of high and low
degree. Some of the mourners came
gradually back into the royal favor,
some of them never did. For long
time, at any rate, there were lean
pickings at Jim Farley's table for
those who had committed the almost
objectionable sin of not having been
for Roosevelt BIC.
Paul V. McNutt may conceivably
wish today that he had not been so
slow in delivering the Indiana votes
that Jim Farley wanted in 80.
Right Vehicle Was Plain.
There wasn't any chance for the
boys to go wrong in 1896. There was
one big gilded vehicle, plainly the
right one, and they all turned hand
springs to get aboard. Those were
happy days.
Things are vastly different now,
more like what they were back in
the days of indecision in 1882.
Nobody can tell what is going to
happen. The boys are puzzled. A
wrong guess may land the guesser
in a political Siberia
Maybe it's the Wheeler wagon
they should Chamber aboard. Maybe
it's McNutt's, or Gamers, or Hull's.
or Farley's, or somebody else's.
Nobody knows. 1t may even turn
out to be the same star-spangled
wagon that had nc competition in
1886.
So the boys are waiting-not only
the men who run the big city ma
chimes but the little fellows back in
the county court houses. The third
term movement plays into their
hand. They can move along with it
and still keep on good terms with
all the candidates. If the movement
succeeds, they get the credit Of
having been with it from the start;
if 1t collapses, they will have had
time and opportunity to size up
the prospects of all the candidates
without commitment to any.
The set-up is ideal for the politi-
clans who want to take a good long
look before they leap.