Evening star., 1940-01-01

a victory for the trade policy to
which MI Hull, above all other men
is devoted-particularly if the vic
tory should be a smashing one
would give lift to his prospects.
If the fight for the trade agree
ments is won-and the outlook is
good that it will be-the supporters
of the Secretary of State for the
presidential nomination will have
cause to be grateful to the calendar
For what appears to be an attempt
ed buildup for the Secretary from
within the administration, or at
least serious effort from this
source to test public sentiment re-
specting him, is clearly in progress
It is fortunate for Mr.. Hull-always
assuming that his policy will be rat
tfied-that this effort in his behalf
whether it be a substantial effort
or merely the sending up of trial
balloons, comes at time when the
trade agreements are in the fore
front of discussion and when Mr..
a
chance to show his wares.
Chance for Compromise.
The talk that one hears, increas-
ingly, about Mr.. Hulls chance to be
the presidential nominee. stems di-
rectly from Well-grounded reports
that Mr.. Roosevelt's S mind is running
toward his Secretary of State as a
man on whom the White House and
the Garnerites could get together
The President is said to have dis
cussed Mr.. Hull sympathetically
with two or three recent callers.
Reports of this kind need always to
be discounted, but those pertaining
to Mr. Hull have more than the
usual degree of plausibility.
The discounting that some OBJ
servers are doing, in this case, is to
say that the show of friendliness to-
ward Mr.. Hull is phony: that he is
being brought out, like Mr.. McNutt,
only to be knocked down; that the
whole business is only part of a
tIl4I u-teI III pIOI.
All this may be true: there is cer-
tainly reason for suspecting that it
is true insofar as the left-Wing hell
bent advocates of third term are
concerned. But it is greatly to be
doubted that Mr. Roosevelt is
party to any such conniving against
a man of the political and personal
stature of the Secretary of State
There is better reason to believe, if
only from the fact that the Demo-
cratic party to win in 1910 must have
a candidate at least acceptable to
both wings of the party. that the
interest of the President in Mr.. Hull
as his possible successor is sincere
Jackson Is Mentioned.
There is added reason to believe
this from the circumstantial nature
of the reports concerning Mr.. Roose-
velt's interest. When the matter of
Mr.. Hull's age-he is 63-has been
put to the President, he is said to
have observed that this liability
could be offset by giving Mr.. Hull
as a running mate a young vigorous
man. Such a man, Mr.. Roosevelt is
understood to have said, would be
Solicitor General Jackson.
Now it may we'll be that here is
the clue to what Mr.. Roosevelt is
thinking He sees the impossibility
of getting the presidential nomina-
ton for either Mr.. Jackson-believed
by many to be his first choice-or
for anybody else identified, in fact
or by implication, with his Inflated
attempted purge" He sees that
the Garnerites must be given a
voice in the nomination if it is to
be worth anything. He sees. in
other words, the necessity of COM
promise, and in the interest of party
success he is Willing-up to a point
to compromise. What more nat
ural, then, than that his mind
should turn to the serious considera-
ton of Mr.. Hull?
He may be considering others,
too, such as Senator Wheeler, but it
is fair inference that the Secre-
tary of State bulks large in his CAL
culations.
Symbol of Conservatism.
Mr.. Roosevelt cannot accept Mr..
Garner for the simple reason, if for
no other, that the Vice President
has become identified in the public
mind as a symbol of conservatism
of opposition to a great part of the
New Deal. Whether or not this ap-
praisal of the Vice President is a
fair one is beside the point.
With Mr.. Hull the case is differ
ent. Though he is not liberal in
the sense, for example. that Mr..
Jackson is, the President could &C
cept Mr.. Hull without too great af-
front to the non-cOnservatlve ele-
ments of the party. For Mr.. Hull
has no record of opposition to the
New Deal, and in the niche where
he has kept himself he has done
job that has reflected credit on the
administration. If he evokes no en-
thusiasm among the more radical of
the New Dealers, he has at least
their respect.
Such are the lines, there is reason
to believe, along which the President
has lately been thinking. The quail
fcation that he seems willing to
compromise "up to a point" must be
emphasized. If his thoughts have
turned toward Mr.. Hull for first
place on the ticket, they have turned
also-and in a setting that gives un-
usual Importance to second place
toward some one like Mr.. Jackson as
his running mate. 1t may be that
he is going to demand the nomina-
ton of Mr.. Jackson, or some one like
him, as the price of his support of
some one like Mr.. Hull.
Possibly he has thought up the So
luton of the Democrats dilemma.
Or has he just thought up something
with a catch in it?