The Wrangell sentinel., 1940-07-26
DENOCRATSARE 5-4 4FAVORITES
 TO WIN IN FALL
By JACK sTINNETT


 WASHINGTON, July 26 - Be sure to notify Wan street and the bookies that the odds already are on the Democrats to remain in power. They are not wonderful odds, but they are an edge. They're 5 to |
 Here's how. Of the IS men who have been nominated in Windy City conventions, 10 have been blown right into the White House by Mo- vember balloting. The first was Abe Lincoln, in 1860 when managers for dark horse Abe packed the gall leries of the old Wigwam (which looked like an oversized pit for coekfights and swept their candid ate into power with as wild a hulla- balloo as the city ever has seen.
 Cleveland (twice). Grant. Gar field. Blaine, Roosevelt l. Harrison, Harding, Taft and Roosevelt II all got mandates here-and residen- ees in Washington.
 Old-timers around there like Pat Nash. the white-haired veteran of Illinois politics, tell me that the hottest" convention ever held there wasn't Democratic, but Republican. It was 1912, when Roosevelt I. try ing to rough-ride over Taft. got his ears pinned back in a scrap over seating of delegates and took a walk with his Bull Moose party. The politicians who figure Chicago is the luckiest convention city in the land add the Bull Moose conven- ton nomination of Teddy, too. be- cause although he didn't win the election, he did give William How ard a licking at the polls.
 Nothing Like It
 Looking back on the early days of the Chicago convention, I can say honestly that neither l. pretty much a freshman in the field of politics, nor any of my seniors ever saw anything like it. When the last chapter in the history of American politics is written. the conventions of 1940 will take a lot of explaining
 At Philadelphia, it was becauseI a recent political change-eoat. Wen dell L. Willkie, walked in and ran off with the nomination while old line Republicans gasped for breath and cried for time to catch up with the march of amazing events.
 In Chicago, it was because the si lence of "the man who wasn't there" left everybody in a state of utter confusion
 Sweeping" The Convention
 For a columnist to weep for words in heresay but I haven't the verbal left jabs and right hooks to explain the consternation into which the Chicago convention was thrown by the Silence of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
 Nevertheless, with this little per- spectiye, Pm going to try to put it down.
 Let's take the press first. Far be it from me to turn on my joural- istic brothers. Whenever I want the facts in case and want them right, l go to the newsmen There have been times when they were baffled, oot AOl CAduP4SJ What happened to Judge Crater but nine times out of 10 biases aside, they know more than they are able to get into print. Good taste, journalistic integ-I rity, editorial policy demands, and other factors sometimes forbid put ting down every guess and calcul- ation, but they very rarely forbid putting down the known and ten able facts.
 But what happened in Chicago? In the course of AS hours, I saw John N. Garner, Burton K. Wheel CT, Paul V. McNutt, CordelI Hull, and James A. Farley announced very solemnly as sweeping the con- Vention" in a drive for the presi- dential nomination.
 I heard all of these, plus Gov ernor Lloyd Stark of Missouri, Sen ator Scott Lucas or Illinois, Sena- tor Jimmy Byrnes, William o. Douglas, of the Supreme Court; At torney General Bob" Jackson; boomed as Roosevelt's definite se- lection as a running mate.
 They Didn't Know
 Through it all, I talked to Byrnes, Secretary of Commerce Hopkins, and Frank Walker, of New York,