The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-05-20

 M 

bury last Saturday night that the boy in the fox-hole at Bataan or hugging the side of mountain at Casslno wasn't overly concerned about the fate of his ballot in the November election he more or less said what has been pronounced in this column and elsewhere in The Democrat the last year or so. Sena- tor Maloney went on to point out that men in the armed forces had other things on their minds than voting when a battle was roaring around them. He charged that 1t was the duty of the people at home to do the voting and to vote so in- telligently that the men and women in service might be returned home quickly and safely. The hullabalo about absentee ballots is overdone. Experience has proved that men at war don't feel they are disenfran- chised if they don't vote every time there's an election back home; but they do expect the voters at home to exercise that right and to do So conscientiously.
 
 Oddly enough there has been lit-
 Gle talk about the makeup of the Democratic delegation that will
 20 to Chicago for the national con-
 ventiOn this summer. A week from
 today the delegates will be chosen
 at New Haven and only specula-
 ton on the size of the Connecticut
 delegation has been indulged in
 by the press. There won't be room
 for more than 26 Connecticut dele
 gates this year, according to an
 announcement recently sent to
 State Chairman John M. Dove by
 national headquarters. That de-
 mands the use of slide-rule or 8
 calculus formula, for Connecticut
 will have but 18 votes iE the con-
 ventiOn at Chicago. Of course
 each delegate has an alternate, so
 actually 52 Demmies can be in on
 the Chicago festivities.
 If 26 delegates are selected to go to Chicago and each one is to have equal voting rights, then 1t would mean each man and woman in the delegation would control nine-thir- teenths of a vote. To avoid any such arithmetical difficulties. particular ly where there could be split votes on a candidacy, the ideal way Is to elect definite number of candidates with full vote. Here would be one way of doing 1t .. There could be ten delegates elected, two from each of the five congressional districts, with 8 full vote apiece. That &C., counts for ten votes and ten dele gates. Then there could be 16 del- egates elected at large with one-half e vote each. That accounts for eight more votes or eighteen in all and likewise for the full 26 allowed in the Connecticut personnel.
 All sorts of candidates are be-
 ing discussed where Democrats get together these days, despite that fact that the nominations won't be made for almost two more months. Eastern COnnec-
 ticut seems to have more than its share of candidates for public office, according to these same re- ports. State Chairman John M. Dove Is declared to be anxious to get back in the running, either for his old office of Controller or that of State Treasurer. FOr-
 mer Stae Finance Commissioner Lewis Phelps is an avOwed can-
 didate for the gubernaterial nOm- inatl0n. Recently Rep. T. Em- melt Claire of Killingly said he'd
 like to run for cOngresman-at- large. And former Secretary of
 State Chase Gong W0odhouse is without doubt anxious to be in- eluded on the official ticket.
 Continuing the list there's ex- Governor Robert A. Hurley, now listed as West Hartford,- and ex Mayor Thomas J. Spellacy of Hart ford. A couple of former congress- man-at-large are also said to be William M. Citron of Middletown and Lucien J. Maciora of New Britain. Brien McMahon ot Stamford is Fairfield county's of- 1ering, while New Haven county can produce Mayor John Murphy of New Haven, Mayor Cornelius Caldwell ot Derby, Mayor Andrew Nolan of An sonia, Mayor John s. Monagan of Waterbury, and Mayor William Pat ten of Torrington, with probably only the first-named actually inter- ested in the state ticket. But Wa terbury itself may hold the real an- swer to the gubernatorial nomina- tion in J. Francis Smith, ex-chair- man of the state party and definite ly the man Sen. Francis T. Maloney would like to see heading the ticket Tn Litchfield County there's Town Chairman Charles P. Harrington oi Kent who has been using state hos pital employment wages as sound- Ing board of recent weeks. And that's just scratching the layer.
 Selection of Senator Harry Tru-
 man of Missouri for the keynote
 address at the Democratic cOnven-
 ton in New Haven next Saturday
 was a happy thought by state
 Democrats. He is one of the Sen.
 ate's dynamic members and shot
 from an obscure judgeship in Mis-
 somri to head of an investigating
 eommittee that has been accepted
 as watchdog on war expenditures.
 His biography in the Congressional
 Directory contains . seant four
 lines as compared to 39 for his
 colleague Bennett Champ Clark of
 nlissoIri. -
 Political pot-pourri CIO cons kuesEional candidate Peter Higgins of TorTington attended the Jefferson Day dinner in Waterbury last Sat- slrday night. Sitting at an adjacent table was W. Harry Byrnes of Wa terb0wn who opened his drive Thurs day. OPA Director Chester Bowles still continues to maintain his innocence with regard to designs nn the gubernatorial or senatorial nomlnations on the Democratic MA-4-Al 9aRN ~An