National Affairs: Head Examined

To a host of Third Termites busily boring in the frame of U. S. politics was last week added the biggest & best to date, no less a personage than Democratic National Chairman James Aloysius Farley. At Mackinac Island, where he went to exhort Michigan Democrats to elect Rooseveltians to Congress, he was asked about his own Presidential ambitions for 1940. Bluntly Jim Farley replied:

“Anybody who indicates his candidacy for the Presidency before Roosevelt makes up his mind whether to run again ought to have his head examined.”

¶ Cartoonist Harold Morton Talburt of the Scripps-Howard chainpapers drew the week’s ablest Third Termite cartoon—a paraphrase of Democratic Pressagent Charles Michelson’s remark of last fortnight that “duty” might compel Franklin Roosevelt to run again (TIME, Aug. 15). While the President in uniform stands contentedly on the second (term) sack and a harassed elephant pitcher stands afraid to pitch lest the runner steal third, Mr. Manager Michelson runs out on the diamond shouting: “Aw quit worryin’ about him! He ain’t gonna run—that is he ain’t unless he’s forced!”

¶ In Minnesota, National Chairman Farley warned Democrats not to play games with Minnesota’s Republicans just to beat the Farmer-Laborites: “Any help you give the Republicans . . . in 1938 will help defeat the Democrat party in 1940.” Democratic Representative Elmer J. Ryan promptly endorsed his former law partner, Harold E. Stassen, Republican nominee for Governor, instead of Thomas Gallagher, the Democratic candidate. Said he: “If the National Administration were concerned about the strength of the Democratic party in Minnesota, the time to show that concern was two years ago, when the Democratic candidates for Governor and Senator were withdrawn.”

¶ In Wisconsin, Democrats were dismayed by news that the La Follettes, Governor Phil and Senator Bob, will not as in 1932 support Democratic Senator Francis Ryan Duffy for re-election late this summer. This year, the La Follettes let it be known that they will help the winner of the Progressive nomination—Representative Thomas R. Amlie or Herman Ekern, onetime State Attorney General—after next month’s primary. Possible result: a special appearance in Wisconsin by Franklin Roosevelt in behalf of Senator Duffy.

¶ Section 208, Title 18 of the Federal criminal code declares it unlawful for any Senator, Representative, “officer or employee of the United States” to solicit political funds “from any other such officer, employee or person.” Last week while Pennsylvania’s Senator Guffey was in Europe, letters over his signature to all WPA workers in Pennsylvania (270,000 of them) solicited campaign funds. Chairman Sheppard of the Senate campaign funds committee said, “At first blush I can’t see where this comes under our resolution.” Then he blushed again, called a committee meeting to cogitate Senator Guffey’s behavior.

¶ Sick and tired, Philadelphia’s Republican Mayor Samuel Davis Wilson announced he would presently take a two-month vacation. Instantly, the Philadelphia Inquirer accused him of making a deal with the Democrats to turn over his office to Controller Robert C. White, Democrat, during the fall election period. Indignant, Mayor Wilson called off his vacation. When the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last week tied up until at least mid-September both a grand jury and a legislative investigation of Governor George Howard Earle (TIME, Aug. 8 et ante), the lively Governor took off with Mrs. Earle in a State-owned plane for a month’s vacation in Central America. As a parting gesture he called on his Republican foe, District Attorney Carl B. Shelley of Dauphin County (Harrisburg), to arrest and try him instanter. Mr. Shelley ignored the invitation.

¶ Governor Hugh White of Mississippi felt a sharp pain shoot through his chest one afternoon last week, followed by pain in his left arm. Specialists bedded him, treated him for severe cardiac fatigue. Two days later he had the comfort of hearing that the Legislature, in special session, had passed in almost the form he wished it his “dream plan”: lifting of all State, county and district (but not municipal) taxes from some 133,000 Mississippi homes valued at not more than $5,000.

¶ Announced for next week was a “Cornfield Conference” of Republicans at the farm of Homer E. Capehart, vice president of Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. (musical instruments). Place: Washington, Ind. Theme: winning Midwestern seats in Congress (Republicans have but one out of Indiana’s 14, for example). Keynoter: New York’s Representative James W. Wadsworth. Expected attendance: 50,000.

¶ The Workers Alliance of America, which boasts that it controls 2,000,000 WPA votes, last week took steps to follow Deputy WPAdministrator Aubrey Williams’ counsel to “keep your friends in power!” (TIME, July 4.) To every candidate for Congress, President David Lasser of the Alliance sent a questionnaire, the answers to which would be “made available to your constituency.” Sample question: “Do you favor an increase in wages to the WPA workers to permit them a minimum decent existence?”

¶ Southern newspaper reactions to Franklin Roosevelt’s “Purge” act against Senator Walter George last week at Barnesville, Ga. were chiefly adverse. The Atlanta Constitution snorted: “He would turn the United States Senate into a gathering of 96 Charley McCarthys with himself as the sole Edgar Bergen to pull the strings and supply the vocalisms.” Atlanta Journal: “Great is the President’s prestige, and great the admiration in which Georgians hold him. But assuredly he cannot do their thinking for them.” Charlotte News: “The thing is, in its practical aspect, a desperate and precarious gamble. . . . If the President wins, it will be a famous victory. . . . But the chance is more than even that he won’t win . . . and that will genuinely be the ‘stunning blow.’ ”

¶ The Washington Post surpassed all in bitterness with a cartoon by Gene Elderman entitled, “God Bless You, Walter! Let’s Always Be Friends”.