PRIMARIES: It’s a Bust

Just before Georgia’s Democrats went to their polls last week to vote in the next-to-last of Franklin Roosevelt’s historic Purge primaries, the Purge candidate for Senator, sober-sided U. S. District Attorney Lawrence Sabyllia Camp of Atlanta, received two last-minute encouragements: the Senate Campaign Expenditures Committee declared in Washington that there had been nothing improper about the discharge “for political activities” (against Mr. Camp) of Edgar Dunlap as Atlanta counsel for RFC (TIME, Aug. 29); and the fourth man in the race, Lawyer William G. McRae of Atlanta, withdrew, urging his supporters to vote for Candidate Camp. But these pats-on-the-head were to be Mr. Camp’s and Franklin Roosevelt’s last happy memories of this Georgia primary.

As first returns began coming in, Candidate Camp ran a pathetic third. Swooping along in first place with the votes of his farmer friends, to whom he had promised “40 acres and a mule,” was wild-eyed, unbrushed, gallus-snapping Eugene Talmadge, former (1933-37) Governor. In second place by the early counts, but running strong, was the Purge-marked incumbent, conservative Senator Walter Franklin George. Before the later, urban returns showed the election’s true trend, Candidate Talmadge & friends began to celebrate loudly. “The only way George or his supporters could carry Georgia,” Mr. Talmadge announced, “would be to buy or steal it.”

Grand indeed was the larceny if Mr. Talmadge was right. By a final (but unofficial) vote count, unPurged Senator George had received about 40% of the total popular vote, to 32% for Mr. Talmadge, 24% for Mr. Camp. Out of the 410 vote units among Georgia’s 159 counties, he had won 246 (40 more than needed) to 148 for Mr. Talmadge, 16 for Mr. Camp. Even “President Roosevelt’s county” (Meriwether, in which lies Warm Springs) chose George, then Talmadge, ahead of Camp. In upon the victor poured telegrams from Conservative Democrats.

Senator John Bankhead: “Shake, partner, shake.”

Senator Millard Tydings (who had just passed through the Purge fire in Maryland —TIME, Sept. 19): “I think the news of your victory pleases me almost as much as my own.”

Senator Carter Glass: “God bless you, Walter.— Likewise the sovereign state of Georgia.”

With the Purge primaries for Senators complete, such comments indicated that the result of the Purge would be a balkier rather than a more complaisant Senate. After the President’s personal appearance in Maryland’s Purge (TIME, Sept. 12), Jim Farley muttered to newsmen: “It’s a bust.” After last week’s Georgia vote, Mr. Farley was asked, “What about the primaries?”

“Well, they are about over now,” he sighed.

“Did you say ‘Thank God’?” asked a reporter.

“All right, make it ‘Thank God,’ ” said Jim Farley.

The Purge’s long-range plan — to create a national political machine for Roosevelt Liberalism to ride in 1940, ignoring the expense to Roosevelt prestige of a few de feats in 1938 — had so far got precisely nowhere. In the three prime Purge States, the machinery evolved to carry Mr. Camp in Georgia, Governor Johnston in South Carolina and Representative Lewis in Maryland, was proven ineffective. Against the machines of the Senators unPurged, and reinstalled for another six years, the Purge machinery can hardly be expected to nominate delegates to the Democratic national convention of 1940. To perpetuate his Liberal program, in person or by proxy, Franklin Roosevelt must control that convention or found a third party and with it carry the country. After a Purge that did not purge, these tasks looked more formidable than before. Senator George sounded almost as though he were issuing an ultimatum to Franklin Roosevelt when he gently said last week: “All great Democrats bow to the will of the people.” Lacking only the outcome of the Purge v. John J. O’Connor of New York (this week), the one anti-Roosevelt Representative dignified with a place on the list, the whole Purge score stood last week as follows:

Marked heavily for Purging, openly fought, unPurged—Iowa’s Gillette, South Carolina’s Smith, Maryland’s Tydings, Georgia’s George.

Marked lightly for Purging, not openly fought, unPurged—Indiana’s Van Nuys, Missouri’s Clark, Nevada’s McCarran, Colorado’s Adams, Connecticut’s Lonergan.

Marked lightly for Purging, not openly fought, Purged—Tennessee’s Berry.

Endorsed and renominated: over anti-or non-New Deal opposition (but not really involved in the Purge)—Florida’s Pepper, Alabama’s Hill, Kentucky’s Barkley, Kansas’ McGill, Arkansas’ Caraway, Ohio’s Bulkley, Oklahoma’s Thomas.

Defeated by local issues, not involved in the Purge—California’s McAdoo, Idaho’s Pope.

* The words used privately by the President in making up to Senator George after publicly asking for his defeat at Barnesville (TIME, Aug. 22).