Evening Star Newspaper, March 5, 1933, Page 75

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHI PN e ey It Was on the Promises of a“New Deal” and the Return of “Happy " Days” That the Ameri- can Pcople, After Three Years of Strugglc Against Depression and Hard Times, Flocked to the Polls Last No- vember and Elected Franklin D. Roosevelt in a Political Landslide. BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. HE campaign of 1932, which closed with an overwhelming victory of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Vice President John N. Garner, the Democratic candidates, over former President Hoover and former Vice President Curtis, aroused the Nation as few po- litical campaigns have aroused it. Indeed, no presidential campaign since 1916, when the late President Woodrow Wilson won on the slogan, “He kept us out of war,” inter- ested so many voters vitally as the campawgn of last year. In 1916 the people had neither felt the pinch of war nor the poverty of de- pression, and feeling of personal interest was not so intense. After three years of struggle against de- pression and hard times, the American people flocked to the polis to register a protest against conditions, to cast their ballots for a change. Notwithstanding the valiant efforts of Presi- dent Hoover himself to stem the tide in the final weeks of the campaign, the Democratic sweep assumed on election day, November 8, 1932, the proportions of a political avalanche. Nearly 40,000,000 American men and women went to the polls to cast their ballots, an in- * crease of more than 2,000,000 over the number who voted in 1928. They were in the grip of a consuming intcrest—the economic fate, not alone of themselves, but of their sons and daughters, their fathers and their mothers. The huge shift in vote from the Republican party to the Democratic can be explained by the desire of the people for a “change,” for something different, and by the hope that with a change in government would come better times. It was in effect a peaceful revolution. The Democratic party, headed by Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York and John Nance Garner of Texas, had promised a “new deal”; that “happy days” would be here again, if the Democrats were successful. Those are the promises on which the people today are ex- pecting to cash in. The wave of sentiment against the eighteenth amendment—national prohibition—had its part in the campaign of 1932. But in the national race—that for- President and Vice President— the issue had been minimized by the frank declaration of President Hoover in his speech accepting the nomination that the eighteenth amendment had brought conditions which could no longer be tolerated and that tbere must be a change. Hoover stood, however, for revision of the eighteenth amendment, permitting States to become wet or to remain dry, it is true, but maintaining a ban against the saloon and providing for protection of the dry States against wet neighbors by the Federal Govern- ment. Roosevelt was for out and out repeal— “naked” repeal as it has been called. This 1s- sue may have aided, to some extent, the Demo- cratic candidate for President in the wet States of the Union; it did not in those States where dry sentiment still rallies. Senatorial and House elections, on the other hand, were strongly affected by the prohibition issue. NE great difficulty which lay in the path of the Republican candidates was an al- most universal belief that they were beaten be- fore they started. It has been axiomatic in political contests—here as well as abroad—that the party in control of the Government durin® hard times is turned out. Only when a nation is faced with disaster due to a war with another are the people of that nation inclined to rally to the support of a government when pocket- books have been flattened and people are hun- gry and cold. Then it is a case of national pres- ervation against an outside foe. But in times of peace, a political party in power when times are bad is thrown out on election as regularly as night follows day. The conditions which brought about a Demo- cratic victory and a Republican defeat haa been in the making for three years. In the language of the race track, the Roosevelt-Gar- ner ticket was “meant to win.” President Roosevelt leaped his big hurdle when he won the presidential nomination in Chicago at she hectic Democratic National Convention. His only danger after that victory lay in the possi- bility that Alfred E. Smith, former Governor of New York, might head an independent Democratic ticket and split the party wide open, as the late Theodore Roosevelt split the G.O. P. in 1912. But the Smith danger passed, al- though Al Smith left Chicago a bitter man. Mr. Smith went away from the Democratic National Convention feeling that he had been badly used. The nomination of President Roosevelt, through a coalkion of his own forces in the convention with the delegations from Texas and California, was one of the high spots in the campaign of 1932. It was engineered by Roosevelt leaders in conjunction with William Gibbs McAdoo, the new Senator from California, who headed his State’s cele- gation pledged to vote for Garner for the presi- dential nomination. Smith might have for- given more easily his defeat by Roosevelt in the convention had it not been for the man- ner in which that defeat was brought about. He has said so in private conversation since the dramatic night session of the Chicago conven- tion, in which Mr. McAdoo, when he arose to announce that the California delegation had flopped to Roosevelt, was urged to “speak louder” and replied with sardonic emphasis that he would speak plenty loud enough to make himself heard before he was done. The coalition against Roosevell in the con- vention, which had halted him on the first three ballots of the convention, believed that McAdoo and Garner had pledged themselves to go through to the end—the end being the effacement of Roosevelt as a presidential pos- sibility. But Mr. McAdoo and Mr. Garner, or the other hand, insisted that they placed the interests of the party above iactionalism when they declined to adhere to this coalition. Cer- tainly Mr. McAdoo did not consider that he owed anything to Al Smith, who had been & political figure in the fight in Madison Square Garden in 1924 when McAdoo himself was elim- inated from the presidential nomination race after more than a hundred ballots had been taken. Whether Mr. McAdoo had it in mind or not, certainly never has there been a more pointed case of retributive justice—or revenge, depending on the point of view. AVING won the presidential nomination after a bitter fight, it behooved Franklin Roosevelt to get his own party in line back of him, and at the same time to persuade as many Republicans as possible to desert Mr. Hoover and come over to the Democratic camp. Mr. Roosevelt demonstrated from the start that be 1s a clever politician—meaning that he has ability to win men to his support and the support of a cause he sponsored. He picked as his campaign manager James A. Farley, who had been Democratic State chairman of New York and his generalissimo in the pre- nomination campaign. Mr. Farley, active, genial and at the same time both adroit ana firm, did a good job for his candidate. How- ever, it must be admitted that the candidate, Mr. Roosevelt, did an excellent job for him- self. Right away Mr. Roosevelt began to show the country that he was no invalid, as his enemies had charged, despite his lameness. He flew from New York to Chicago the day after he had been nominated and wrote his speech ac- cepting the nomination and delivered it to the convention which had named him. Here was something new, something dramatic. Not the kind of a thing that a weakling could do. His next step was to decide that he would make a campaign trip to the Pacific Coast. He did so over the opposition ef Farley and all the rest of his advisers. This trlp would have worn out many a robust man—indeed, it did wear out a lot of them. Mr. Roosevelt, however, came back to the East smiling and in the pink of condition. Furthermore, the Democratic nomi- nee had succeeded in cementing the Democrats in many of the States of the West where fac- tionalism had threatened to creep in, particu- lariy in California, where the Northern Demo- crats—wet and pro-Smith—hated Mr. McAdoo and all his works. Huge crowds turned out to see Rooseveit on his Western tour. Millions of the people who saw him had voted the Republican ticket four years earlier. The throngs were curious and somewhat apathetic. The Roosevelt speeches promised them better days, without laying down any definite or specific program for bringing better days. However, the people of the West, sore and hard hit by the depression, were satis- fied with what they saw and heard. Three major campaign trips Mr. Rooseveit made before the election was held, going a second time into the West and also into the South, winding up with a swing through New England, which he made by automobile. And a few days before election, in New York, he still looked in prime condition and ready for a fight. While Mr. Roosevelt was in the West and even later, the storm clouds still hung over New York and the New England States, not to mention New Jersey. Al Smith had resisted all efforts of the Democratic nominee. He had given up, if he ever had it, all idea of runnirg as an independent candidate soon after the Democratic National Convention had closed. But Mr. Smith had bhis own ideas about how he had been treated. Vice President Garner— then Speaker and the running mate of Mr. Roosevelt—visited him in New York in an et- fort to bring Sbout a reconciliation, and Smith had barked at him that he, Smith, did not like the way the Roosevelt nomination had been brought about. Nevertheless, Mr. Garner came away insisting that in the end Smith would be out fighting for the Democratic national ticket. And Mr. Garner was right. But not until the first of October and the Democratic State Convention in Albany did Smith offer his hand to the nominee and dub him “Frank” and “old potato.” Smith and Roosevelt were deter- mined that Licut. Gov. Lehman should be the Democratic nominee for Governor, notwith- standing the opposition of John F. Curry, head of Tammany Hall, and his allies up-State. This really brought the two, Roosevelt and Smith, together once more. And after that Smith eased into actual support of the Roose- velt ticket, doing a masterful job in Massachu- setts, Rhode Island, New Jersey and New York, where the Smith Democrats had been away off the Democratic reservation. 27, in the Chicago Stadium. Photo by A P. THE nomination of Lehman tor Governor in the Democratic State Convention was only one of a series of events in the Empire State which finally placed Roosevelt firmly in the saddle as leader. While the national campaign was on, Mr. Roosevelt, then Governor, heard the case of former Mayor “Jimmie” Walker, who had been charged by the chief counsel of the Legislative Investigating Committee, Judge Samuel Seabury, with various kinds of malfea- sance and inefficiency. When it became evident that the Governor would remove Walker, Walk- er quit and went to Europe. Tammany threat- ened to run “Jimmie” again for Mayor in the November election, and thereby create a bad situation for Roosevelt. In the end Tammany Jost its nerve and did not go through with toe threat. And so Mr. Roosevelt was nominated for President over the active opposition of Al Smith and of Tammany; and in the end he was elected with the support of both, grudgingly given perhaps, but given nevertheless. New York, with its huge block of electoral votes, 47 in number, was carried by Roosevelt by nearly 600,000 votes over Mr. Hoover. No Democratic candidate for President ever won such an over- whelming victory in New York since the Re- publican party elected Abraham Lincoln back in 1860. The Republican campaign was slow getting into action, although Mr. Hoover had been renominated before the Democratic National Convention met to fight and nominate Roose- velt. President Hoover threw a little life into the Republican organization, which seemed flat on its back, with his speech of acceptance, de- livered in August. But after that anotrer pericd of lassitude set in. Finally word came to the White House from the big States of the Middle West and the West that Mr. Hoover would have to make his own fight if he was to get anywhere in the campaign; that the people were not particularly interested in hearing from the members of his cabinet, the Republi= can Senators and other party orators. Ogden Mills, Secretary of the Treasury, and “Pat™ Hurley, Secretary of War, were among the most effective of the G. O. P. campaigners and most active, but the demand was for Hoover himself. The first week in October Mr, Hoover boarcdei the train for Des Moines, Iowa, to deliver a speech to the Corn Belt. His ad- dress was well received. He stressed the need of doing something for the farmers whose lands and homes were mortgaged, and he gave the background of the economic crisis which con= fronted the Nation. Immediately the Republice an leaders plucked up courage. Increasing pleas came to the White House for Mr. Hoover to visit the States of the West, the North and the East. Abandoning his original plan to de« liver only three speeches during the campaign, Mr. Hoover traveled several times into the Mide dle West, to New York and to the far West, speaking constantly. Huge crowds turned out to hear him, and the Republicans became more and more encouraged. J Although Mr. Hoover did not stem the tide, he did succced in putting life into the Repube lican campaign. He did reduce the plurality by which defeat had threatened him in Ohlo and several other States. It was a courag>ous Continued on Thirty-sixil: Page