"Unthinker" v. "Demagog"

It is always fair weather when the Democrats get together. It is seldom fair when they part. The feast that they held last week in Washington to commemorate Thomas Jefferson's birth was looked forward to by political observers as a convergence of sectional minds, personal pressures and rising temperatures. And indeed this last big Democratic function before the Chicago convention in June, the full dress parade to present a united front to the G. 0. P., wound up in an intraparty disturbance even fiercer than expected.

Proudly present at the speakers' table were the Democracy's greatest men--Cox, Davis and Smith, the last three presidential nominees; Newton Diehl Baker, John Nance Garner, Harry Flood Byrd, George White, Joseph Taylor Robinson. Illness kept James A. Reed in Missouri; campaigning kept William Henry ("Alfalfa Bill") Murray in Oregon.

Also notably absent was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At the last moment he wired Chairman Raskob that he had to "remain in Albany to attend two meetings which are of importance to public welfare, one to outline further plans for unemployment relief and the other to discuss government economies." This elaborate emphasis on official duty was well understood by the dining Democrats. They well knew that Mr. Roosevelt well knew that a Jefferson Day dinner is no place for a Democrat who has already almost run away with the next presidential nomination. They also realized that Mr. Roosevelt had anticipated the evening's oratory and made his own speech a week in advance, broadcast to the country.

The meeting began with speeches in sweetest harmony. Mr. Baker intellectually eulogized Woodrow Wilson. Mr. Robinson vehemently flayed all Republicans. Mr. Byrd came out for a Prohibition referendum. All hands were rhetorically positive their party would sweep the election. But when Mr. Smith, still the Democracy's titular leader, arose to speak, something electric passed through the room. Everyone knew that the Messrs. Smith and Roosevelt, once closest friends, were friends no longer. And everyone knew that even Mr. Roosevelt's friends had been upset by his radio speech.

That speech had had for its theme the "forgotten man" at the bottom of the economic heap. Mr. Roosevelt had belabored the Hoover Administration for relieving only the top crust, the big banks and corporations. He had beat his breast about the lost purchasing power of the farmer. He had mocked "shallow thinkers" who had no idea how to help the farmer. Addressing himself to the proposed program of large Federal expenditures on public works--a program urged by Mr. Smith--Governor Roosevelt had declared: "It is the habit of the unthinking to turn in times like this to the illusions of economic magic. . . . Let us admit frankly it would be only a stopgap."

Flushed and forthright, Mr. Smith now exploded his retort with no disguise except the omission of Mr. Roosevelt's proper name:

"This country is sick and tired of listening to political campaign orators who tell us what is the matter with us. Few, if any, of them know what the cure is. ... It is a perfectly easy thing to say we must restore the purchasing power of the farmer. Fine! Of course we must. But how are we going to do it? . . . Exception to this [program of public works] was recently taken by a prominent Democrat on the theory that it is a stopgap. Who ever said it was anything else? It is at least better than nothing and infinitely better than a continuance of the disguised dole in States and municipalities. . . . The country is flooded with statesmen who orate and stop at that. Oratory puts no body to work. . . .

"This is no time for demagogs. There is always the temptation to some men to stir up class prejudice. Against that effort I set myself uncompromisingly. . . . I will take off my coat and vest and fight to the end against any candidate who persists in any demagogic appeal to the masses of the working people of this country to destroy themselves by setting class against class and rich against poor! . . .

"The disposition to gloss over con troversial questions will bring forth a meaningless [platform] document, a colorless candidate and a weakened party. Expediency will do nothing for democracy. ... It would be better that the convention remain in session all summer and give to the people a vigorous, strong platform and candidates capable of fighting for it than to hurry away from Chicago with a half-baked proposal. . . ."

The Smith-Roosevelt feud was thus put squarely out in the open where the G. 0. P. could view it with undisguised delight. After such words it seemed impossible that the Brown Derby could support Franklin D. Roosevelt in a national campaign. That Al Smith would use every ounce of his party power and prestige to block such a nomination was now a political certainty.

Governor Roosevelt is used to hearing that he is unfit to lead the Democracy. Last week at Albany he parried the Smith attack thus: "I'll tell you a funny one. A friend of mine called from New York today and said: 'Wasn't that a terrible attack Al Smith made on "Alfalfa Bill" Murray?' "

While Governor Murray spluttered and fumed indignantly at the suggestion that the Smith speech was aimed at him, James Roosevelt, son of the New York executive, blurted in Boston: "It is high time a leader had the courage to state the desperate conditions which face the average man and woman. If that leader be classed as a friend of the poor and oppressed, all I can say to him is keep your courage, fight the good fight and the people of America will back you to the end."

Governor Roosevelt continued to avoid personalities in a speech in St. Paul, Minn., even went so far as to do what political opponents immediately identified as "turning the other cheek." Said he: "My distinguished predecessor Governor Smith was happily able to prevent the control [of water power] from passing out of the hands of the State. When I took office I undertook at once a definite plan for the development of this great power. . . ." Obviously Governor Roosevelt was patting ex-Governor Smith on the back with one hand while with the other he pointed out his own additional suggestion in his "ten or a dozen points for economic recovery" which he promised in his radio speech. Mr. Roosevelt urged: restoration of control limiting public utilities to a fair return upon the actual cash invested in them; public development of water power sites: "the firm establishment of national control" over electricity transmitted between States.

By coupling his "reply" to Mr. Smith with a reiteration of his attack on the Administration, Governor Roosevelt was able to plead for election votes from the Northwest while implying that Mr. Smith represented the moneyed (pro-Hoover) class of the East in the pre-convention fight. Excerpts:

"I am pleading for a policy broad enough to include every part of our economic structure--a policy that seeks to help all simultaneously, that shows an understanding of the fact that there are millions of our people who cannot be helped by merely helping their employers, because they are not employes in the strict sense of the word--the farmers, the small business men, the professional people. ... It is right to mend the roof, but at the same time your house will not be safe until you have repaired the foundation as well. ... In much of our present plans there is too much disposition to mistake the part for the whole, the head for the body. I plead not for a class control, but for a true concert of interests. . . ."

Debt Formula. "Unthinker" Smith contributed more than an attack on "Demagog" Roosevelt in his Washington speech. He also offered his fellow Democrats a formula for dealing with War debts. Said he: "Let us say to the nations of Europe who owe us money that we will forget all about it for 20 years and will write off as paid each year 25% of the gross value of American products which they buy from us. ... This will help the farmer, mill owner and manufacturer . . . and is a far better way to restore trade than sitting idly by, clamoring for the payment of debts which we know cannot be paid."

Observers to whom this proposal seemed at least interesting and worthy of cogitating, felt that its authorship was unfortunate. For like so many, ideas that have emanated from beneath the Brown Derby, it did not appear to be taken seriously. It occasioned no enthusiasm among the Democratic diners. The men who write newspaper editorials throughout the land blurbed polite nothings about it next day, or dismissed it out of hand as "another of Smith's amateurish suggestions." European ears pricked up with interest, but no impartial and potent U. S. economist bothered to voice an opinion, except ever-vocal Nicholas Murray Butler who took occasion to repeat that he is for immediate and complete Cancellation. The one tangible new foreign debt idea voiced this year by a real figure in U. S. public life was thus tabled.

Delicacy & Lightning. Governor Roosevelt last week declined to be a New York State delegate-at-large to the convention on the ground of "political delicacy." Al Smith, no less a candidate, not only did not decline to be a delegate but insisted on being one. Boss Curry of Tammany formally named him, despite opposition from Governor Roosevelt. Chicago in June was thus made a surely exciting place. Had Calvin Coolidge gone to Kansas City in 1928, he might easily have stampeded that Republican convention, which shied off Herbert Hoover until the last moment. Equally well, perhaps even more easily, considering the volatility of Democrats and their susceptibility to speeches like Bryan's "Cross of Gold," might a sudden Smith uprising stampede the Chicago convention away from Roosevelt. But that could not happen unless Roosevelt were blocked on the first few ballots, and the direction of the stampede would probably not be toward Alfred Emanuel Smith. His anti-Roosevelt outburst last week and the assurance of his presence on the floor at Chicago were less precursors of a sudden Smith earthquake than they were warning signals for a possible stroke of the freak that is political lightning.

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