They're Off

Republican campaigns are inclined to be steady, grave affairs which start slowly and work up to a dignified climax about Nov. 1. They have a way of winning elections by machine-like strength rather than by inspired management or smart innovations. They arouse no crusading enthusiasms among the electorate but they make no major blunders. They are cool, cautious, calculated.

Last week the Republican campaign of 1932 got off to a traditional start, unmoved by the fact that Franklin Delano Roosevelt had declared war on tradition. Developments:

Headquarters. Everett Sanders, new chairman of the National Committee, leased 90 rooms on the sixth floor of the Palmer House in Chicago as the party's main headquarters. Henry Justin Allen, bald and beaked, was installed as master of the mimeograph. Ray Benjamin, the President's quiet California friend, opened an office where he could take and make White House telephone calls undisturbed.

Money. Of major importance was cash for the campaign. In 1928 the Hoover ticket cost the party $9,433,604. With Republican purses feeling as thin as anyone's, about half that sum is budgeted for this year's campaign. Treasurer Joseph Randolph Nutt consulted with Jeremiah Milbank, who lined up most of the party's "fat cats" in the East four years ago.

Plungers. Normally a campaign does not officially start until the Presidential nominee, "notified," has "accepted." Last week no date had been set for President Hoover's acceptance speech. Unable to wait for this traditional formality, two members of the Cabinet and one voluble Senator were last week the first G. O. Partisans to plunge into the campaign. Their excuse was that the Democratic nominee had already accepted and therefore the fight was on.

Hyde & Seedlings. In his acceptance speech Governor Roosevelt had specified reforestation as an "immediate means" of giving 1,000,000 men employment. Said he: "There are tens of millions of acres east of the Mississippi River alone in abandoned farms and cut-over land. . . . Economic foresight and immediate employment march hand in hand in the call for reforestation of these vast areas. . . . I'm doing it today in the State of New York and the Democratic party can do it successfully in the nation."

Secretary of Agriculture Hyde got President Hoover's permission to crack back at Nominee Roosevelt. Ridiculing the Democratic plan as "utterly visionary and chimerical," Secretary Hyde argued: "One man can plant about one acre or something near 1,000 trees a day. A million men, therefore, could plant 1,000,000,000 trees in a day. But all the nurseries in America do not possess 1,000,000,000 seedlings. They probably do not possess 200,000,000. But suppose there were 300,000,000 seedling trees available, 1,000,000 men could plant them in about three hours! Thus 'immediate employment and economic foresight' marching hand in hand a la Roosevelt would speedily meet an untimely end. . . ."

Juggling figures lightly, Secretary Hyde showed that, on the basis of the U. S. Forest Service, a million men could care for an area twelve times the size of the U. S. To acquire title to cut-over and abandoned land on any such scale would, he insisted, "disorganize counties, destroy taxation units, close schools and roads . . . throw more people out of their homes than the New York Governor could employ." According to Secretary Hyde the Roosevelt plan would cost $2,000,000,000, provide work for only 27,900 and break the market on forest products to "Nothing flat."

Governor Roosevelt smilingly refused to answer Secretary Hyde. He would retort directly to no one but President Hoover. But through the Democratic National Committee, Chairman Jones of the House Agriculture Committee declared: "Secretary Hyde understands more about politics than he does about agriculture. . . . 'Farmer' Hyde has an apparent idea that reforestation consists of going to a nursery, buying a seedling and planting it. He overlooks entirely the great problems of flood control . . . soil erosion . . . preparation of the soil . . . drainage." The American Forestry Association rebuked Secretary Hyde for viewing reforestation "in the narrow sense of merely planting trees."

Moses on Tammany. Tammany Hall began as a patriotic order to celebrate Independence Day. Presidents Cleveland and Wilson used to send it public telegrams on that date. This year Governor Roosevelt sent it a routine message of greeting. Senator George Higgins Moses blurted: "July 4, 1776 was the day when the United States declared its independence from British domination. July 4, 1932 was the day when Franklin Delano Roosevelt made known his surrender to Tammany Hall. . . . This seems to me to be an inauspicious beginning for Governor Roosevelt's 'new deal'--unless he's dealing from the bottom of the pack."

Mills & Tinfoil First full-length Republican campaign speech was delivered by Secretary Mills in Boston. Excerpts: "Tonight we're going to take off some of the tinfoil and look at the facts. ... I challenge Governor Roosevelt to state specifically what the present Administration has failed to do in this emergency and what steps he would have taken. ... In the face of the shocking system of government existing in New York City, Governor Roosevelt's failure to clean up his own party and assert his moral leadership bars him--honest, amiable and attractive gentleman that he is--from spiritual kinship with . . . Wilson . . . Roosevelt . . . Cleveland.

"No man living has the qualifications for the task equal to the qualifications of President Hoover. . . . Say what you will about us, we're an experienced force. Is this the time to order veterans to the rear and put raw recruits in charge? I think not."

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