The Roosevelt Handicap

(See front cover) Weather: Democratic.

Track: "Dark and bloody." Course: Kentucky's Senatorial primary.

Starters: 1) Senator Alben William ("Dear Alben") Barkley, 61; 2) Governor Albert Benjamin ("Happy") Chandler, 40.

Past Performance: 1) Smalltown lawyer (Paducah, 1901-05). prosecuting attorney of McCracken County (1905-09), county judge (1909-13), U. S. Representative (1913-27), unsuccessful candidate for Governor (1923), U. S. Senator (1927-39), Democratic national keynoter in 1932 and 1936.

2) Smalltown lawyer (Versailles, 1924-29), State Senate (1929-31), Lieutenant Governor (1931-35), Governor (1935-39) after beating Republican King Swope* by 96,000 votes.

Starting Time: Aug. 6, 1938.

Odds (quoted by Gallup's American Institute of Public Opinion): "Dear Alben," 61-to-39.

If the U. S. people take their governance as seriously as some do their horseracing, next Saturday's political handicap in Kentucky ranks in national news-interest with the Derby at Churchill Downs. Of all 32 Senatorial primaries this year, Kentucky's Democratic race is the most significant and most colorful--significant because, in the person of his Majority Leader of the Senate, Franklin Roosevelt himself is in effect running to avert a rebuff to his New Deal; colorful because Senator Barkley's challenger is a brassy colt who, on sheer political form, could win in a walk if this were not a Roosevelt Handicap.

Last week the plodding champion of the Roosevelt colors was leading by several lengths. The young challenger was gaining ground, when he suddenly had to go to bed with stomachache & fever. His doctor declared that when the governor was in Louisville his drinking water was poisoned. To gather himself for the stretch run this week and next, he retired by ambulance to the executive mansion at Frankfort over the weekend while Candidate Barkley paused for breath at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville. Mrs. Chandler and Daughters Mimi and Marcella pinch-hit at Happy's meetings. Said loyal Mrs. Chandler: "Happy is absolutely certain to win."

Wheelhorse. Alben Barkley is a dependable, likable, old-dog sort of man whom no one, ten years ago, would have picked as a central character in the national scene. Today, Franklin Roosevelt wants young blood in the Judiciary but not, in this case, in the Senate. More than anything he wants "yes" men in the Senate, not "yes but --" men. In the Majority Leader, a "yes" man is essential. Where would any Administration's steamroller go if the engineer turned and argued about his orders? For this reason Franklin Roosevelt wrote as he did last summer to "Dear Alben" to swing his election as Senate Leader, by one grudging vote (38-to-37) away from Mississippi's able but too-independent Pat Harrison.

Before that happened, Senator Barkley's only claim to national fame was as the keynoter of the 1932 and 1936 Democratic conventions. Before 1932 he was just a member of the Democratic minority in the Senate who had spellbound his colleagues on Drought in 1930. As a member of the House he had helped foster the Prohibition Amendment and the Volstead Act. He had been a paid speaker for the Anti-Saloon League, but in 1928, when drink returned to popularity, he stumped for Al Smith, later helped write the 21st (Repeal) Amendment. Now he even takes a toddy himself. Labor knows him as one of its early champions, but he voted for coal and oil tariffs before the New Deal made Business unfashionable.

Alben Barkley was a tobacco farmer's son, a field worker until he was old enough to go to Marvin College at Clinton. He later put himself through Emory College (Georgia) and the University of Virginia Law School. He got his first job in the law office of Paducah's Judge W. S. Bishop whom Paducah's Irvin Cobb immortalized as "Judge Priest." Slow of mind and body, but powerful and persistent, in his career from there up to Majority Leader he had only two lucky breaks: he voted to seat Franklin Roosevelt as a delegate to the 1920 Democratic convention; and the late Joe Robinson picked him as his lieutenant-leader when the New Deal seized the Senate in 1933.

"Dear Alben" could not be more faithful, but he is not nimble. Almost his first act as Majority Leader was to let New York's Wagner introduce the time-wasting anti-lynching bill, abhorrent to Southerners. When he was invited to speak to Washington's gay Alfalfa Club (dining) he asked Pat Harrison how long he should talk. An old hand, Pat Harrison said: "Well . . . about an hour and a half." Alben Barkley suspected nothing until, after an hour, the Alfalfans applauded when he said, "And in conclusion. . . ." As befits his plodding nature his favorite song is Wagon Wheels.

Colt. The saga of "Happy" Chandler has been vividly before the Kentucky electorate for the past eight years. By heart the voters know how he was born to poor parents in Corydon, how his mother left his father in 1902 when Happy was four,* how he sold newspapers and did odd jobs while getting through high school. A 170-pounder, 5 ft. 10 1/2 in., compact and fast on his feet, enormously cheerful and energetic, he arrived at Lexington to enter Transylvania College with "a red sweater, a $5 bill and a smile." He got a job in a laundry, played football, basketball and baseball (captain), charmed the campus by his grin and his singing.

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling was his theme song then, and they called him '"Irish." For one year he was in the S. A. T. C., on the strength of which he has been active ever since in the American Legion. He spent one term at Harvard Law School until his money ran out, finished his law course in 1924 at the University of Kentucky, taking 16 examinations in two days and getting record high marks. He coached athletics at Versailles High School and Centre College, also played summer professional baseball (pitcher) in Canada. He married pretty Mildred Watkins, a singing teacher in the Versailles School, and now has four children: Marcella, 16; Mimi, 12; Albert Benjamin Jr., 8 ; Joseph Daniel, 4.

Immediately after getting into the State Senate, he began campaigning for Lieutenant Governor. Theme song: Sonny Boy. At the 1931 State convention, he was nominated despite potent opposition by obtaining a last-minute switch of the Louisville delegation. His campaign for Governor began as soon as he started presiding over the Senate. Whenever Governor Ruby Laffoon left the State, Lieutenant Governor Happy played Governor. Among other smart tricks, he made Jim Farley and the late Louis Howe honorary colonels.

When he fought and beat Governor Laffoon's sales tax, Laffoon got a bill through stripping the Lieutenant Governor of his powers, then rammed the sales tax through. Happy seized upon it as a prime issue of his campaign for Governor in 1935.

Laffoon wanted a nominating convention that year, despite Franklin Roosevelt's request for a primary. Happy waited until Laffoon left the State, then called a special session of the Legislature, to order a primary. Furious, Laffoon got it made a double primary, calling for a run-off between the two leading candidates. His man. Thomas Rhea, won the first round but Happy won the runoff, then threw himself into an election campaign that took him into every Kentucky hamlet from Big Sandy to Mills Point. Aided by Senator Barkley and Franklin Roosevelt's prestige, he beat Judge King Swope, Republican, by 96.000 votes. Then he squared off at Frankfort to bring about the reforms he had promised.

He killed the sales tax, substituted income and liquor taxes. With Governor Byrd's Virginia as his model, he reorganized the State government, abolishing 130 boards and commissions, consolidating 119 divisions into 22, including a new Department of Welfare. Aided by largesse from Washington, he balanced his budget, attacked and refunded the $28,000,000 State debt so that next year it will be all gone. He ended company police in the coal mines, cleaned up old State prisons. He got Kentucky to ratify the Child Labor amendment to the U. S. Constitution.

Kentucky law limits her Governors to one term. When Federal Judge Charles H. Moorman died this year, a way was seen for "Happy" Chandler to go up to the U. S. Senate without fighting Alben Barkley for his seat. Who approached whom with the idea of giving Senator Logan the judgeship to make way for Happy is a matter of dispute. Friends of Senator Barkley, who has ambitions to be President, say he killed the idea, lest his path to the White House seem to have an unworthy detour in it. Franklin Roosevelt asked Happy to be a good boy and wait; his reward would come. But Happy said: "The time to run is when you're in office." He went ahead full steam.

Jockeying. Around Happy and his wife in the State government at Frankfort are a hard-hitting group of officials of their own age. Lieutenant Governor (next year's candidate for Governor) is Keen Johnson, 41, former newshawk and writer for Happy's campaigns. Judge Brady Stewart of Paducah is Happy's official manager, but Johnson, State Finance Director Dan Talbott and State Highway Commissioner Bob Humphreys are the active jockeys. Knowing well that behind Barkley would be all the power of Federal patronage, they organized the State's 7,500 jobholders into an efficient Chandler machine. Campaign contributions of 2% salary (as in the Townsend-McNutt machine over in Indiana) are expected. To compete with the enormous WPA and AAA influences for Barkley, a rural State road program this year provided jobs for 3,000 additional Chandler workers. Chandler supporters are this month distributing Old Age Benefit payments by hand instead of mail. To sellers of liquor and beer Happy has given a 40-day extension of their licenses, just beyond primary day. If a lot of free drinks are not served on his behalf it will be a great shame.

Behind the opposing Barkley campaign is the Louisville Triumvirate--supposed to be the decisive force in any Democratic contest in Kentucky. This extraordinary political team is composed of Lawyer Shackleford Miller Jr.; Michael ("Mickey" j Brennan, 61, red-headed one-time saloonkeeper; and "Miz" Lennie Lee McLaughlin, 34, who looks like the Duchess of Windsor and lives in style at the Kentucky Hotel. A country belle from Breckenridge County, she got into politics via a typing job at Alben Barkley's headquarters when he ran for Governor in 1923. She runs the office of the Jefferson County Democratic executive committee. Mickey Brennan handles the people. Lawyer Miller watches the law. They were careful to get all the Barkley men they could on the Chandler-dominated election boards this year. Boss Brennan says: "Conservatively, Barkley will win by 60,000." "Miz Lennie" says 100,000.

In Action. Mr. Barkley, while traveling 1,500 miles a week and speaking five or six times a day, mostly keeps his coat on, preserves his dignity, discusses his record (99% perfect) as a Roosevelt supporter, reiterates Franklin Roosevelt's appeal for his return. His meetings open with "America." His introducers refer to him as "the next President of the United States." From the platform, Almighty God is frequently invoked in his behalf. A typical Barkley exhortation:

"To all of you, black and white, Catholic, Baptist or Episcopal, the New Deal has revived the Christian spirit of America. The man who today sits in the White House is a great Christian. He has chosen me as his first assistant. Now, are you going to let that man down? If there is a God in Heaven your vote will be no! . . . God bless each and every one of you."

Happy Chandler on the road is a sweating, laughing, singing, handshaking, baby-patting dervish. His speeches last only 45 to 60 minutes (as against 90 minutes for Mr. Barkley's). He calls first names and nicknames of people in the crowd, calls oldsters "Dad" and "Mom," old Negroes "Uncle." His sound truck plays him into the towns with Happy Days Are Here Again and he opens meetings by singing My Old Kentucky Home, is ever ready to oblige with Sonny Boy, Mother Machree or any other song the crowd calls for. Riding between towns he talks incessantly and watches for white horses, which he considers lucky. For each one he sees he licks his thumb and stamps it into the palm of his hand.

Turning Franklin Roosevelt's remarks about him to his own advantage--without quarreling with Franklin Roosevelt--was Happy Chandler's chief concern last week. Typical Chandlerisms:

"The President said, 'I have no doubt but that Chandler would make a good Senator.' What more do you want?"

But his basic appeal is brutually direct. To smalltown bigwigs partial to Barkley he will say straight out, "By God, Jim, you've got to vote for me or I'll make it tough for you!"

To people wearing Barkley buttons he walks up and, ripping off the button says: "You can't do that to me! I'm the best Governor you ever had!" That still left Happy Chandler under a Roosevelt handicap. While he told opponents, "You can't do that to me!" Barkley was telling his opponents: You can't do that to Franklin Roosevelt.

*A dignified judge. no kin to New York's redheaded, magisterial Racing Commissioner Herbert Bayard Swope. *In 1933 Mr. Chandler, thinking his mother dead, found her in Florida alive, well and remarried, took her to Kentucky to see her grand-children.

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