Fourth Gear

The Fourth Term drive moved into high gear. Top Democrats, in fact, were no longer campaigning for Franklin Roosevelt's renomination but for his reelection.

A mortal blow to the hopes of anti-Rooseveltians within the Democratic Party had been dealt by the primary triumphs of New Dealing Senators Claude Pepper and Lister Hill (TIME, May 15). More than ever the President looked like his Party's one & only hope in 1944. A Gallup poll indicated that 50% of those who plan to vote for him will vote for a Republican if Roosevelt does not run.

The steam roller moved on. From labor, which only six months ago had been openly hostile, Franklin Roosevelt got double assistance. C.I.O. President Phil Murray plumped loudly for Term IV, amid cheers and whistles at the Steelworkers Convention. And the A.F. of L. once more delayed John Lewis' plea for readmission to its ranks, thus spiking John L.'s chance to swing the A.F. of L. into the anti-Roosevelt column. Angrily, Lewis withdrew his application, cursing the A.F.of L.'s "servility to the Administration."

In Manhattan, square-jawed Bob Hannegan, the Democrats' bustling national chairman, said flatly that Franklin Roosevelt would be the candidate in November. This was only his personal opinion, he declared, but Washingtonians know that Bob Hannegan can and does see the President whenever he wants, through the White House back door. Hannegan then devoted two-thirds of his speech to an assault on New York's Governor Thomas Dewey ("who copies down the answers on his little slate after the examination is all over"). In Collier's, Alben Barkley, sublimely oblivious of his dramatic break with the President, used 3,000 words to say why he, too, is for Term IV.

"A Bad Habit." Franklin Roosevelt did a little spade work on his own. While White House reporters stared incredulously, Montana's bitterly anti-Roosevelt Senator Burton K. Wheeler walked in for his first White House visit since the spring of 1940. After a 45-minute chat, Burt Wheeler emerged, told newsmen that he and the President had discussed the coming 100th anniversary celebration of Samuel F. B. Morse's telegraph.* Burt Wheeler added: "I'm against a fourth term, or a third term, for any President." But diplomatic relations had at least been reestablished.

By week's end Franklin Roosevelt had at least 535 convention delegates either pledged or favorable to him. This week he would corral California's 52. Number needed to win the nomination: 589. Except for the vice-presidency, the Democratic convention could be held by mail.

*On May 24,1844, Morse sent his first telegraphic message from the Supreme Court chamber.

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