Stokes: Bricker roars at the New Deal in its den, and (obviously) it was planned that way
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Washington –
Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio, who has been browsing around the outlying precincts as a sort of Ferdinand-the-bull candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, came to the capital, to the lair of the New Deal, to change all that – and how!
He shook his big frame – and he’s a husky specimen – and began to roar in all directions – at the White House, where that man still resides, at the government buildings, where there are too many folks, as he sees it, busy about “bureaucracy,” and he even had a few suggestions for Congress.
‘Go get ‘em’
No longer was he the careful, cautious gentleman, a little timid about issues, spouting generalities.
The unveiling of the new Bricker was carefully arranged in advance, perhaps a shade too obviously, for it was a bit of a shock to see the once-amiable fellow come out talking so loud, somewhat as if he had been studiously instructed and shoved out before the footlights. You could almost hear the stage whisper:
Now get out there and tell ‘em!
He did.
Strikes at hot issues
He stepped right into the midst of the middle on Capitol Hill, which has got President Roosevelt down for the moment. He came out for state ballots in soldier voting, which President Roosevelt has called “a fraud.” He came out against subsidies, over which the Senate is wrestling, taking direct issue with the President.
He demanded that Congress pass a law to prohibit strikes in time of war and laying down “fundamental principles for the administration and adjudication of labor disputes.”
Jumping right into current controversies, while they are not, is somewhat unusual for candidates for presidential nominations, even for Wendell Willkie, who spoke up about taxes after Congress had already acted, and espoused a federal Ballot for soldier voting too late for any effect.
Strictly Republican!
Governor Bricker’s credo is strictly conservative, old-school Republican, entirely acceptable to the Old Guard element which is backing him, including Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio. He abhors the New Deal, lock, stock and barrel, and makes no bonds about it. He disagrees, he said, with the whole philosophy of the New Deal. He did not temper his Lincoln Day speech here to concede anything to the Roosevelt dispensation.
The two-day Bricker show here was quite an event for the candidate and the entourage which came on from Ohio to celebrate his launching here in the deep waters of national affairs.
Advance agents arrived days ago to pass out photographs of the candidate and his wife and their schedule to newspapers, to arrange for the press conferences of the Governor and Mrs. Bricker and for the Lincoln Day dinner last night.
Taft stands by
Republican members of House and Senate, as well as a few Democrats, filed by to shake his hand in a reception in the capital. The candidate beamed on all comers, and his henchmen glowed.
Senator Taft stood to one side, smiling. He has a stake in all this. If the Governor doesn’t make the grade, then the Senator is presumed to inherit back the organization which he has turned over for the Governor’s candidacy to use for himself at the convention.