Ex-Governor Ely of Massachusetts seeks nomination in home state
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington –
Moving boldly in Massachusetts against President Roosevelt’s renomination, anti-New Deal Democrats are out in the open today with their threat to bolt the party if necessary to block a fourth term.
Success of this anti-fourth-term strategy would inevitably obtain election of a Republican President next November.
The Democrats who hope to het Mr. Roosevelt out of the White House are reconciled to that., they seek, primarily. To eliminate the President as party leader and to regain control of the organization foe regular Democrats.
The movement was formally launched in Boston last night with announcement that former Governor Joseph B. Ely was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in that state only. His name will not be entered in other states.
The maneuver frankly was acknowledged to be designed to block a fourth term. The Massachusetts presidential preference primary is on April 25.
Third party planned
The pattern sketched by Mr. Ely’s manager envisages a conservative Democratic bolt, organization of a third party and nomination of a Jeffersonian Democratic presidential and vice-presidential ticket if Mr. Roosevelt is nominated against at Chicago next July.
Mr. Ely led the Alfred E. Smith Stop-Roosevelt movement at the 1932 convention. He participated in the futile 1936 convention of Jeffersonian Democrats in Detroit. He opposed a third term.
Most significantly, the 1944 Stop-Roosevelt movement has cemented roots. Senator David I. Walsh (D-MA) is reliably reported to be backing Mr. Ely. It is in the Senate that any national conservative Democratic movement probably have to be originated.
Somewhat the same strategy has been tried before in half-hearted fashion. Mr. Smith “took a walk” in 1936. It got nowhere.
To succeed this year, it would require bold cooperation in other states and so far, the Stop-Roosevelt movement has been more word than action throughout the country. It is known, however, that former Postmaster General James A. Farley has been hopeful that several Southern and other states would put up favorite-son candidates who would withhold delegate votes from Mr. Roosevelt at the Chicago convention.
Difficult job faced
If enough did so, considerable shine would be removed from the Draft-Roosevelt movement begun here last month by the Democratic National Committee.
To make the plan work, the difficult business of setting up a third party would have to be undertaken in the event of Mr. Roosevelt’s renomination and it should present a ticket which would allay the fears of Southern Democrats at the idea of a bolt.
Senator Ellison D. Smith (D-SC) has already proposed Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-VA) as the ideal candidate of the south for the presidential nomination. Senator Edwin C. Johnson (D-CO) recently proposed that Mr. Roosevelt retire and that the Democrats nominate Gen. George C. Marshall.
There is bitter feeling in the South against the administration on some issues, notably those raised by the President’s Committee on Fair Employment Practices which is endeavoring to give Negroes a better position in industry.
Unrest in North
And there is conservative Democratic unrest in the North and, generally, throughout the country. Vice President Henry A. Wallace, who feels sure Mr. Roosevelt will be reelected this year, has just returned to Washington acknowledging that the Midwest is inclined to be off the reservation.
But against these factors is the unanimous action of the Democratic National Committee last month in urging Mr. Roosevelt to run again. Likewise, the great Democratic political machines in Chicago, New Jersey and New York are whooping it up for a fourth term.
Furthermore, the Democrats have no other candidate who would have a chance to be elected, according to the best judgment of most observers hereabouts.
The opening of the anti-fourth-term campaign, for those reasons, does not throw any great shadow over Mr. Roosevelt’s prospects.
How serious the threat may actually be depends on developments and, for instance, how Mr. Ely and any other anti-Roosevelt candidates run in their own states. It also depends on how real is the threat to form a third party if the President is renominated.
Charles H. McGlue, Mr. Ely’s campaign manager:
It is entirely possible that if Mr. Roosevelt is nominated, the Ely forces would join with other “Jeffersonian Democrats” in the country to nominate a separate slate for President and Vice President.
‘America Firster’ challenges Wallace
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Gerald L. K. Smith, head of the America First Party, today offered to debate with Vice President Henry A. Wallace on the necessity of the United States taking “suggestions of philosophical help from Communist Russia” on its post-war problems.
Mr. Smith issued the challenge in a telegram to Mr. Wallace last night and said he would meet Mr. Wallace at St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh or Philadelphia.
Mr. Smith said in the telegram:
You are quoted as praising the Communist regime of Stalin’s Russia. You represent a substantial number of American people who are pro-Communist and in agreement with your philosophies. I represent several million Americans whom you are now attacking. Because we are America Firsters and because we recruit our followers from the right and center you call us Fascists.
A national America First rally is scheduled to be held at St. Louis March 30.