The Pittsburgh Press (February 29, 1944)
Votes lined up right and left for Roosevelt
‘Doc New Deal’ may be dead but Hannegan’s alive and ‘merging’
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Washington –
President Roosevelt is going to be riding so many different colors of political horses in this coming campaign, all at once, that before it is all over, he will look, figuratively, like one of those circus equestrians.
At the same time, he is going to provide some neat sleight of hand so the audience won’t know whether it’s the right or left hand which is holding the reins.
His right hand was showing a few weeks ago when he dropped the term “New Deal,” a move pleasing to conservatives, in and out of his party. Lately his left hand has been showing in messages to Congress carrying such blistering phrases as “not for the needy but for the greedy,” speaking of the tax bill, and “a high-cost-of-living measure, a food-shortage measure,” speaking of the anti-subsidy bill.
Catch-all program
While the President is indulging in the higher strategy, his chief political lieutenant, Democratic National Chairman Hannegan, is working at a “catch-all” program on the lower level of practical politics.
Mr. Hannegan gave public notice of this on his recent scouting trip when he laid plans in Minnesota for a fusion of the Democratic and Farmer-Labor Parties there, which is exactly the trick the President, himself, arranged there during the 1936 campaign.
Mr. Hannegan not only approved plans for this fusion, but also said this would be a model for merger of other political groups with Democrats in other states.
Wilson’s experience
The Democrats are not going to overlook any little batch of electoral votes anywhere. Woodrow Wilson lost Minnesota by 392 votes in the very close 1916 election, but was saved by his 3,806-vote victory in California.
This year may be a replica of 1916 in its closeness.
An example of political amalgamations which will bring together all sorts of groups this year is New York, where the American Labor Party and the Communist Party will unite with Democrats behind President Roosevelt, and New Jersey, across the river, where the Communists have thrown in with Boss Frank Hague.
Poor grace in 1936
The Minnesota Democratic Party, which has been distinctly a third party in rating, did not take with too much grace the 1936 fusion which Mr. Roosevelt arranged while campaigning there. One Democratic leader, Rep. Elmer J. Ryan, spread his spleen all through the campaign train as it pulled out of the state.
Republicans now control the state, thanks to the political capabilities of former Governor Harold Stassen, now in the Navy, who left a handpicked crew in charge.
The Democrats need help now, and so do the Farmer-Laborites who ruled the state for a number of years under the late Floyd Olsen. They do not seem inclined to ask too many questions about a merger this time.