Mrs. Farley ready to bolt her party
Won’t vote for Roosevelt, but shares Chicago suite with Mrs. Mesta, new Democrat
By Kathleen McLaughlin
Chicago, Illinois – (June 25)
Mrs. James A. Farley issued a political declaration of independence today, confirming a report that she will vote Republican unless the Democratic nominee is other than the present occupant of the White House.
Characteristic of the current state of things here, Mrs. Farley is happily sharing a suite with her longtime friend, Mrs. Pearl Mesta, widow of a wealthy Oklahoma oil man, now operating a ranch which she has bought near Prescott, Arizona. Mrs. Mesta, a lifelong Republican, will not only vote Democratic in November but will also be an Arizona delegate to the party’s convention.
Mrs. Mesta’s friends are as stunned at her conversion to the Democratic as Mrs. Farley’s are dumbfounded at her desertion of it. But, since they avoid argument by mutual consent, they are having a gay time of it.
Asked why she was here now if she was a Democrat, Mrs. Mesta smilingly replied, “Oh, I’m just snooping.”
Mrs. Farley said she and her husband had long seen eye to eye politically and that although she had registered as a Democrat, she had voted “independently” for some time.
She went on:
I believe in democracy, and we haven’t got democracy now. I have a couple of children growing up, and if it’s a case of voting for a fourth term, I simply won’t do it. That isn’t democracy.
Her favorite candidate is Governor Warren of California, who, she thinks, should be on the ticket.
She said that her husband, now in Mexico, knew she was here and added that she would be at the Democratic sessions next month.
Mrs. Robert Lincoln Hoyal of Douglas was elected head of the Arizona delegation today, the first woman to hold such a post in the history of the party. She was head of the Women’s Division of the National Committee, 1935-36 and later served as assistant to the national chairman.
Among the “regulars” is Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who explains that she attends more out of habit than because of political connection, this being her ninth Republican convention in succession.
Women are in more favorable position in the convention than at any time since 1924, the session that followed their enfranchisement, when they had 121 full delegates and 285 alternates. This year, they had 102 full delegates and 270 alternates.
States which have noticeably increased their feminine groups are Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wyoming.