U.S. PRESIDENCY

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 68, 17 September 1936, Page 16

U.S. PRESIDENCY

CAMPAIGN BEGUN

THE LINES OF DIVISION

(From ."The. Ports. Representative.) , . . NEW YORK,, August 26.

.That there.is no honour among politicians, as among thieves, is proven by the multitude*.of parties putting candidates, forward, for the Presidency at the elections '.in November. Many of the elements forming these parties have greatly benefited through the Roosevelt regime, which has . spent colossal sums in retrieving depressed conditions. Jealousy, restlessness, and a lust for personal power are the chief causes'for "white-anting" the official Democratic Party. In spite of it all, the President is assured of a second term, though with a reduced majority. The first breach in the Democratic Party was caused by Mr. Al Smith, Mr. Hoover's opponent at the 1928' election. "You can't shoot Santa Cldus," he observed, in forecasting, with some bitterness, Mr. Roosevelt's re-election. He subsequently enhanced his flair for word-spinning by his declaration that he would "take a walk" out of the party. Simultaneously, there arose the Liberty League, financed heavily by Wall Street, the munition factories, and Big Business. Latterly, the Jeffersonian Democrat Party has widened the breach. Labour, which has profited to the exclusion of all other groups by the New Deal, is split widely. The rank and file of the American Federation of Labour may support Mr. Roosevelt, in return for his gift of "vertical," as opposed to "company" unions, higher wages, shorter hours, collective bargaining, : and better representation at the White House. The Socialists will continue to support their candidate, Mr. Thomas, in his third bid for the Presidency. The Communists have their candidate, Mr. Browder, freshly returned from the Third International T°HIRD PARTY CANDIDATE. What has been known as the Third Party has its candidate in Mr. Lembke, who is sponsored by three groups, the Social Justice unit, led by the Radio ■ Priest, who claims he has 6,000,000 members, the Share-the-Wealth faction, founded by the late Huey Long, and those who have been led by the promise of Dr. Townsend of an old age pension of £50 a month, "provided they spend it all." The Republicans, alone, have their battle lines intact. They have never wavered from their demand for a balanced Budget, facilities for overseas trade, relief from taxation, the removal of fiscal anomalies, patronage, and restrictions on business and investment. The campaign is under way. The New Dealers have mobilised a huge number of. motor-trailers, fitted with radio "public-speaker" amplifiers as well as ordinary receiving sets, for receiving and transmitting every particle of pro-Roosevelt propaganda, from whatever section of the ether it may come. These trailers, in units of thirty-two, now touring the country, carry four speakers, besides the technical personnel. Of the latest streamline-speed .model, they are labelled "Roosevelt Cavalcade." The Grand Old Party, the Republicans/recently landed from India a baby elephant, named Susannah. She has been trained to hold in her trunk a collection box for party donations. After the elections, Susannah will be presented to the district that gives the largest majority to the party nominee, Governor Landon, of Kansas. A death pact was revealed in letters read at the inquest at Nairobi on Major Charles Gaitskell, a stockbroker, and his wife, who were found shot dead in their bungalow on May 30. Floodlighting to be used in the new exhibition- building at Earl's Court. London, will produce any colour scheme or sky effect, from sunny sum- > mer to starlit night, on demand. j