AMERICA'S NO. 1 FASCIST

Evening Star, Issue 22366, 16 June 1936, Page 7

AMERICA'S NO. 1 FASCIST

SUCCESSOR TO HUEY LONG Governor Eugene Talmadge, dictator of Georgia, his stepped into tho shoes of the late Senator Huey Long as tho chief enemy of President Roosevelt’s New Deal. “ His face is round . . . flattened with a suggestion of Stone Age concavity.” writes one of his critics (Benjamin Stolbcrg). “But the main tiling is tho eyes. They’ peer through thick glasses—cold and cruel.” Since tho assassination of Senator Huey P Long, the role of chief critic of President Roosevelt’s Administration has fallen by’ default to Governor Eugene Talmadge, of Georgia. The Governor, like Senator Long, is a professional politician, and, like him, a successful one. He controls Georgia almost as tightly’ ns the late Senator held Louisiana, and by similar methods. And though the influence of Governor Talmadge does not yet extend much outside the South, his activities are of considerable annoyance to the Administration. He has become a force of division in the ranks of the Democratic party. Tho late Senator Long’s grievance against the Administration was its failure to accept his “ Share-the-Wealth ” programme. He revolted against President Roosevelt because rich Federal patronage in Louisiana was denied him. Governor Talmadge professes to he angry with the Administration because, he insists, it is following Communistic and Socialistic policies. But he has poltieal grievances against President Roosevelt’s advisers not unlike those harboured by’ Senator Long. He may sincerely believe, as he says, that the President is ruining the country and perverting the Democratic Party, but fundamentally he is a disappointed politician, dangerous as such men usually are. BITTER ANTAGONISM. The antagonism between President Roosevelt and Governor Talmadge, which on Governor Talmadge’s part is personal and bitter, has been dramatised by a simple accident—the fact that tho President spends his winter vacations in Georgia and refers to the State ns his second home. Years ago, when Air Roosevelt suffered from infantile paralysis, he found relief at a resort called Warm Springs, in Georgia, and he has since endowed a paralysis institute there. Each year when Mr Roosevelt visits jffie resort Mr *Talmadge emphasises his enmity b.y failing to make tho accepted official call upon the President. Two years ago, when Senator Long was threatening to draw the Southern tier of States from President Roosevelt’s leadership, it was freely predicted that he and Governor Talmadge would effect a coalition and establish a powerful schismatic group. But such a union was never formed. It was rumoured at the time that tho Senator flatlystated that “ Gene was too dumb for his ambition” and' that they- could never find common political ground. Governor Talmadge, while maintaining friendly relations with Senator Long, could never have .accepted the latter’s suiter-socialistic “ Share-the-Wealth ” programme. In fact, Governor Talmadge, far from being a Radical, is probably the most Conservative State politician in tho United States, and he has been called by Radicals America’s “ No. 1 Fascist.” A staff correspondent of the New York ‘ Times,’ although escewing a critical appraisal of the Governor’s appearance, found Air Talmadge’s political activities anything but commendable. Describing a “ grassroots ” convention which Governor Talmadge convened to solidify opposition to President Roosevelt, the journalist described the gathering as follows:—“ The meeting was shot through with Fascist sentiments. There were abundant evidences of a recrudescence of the intolerance and bigotry- of the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920’5. The paragraph hints at the various “ antis ” in Governor Talmadge’s political philosophy. He is against political, economic, or social rights for negroes. He is opposed to “ radicalism ”■—that is, social service's rendered by’ the State, Labour legislation, or other innovations in government. He is opposed to foreigners and by inference to Roman Catholics. His bete noire is the President’s “ Brain Trust,” all the members of which he considers to be Communists. He is opposed to penal reform (Georgia still mainining the chain gang system) and Government unemployment relief. Mr Stolberg reports that the Governor’s opposition to Government grants to the unemployed is grounded on the fact that it obviates the necessity of private charity-, which, he says, is a great virtue. “ Yassuh,” Air Stolberg quotes him as saying, using southern colloquial dialect, “ the New Deal killed charity-. And charity- is all there is to religion, at least to my- way’ of thinking. Roosevelt made a bunch of tramps out of the American people.” FINANCIAL DICTATOR. Anti-child labour Jaws are unknown in Georgia, and general labour welfare laws are weak, la recent years efforts have been made to introduce unionism into the southern textile mills, and Governor Talmadge has frankly, even proudly, used the power of government as a strike-breaking device. In the general textile strike of 1934 he mobilised the national guard and invoked martial law in all affected areas. In direct violation of statute he established concentration camps after the approved fashion, and into these hundreds of strikers were herded without formal arrest and with no recourse to habeas corpus. Governor Talmadge’s potential political power is of a negative, but dangerous, nature. A third party led by him could not have even the slightest chance of victory, but it could split the Democratic vote in the south and allow a national Republican victory over President Roosevelt. It is this situation which probably accounts for the Governor’s indecision about stating his plans. Although Governor Talmadge may yet announce himself as a candidate, _ his first more in that direction ended in a fiasco. The occasion was a convention called by so-called “ constitutional ” Democrats, under the leadership of Governor Talmadge and John H. Kirby, a retired southern industrialist. Delegates representing 17 States wore invited to meet in Macon, Georgia, and, it was said, they were ready formallyto designate the Govcrnor as their candidate for President. The convention misfired when tho expected 10,000 delegates turned out to he only 2.000 or 3,000. most of them office-holders under tho Talmadge regime. The attempted establishment of a new political partywas premature, to say’ the least, and the position of Governor Talmadge remained what it had been before —the principal and most picturesque critic of President Roosevelt since the death of Huey 'P. Long.