AMERICA'S PRESIDENT.

Evening Star, Issue 25226, 13 July 1944, Page 4

AMERICA'S PRESIDENT.

Next week the preliminaries connected with the Presidential election in tho United States in November will be advanced another stage with the opening of the Democratic Convention. Mr ■Roosevelt has announced that he will accept nomination for a fourth term, and there appears to be no doubt that he will be selected as the party's candidate. The (Republicans have already chosen Mr Thomas E. Dewey to carry their flag, but on present appearances his chances of success in the big test that lies ahead are small. Mr Roosevelt says that he will not run in the usual partisan political sense. His chief concorn will be with the war, and he feels that his groat responsibilities will not be ended till peace with victory arrives. The President is not a strong man physically, but what ha lacks in that way he makes up in intellectual vigour, courage, and determination. It can he understood, after all he has gone through in the last five years, that he would like to Jay aside the burden of office and rest in his quiet home far from the madding crowd, but it

I would he a blow, not only to many patriotic Americans, but to people of other Allied countries, if ho wero to make such a decision. Mr Roosevelt's actions were irreproachable in the days preceding America's entry into the war. and since then ho has been a tower of strength to the United Nations. Mr Roosevelt has not only had to overcome the hostility of the isolationists, now a very small number in the country, but he has never been popular with the business men. It has been said that even when his New_ Deal was pumping billions of dollars into circulation to restore the blood stream of trado during the depression thoy _ resented his interfering with their right to enrich or ruin the country as they chose. Roosevelt has always been the working man's candidate, and the small people have given him strong support. It is suggested that if he wins the election his victory may be an empty one, for the reason that he will probably face a hostile While the war lasts ,however, domestic issues are of minor concern, and it can hardly be believed that the American people will change their President so long as the present intense world struggle continues. Furthermore, Roosevelt's greatuess is recognised, and even now his name is coupled with those two Olympians, Lincoln and Jefferson. Ono great asset the President possesses is his willingness to co-operate with the other lenders of the United Nations, and that has been no small factor in the successes they have achieved.