ROOSEVELT’S THIRD TERM

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 January 1939, Page 12

ROOSEVELT’S THIRD TERM

PROSPECTS DISCUSSED. Douglas Williams, chief New York correspondent of “The Daily Telegraph and Morning Post,” writes: — None of the 32 Presidents of the United States has ever served more than two statutory terms of office of four years apiece, consecutively or otherwise. If, at the 1940 presidential election, J President Roosevelt decides to present himself as a candidate for the third time, he will be running counter to one of the strongest traditions of American political life. Even the original framers of the American Constitution envisaged the potential danger to the “free institutions” of the country if the same man held presidential office for repeated terms, and one of their first suggestions was for a seven-year term with the incumbent thereafter for ever ineligible for re-election. George Washington, the first President to serve a double term, refused further office, while the great Jefferson, I who followed him to the White House: j a. few years later, solemnly warned the • people never to permit a President to } hold office for more than eight years. His advice remained unchallenged for more than a century, until the days of, President Ulysses Grant, the hero of Appomattox, who, having served two 'terms, was prepared to stand for reelection after a lapse of four years on his return from a triumphal world tour. i I Grant, however, was finally beaten before nomination, when his opponents’ taunts of "Caesarism” and “Royal Family” finally swung the Chicago Convention of 1880 against him. Grant, however, remains the only Pre-' Isident to serve two terms and actually make an open bid for a third. I I Thus, if Roosevelt does run in 1940, ( 'he will face the risk of being defeated,, possibly amid the atmosphere of bitter-' i ness and frustration that was the fate 'of other two-term Presidents such as • Wilson, Hoover, and Theodore Rocseivelt, even before the expiration of thei 'second term. It is, however, safe to • presume—if one may predict at such 'an earlv stage—that Franklin D. | Roosevelt will stand if he thinks lie 'can win. I He enjoys office, has immense execu-, 'live ability, and despite the severe rebuffs he has suffered in the past two years retains, unshaken, complete faith in his own Messianic role in conducting the nation’s affairs. In all his Now Deal battles he is always utterly: convinced that he is right and that his! opponents are misled; and. above all.| he feels—and perhaps rightly so —that I the bulk of the people are with him 1 in his efforts to make life easier for i

the under-privileged, the under-nour-ished and the Forgotten Men. NEW DEAL AT STAKE. Mr. Roosevelt enjoys a fight, and conducts his campaigns, despite his physical disability, with a buoyant entrain and flaming enthusiasm that are always the wonder of friend and foe alike. As one American political j writer recently wittily remarked: “He will be no Hamlet brooding over the them of ‘to run or not to run.’ ” His mind will be made up and whether he runs himself or appoints a nominee as the candidate he will bend every . ounce of energy to achieve success. It must not be forgotten that far more than personal issues are involved in the 1940 election. The whole future I and development, of Roosevelt’s famI ous New Deal programme, an experiiment in social reform of vaster scale land broader scope probably than any i previously attempted in history, w’U be at stake. If the New Deal party j is defeated and succeeded by a form i of modified and modernised Republic- | anism, then Roosevelt’s carefully pre- | pared framework will be destroyed, or 'at least seriously impaired, and, above jail, deprived of the impetus and drive I with which its originator inspired it. • The Republicans are keenly alive to the necessity for inspiring their party leaders with a more up-to-date programme more closely in keeping with modern trends of thought. ' 1 Mr. Roosevelt's social experiments,' arousing as they have done, national interest and striking into the hearts of the people, attracted innumerable adherents to the Democratic cause. To win these turncoats back, the Repub- ! licans now realise, after several years of inept and muddling activities, that they must adopt, a new, clear-cut policy of their own on lines which —while perhaps more conservative than Mr. , Roosevelt’s startling theories—will, still offer to the electorate some porjtion of the benefits which Mr. Rooseivelt claims the New Deal confers on i American citizens. i Three former Presidents left the 'White House with uncompleted pro-’ grammes of great national import— Jefferson, Jackson and Theodore Roose-! velt. Jefferson, however, managed to ( 'prolong his power after leaving office by virtually naming his two consecutive successors, Madison and Monroe,' both of whom served two terms, and, i dictating their policies during a periodof sixteen years. ' Few important decisions in American political and government life were taken during that time without refer-: ence to the Sage of Monticello, as Jefferson become known, after he had re-! tired to his country retreat. j A PRESIDENT’S PRESTIGE. | It is possible that Roosevelt’s sup-; porters will urge that the country cannot at this stage of the New Deal,|

i deprive itself of the services of Roosevelt, and that an emergency exists such as George Washington referred to when, discussing the question of a third term, he wrote that “he saw no propriety in the State excluding itself from the services of any man, who, in a great emergency, appeared capable of serving the public.” Surveys recently completed by popular magazines in the United States still produce evidence of Roosevelt’s personal popularity with the rank and file of the nation, especially among farmers, factory hands, labourers, negroes, and, above all, the poor and the unemployed. It is probably true to say, however, that many of his supporters like his general economic and social objectives better than his methods of obtaining them, which, at times, appear abrupt and impulsive, or his choice of helpers and advisers. Another canvass, although taken on a restricted scale, on the question of ' whether people thought Roosevelt should or should not stand for a third term, produced an adverse vote of more than 65 per cent. Moreover, in considering the 1940 outlook, the results of the recent Congressional elections must not be overlooked. Millions of Americans who voted at that time registered one of those shifts in public opinion that have always been such a marked feai ture of American political history. AfI ter years of almost complete oblivion. I the despised and harassed Republicans ' scored substantial gains and re-emerg-ed as a strong opposition. Normal mo-

mentum during the next two years may still further increase their political comeback, although Roosevelt, a politician to his finger-tips, and a skilful bargainer, may check them by temporising or moderating some of his most criticised policies. Many feel that he might be wiser to present himself more often to the (country as President, and less as leadler of a party or faction. As President of his country, and when speaking for the nation in an emergency Roosevelt is at his best, and there are few , Americans, even among his bitterest enemies, who grudge him admiration I in his dignified and firm handling of America’s affairs with foreign nations. | Meanwhile, amid the gathering storm of the third-term issue, Roosevelt him- , self remains silent and unperturbed, 'still regarding the world with that i translucent frankness and vivid zest i in life that make his personal charm, 'so irresistible. No matter what may I happen in the world of polities, his palate for living remains unimpaired, his appetite for work unspoilt. He likes to rule, and he likes to j fight. A friendly—what his fellow-, Americans call a “folksy”—leader, steeped in the law, tradition, and spirit of America, he is eager at all times to uphold and increase the dignity, pres tige and standing of his country- in the world.