Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 July 1936 — Page 20

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NEW YORK, July 17.—The Townsendites : are a curious group, and it is a mistake to set the movement down as radical. To be sure, they represent a ferment of discontent, and it must be that in a following so scat-

tered and numerous there are many mansions. But all the members of the cult with whom

“T've talked are convinced that the scheme on which

their movement is founded is sane, reasonable and

simple. © You can find just as many red-baiters among the Townsendites as in Wall Street or along the California: coast.

Bothing but the Constitution, and seemingly nobody has suggested to them that the Supreme Court might

- make the functioning of their plan utterly impossible.

The backbone of the movement is made up of middle-aged men originating in Iowa. The groups one sees in Los Angeles and at the tourist camps of Florida in the winter compose the Townsendites. Overwhelmingly they represent the native-born and rural regions and Pil the small cities. They seem to have "| developed almost no strength at all in either New York City or Chi- : cago. I saw Dr. Townsend briefly in Cleveland and asked him what had slowed the movement in the Eastern cities. He had no answer, but his assistant said, “Lack of money for organization.” That can hardly be the reason, because the organizational work has been self-sustaining in the othér parts of the country.

#5 = Townsend Short on Conversation

KE most venders of panaceas, Dr. Townsend

0 "seems to have very small gift for conversaon.

Heywood Broun

I encountered the good doctor along about 9 | o'clock in the morning, which is not the best time | Dr. Townsend ate his dry cereal |

for a lot of us. and let one of his lieutenants do the talking.

The gentleman was much more according to my |

preconceived picture than his chief. Obviously below the revolving pension age himself, the young man might well have been one of those leaders who coo yow into calisthenics over the radio in the morning. “The Doctor and I have just been down to look over this auditorium where the Republicans are meeting,” he said. “We are very much disappointed. It won't be anything like big enough for us. We are expecting 50,000 delegates for our convention.

o ” ” “Growing Like Wildfire”

E are growing like wildfire throughout the land,” the salesman of the party continued. “Ips the same in the cities as in the country. We haven't had sufficient funds to get our message to everybody yet, but we will. We are financed by our own supporters. Nobody has endowed us with a penny. You understand that it is our notion to give the government back to the people of America, where it ‘belongs. We have no patience with these radical ideas of Roosevelt. Most of them are alien. Many of them come fiom Russia. The Townsend plan

‘stands solidly behind the American home and the ‘American flag and the American church. And I.

might add the American dollar. But we are going to see that dollar go further. In fact, we are offering salvation to the American business man because we will bring a hundred customers to his door where previous he had one.” Dr. Townsend seemed bored. He pushed his cereal away and left a dime upon the table. The lieutenant shoved it back to him. “Breakfast is on the movement,” he said. Dr. Townsend smiled for the first time and went away.I see by the newspapers that it is to be called the Recovery Plan. That, I\ believe, is significant. It shows that the movement does not stem down into the deeply distressed. It turns its back on. readjustment. The Townsend plan may fall into other hands "and go to more remote places, but at the moment it is gnly: an old gentleman's dream of greenback pas-

My Day

! BY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT E PARK; N. Y., Thursday.—As I came out. of the dentist's office this morning, I jumped nie Bn taxicad to hurry to an appointment with my da ter at the office of the Democratic State Commi gh When we had driven about 10 blocks, I noticed that the meter flag was still up and I called to the driver. He groaned and said: “That's because you look like Mrs, Roosevelt. xe Turning around he asked: : “Could you be Mrs. Roosevelt?” 1 admitted being myself, whereupon he said: “I am honored. Won't I have something to tell my wife! Will you tell your husband he has my vote in November and I guess he has the vote of every plain man, at least any plain man who has any sense.” I laughed ‘and thanked him, and thought how my husband would chuckle at the inference that at least a part of his opposition is made up of people lacking in sense. My husband and the boys seem to be having grand. weather, at least at the start of their cruise. I can imagine how much they enjoyed dodging around among the -islands and giving the slip to their escort. Their boat draws less water than the others, and any oné who knows the coast can dare to go into *a great many little inlets and passages where a ‘Naval escort would hardly be able to follow. + Nothing pleases my husband more, in Hyde Park or in Warm Springs, than to lose the secret:service car which slways follows him when he drives his

own little car. It must be even more fun to be able:

to do it in a ship. - Mrs. Scheider and I took the noon train to Hyde

Park. It is such a short trip that I always sit in the

day coach when I have no bags. So, when we went through the diner and encountered the conductor he eyed us suspiciously, and demanded our tickets. We explained that they had been taken up in the coach and were allowed to go on. (Copyright. 1936, by United Feature Syndicate, id

‘New Books

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS— have all heard of the Haymarket riots, the

These old gentlemen are strong . for the Constitution, ¢he whole Constitution and

Upstate New York for Landon,

(The third of a series)

! BY FRAZIER HUNT (Copyright, 1936, NEA Service, Inc.)

HICKIE’S PLACE, over by the New York Central station in Buffalo, is a favorite lunchroom for railroad men who have to grab a bite and run. I drifted in there at noon immediately after the close of the Cleveland convention to pick up reactions on Lan-

don and Roosevelt.

In the course of an hour I talked to 15 railroad men. I kept tally accurately, and put down the exact replies

several of them miade.

The score was 15 to 0. There was not one Lasion man

‘in the group. Their replies ran as follows:

“I don’t see anything the matter with Roosevelt. “Landon looks all right, but 1 don’t see why I should vote

for him.” “I think T'll ride

‘along with Roosevelt.”

“Roosevelt looks good

enough for me.”

Now, of course, railroad men as a body have been among the especially favored ones, but the fact that typical representatives of the group, drifting in and out of this short-order restaurant, should have been 100 per cent for one candidate is of some significance. Almost 4,000,000 men, and nearly a half million women, are employed in the various transportation fields—roughly 10 per cent of the total number of people employed in the whole country. It is a broad but fairly accurate statement to say that between 10,000,000 and 12,000,000 votes are controlled by transportation workers. ; 8 ” + KEPT at my one-man straw vote. In all, I talked to 26 people in this little restaurant. Two of the 26 were for Landon. One of these two was a traveling salesman; the other was the driver of a beer truck. In a small beer parlor in the rear I located five taxi drivers. Three were out-and-out for Roosevelt. The other two were bitter about the way relief was being handled, but neither felt* he would vote for Landon. My next stop took me deep into the poor sections—into East Bu:falo and “Buflopole,” where more than 150,000 people. of Polish descent form a. city Within a city. With a reporter from the Buffalo Times as my guide, I called on Bishop John J. Jasiniki of the Polish National - Catholic Church, whose diocese includes

some 350,000 Poles, and runs from Buffalo to Pittsburgh. - :

In his comfortable sifting-room

we talked of world affairs, and

then I asked him rather bluntly

what his people were thinking

politically. ® 8

AM an adesenaent Republican 1f,” he answered quite frankly, “but the majority of the Polish-American people are for Roosevelt.” He hesitated a half minute when I asked him if he would attempt to name an approximate per cent. Then he answered

thoughtfully: “I would say at least.

65 per cent are for Roosevelt. You see we are mostly poor people. In making my annual visits, I find that in most homes there are pictures of Roosevelt—and the poorer the home, the larger the picture.” - When 1 asked if I might. quote him, he readily assented, and added that he was certain that his calculation would hold for all the Polish groups throughout the country. From another well-informed

«I'm for

and strictly nonpartisan observer, I received the following analysis: “In 1932 Roosevelt carried the city of Buffalo by 4000, but Hoover carried Erie County by some 10,000. It was the first time that a ‘Democratic presidential candidate ever carried Buffalo—except only when Cleveland, a Buffalo man, won the city in 1892. “In ’33 the city elected a Democratic mayor, but last year the county voted Republican by 47,000. The turnabout can be traced largely to integnal dissensions of the local Democratic Party, and dissatisfaction with the mayor. “But despite the recent local Republican landslide, Rocsevelt has a 50-50 chance of carrying the city. You can take it as a fact that the hig majority of the laboring classes will be for him.” ® 8 8 2 N a small way I found additional evidence to support this conclusion. Four steel workers, five ‘drivers of, auto-carrying trucks, and three "Negro laborers, whom I stopped one at a time on the streets, were to a man for Roosevelt. It was evident that here, at least, the class lines were sharply drawn.

Seventy miles east of Buffalo I-

‘stopped at the home of J. A. Noonan, vice president of the Western New York Milk Producers’ Co-operative. A weather-beaten, blue-eyed, six-footer of the soil and the rolling - green pastures, this dirt farmer felt that some of the New York farmers who had left the Republican Party to vote for Roosevelt four years ago would return to the fold. >

“Personally, I rather expect to vote for him again,” he said to me, “but some of my neighbors feel different. about it. Most Eastern farmers think that the Midwestern wheat, corn, farmer, and the Southern cotton grower. have had all the government favors. : “Prices’ of food have gone up on account of crop restrictions, and hundreds of millions besides have been poured into their pockets. The East had had to pay most of this bill. We dairymen and Eastern farmers have had to help pay the freight. “But still I don’t see much more that Roosevelt could have done.

years.' But, of course, most New York farm folks are against him.” . nn ; N the trail to. Schenectady, later that day, I- talked to. five people in a small motor car at a friendly gas station.

There was a Syracuse sticker on the windshield, and I casually

asked what people over their way

were thinking about Landon. “We don’t know much about { : :

and * hog

‘blinking the fact.” Second, most of ving him another four

+ that prominent Democrats have got

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

standing | the Rev. | than 1000 planted delegates in this

These two crowds typify the support on which Gov, Landon and President Roosevelt will: depend in their election race in. New York. Above is a group of ‘farmers gathered in an upstate town of.

state. the dairy section, where Landon is

is a throng of garment workers in New York Cle.

pledged ‘its backing to the President.

expected to show strength. ‘ Below Thigs pn Ha

him,” the man at the' wheel answered. And to my question of whether he would vote for him, he replied: “I haven't made up my mind yet.” His companion in the front seat cut in at this point: “Well, I have. Ta a Roosevelt man. And so is oY The driver looked a little: non- : pulsed and’ grinned. I time to

the two women and he th ian in the back seat, “Guess: that ‘goes

for all of us,” the man behind announced. Down in the General Electric city,. the 32 vote was for Hoover and ‘the Democratic Governor, Lehman. One informant, who was trying his best to be sdismissed the city in this manner:

“our middle-class “people and" Ll

who will carry or only Schenectady, hrm every other Eastern industrial city.” 3 : 8 8 D and ‘WPA jobs, unques-

“Give me the food of the world and I will capture it,” some roadside philosopher told me on this trip. : It is generally accepted that rural and upper ‘New York will

‘give Landon a majority ranging

somewhere between 200,00 and 400,000. The question then is whether Democratic: New York City can pile up a sufficient majority to counterbalance this and

"swing the whole state for Roose-

velt. ‘If I had the space; I could quote 50 garment makers, taxi drivers, ‘elevator boys, cops and - loafers

| with whom I have talked recently.

Four out of five of them have been for Roosevelt. Now and again one would launch a bitter attack on the President, mostly on account of the way relief has been handled. With all of them Al Smith has been completely discredited. . And with these four out of five the class lines have at last become clearly and rigidly drawn. Not even Tammany Hall can keep

them from voting for Roosevelt,

even if the Wigwam desired. ” ”® » went to a veteran political writer and observer for a figure prophecy. He thought for a minute or two, and then he said: “I honestly believe that Roosevelt will carry New York City by three-quarters of a million. Even if the rest of New York State gives Landon a majority of 400,000, that still leaves Roosevelt more than 300,000 to go to town on. “That fellow just can’t lose. ‘He's got. the working people with |" him. Union labor is 85 per cent | behind him. . “Of course, carry the state by as large a lead as in 1932, when he topped the list. by 596,996, but he’ll keep it just the same.”I can only put down what he says.

Next—Neither eastern Pennsylvania nor New Jersey knows

" how it will jump.’

TOWNSENDITES FOES OF F. D: RAS

BY MARK SULLIVAN ASHINGTON, July 17. — At the Townsend convention in Cleveland, several facts stand out. First, the movement is, as Mr. Frank Kent puts it, “a major political force in the land and there is no use

the leaders and members are eager to defeat Mr. Roosevelt. To quote Mr. Kent again, “They want to beat Mr. Roosevelt, and the way they want to do that is by deflecting as many votes of- ‘their followers as possible to Mr. Lemke, the Union Party candidate” - - - This wish of the Townsendites is understood by the New-Dealers and they are doing what’ they can to prevent it. The shrewd Mr. Jay G. Hayden of the Detroit News reports

themselves. chosen as delegates to the convention ‘and are “busily proselyting” against any action that would harm Mr. Roosevelt. Other correspondents name . Democratic office holders and candidates who are delegates to the Townsend convention and who try to prevent the

convention from indorsing ~ Mr. ing

Lemke, The man who has made the outspeech at the ‘convention,

“I am informed there are not less convention in the pay of the James

bie-rousing rhetoric ‘may be better than his round-number -statistics. But there is no doubt the Townsend movement is 'a menace to Mr. Roosevelt, that the Democratic ‘leaders understand this, and that they wish to'avert it. Ons way

to Sheri 1 1s 6 prevent ary formal B ment and the other tind party, the the}

Union ticket of Mr. Father Coughlin,

G. K. Smith, declared that |

about the later Senator Huey Long. When Long was making popular || headway with ‘his *“Share-the-| Wealth” slogan, Mr. Rogseyelr, June 19, 1935, sent to Congress -his message calling for a tax bill which he described as “encouraging a - wider distribution of wealth.” The differ- | ence between the two phrases, Senator Long's forthright “Share-the-Wealth” and Mr. Roosevelt's ‘“encouraging a wider distribution of wealth” is the measure of the difference between Senator Long's directness and Mr. Roosevelt's sophisticated subtlety. Mr. Roosevelt's phrase was quickly translated, in popular usage, into “soak the rich.” ~The “soak - the rich” tax encountered

proposal many misadventures, ‘too detailed to

recite here, which impaired Mr. Roosevelt's prestige. In the end it was plain that the bill did not accomplish any material sharing of the wealth. Just because this strategy of Mr. Roosevelt did not-work-well in:1935, and because Senator Long and his followers felt: outraged by: the stealng of Long's thunder—for these very reasons Mr. Roosevelt will now find it impracticable to: lure back | many of He Jostein By again using | igh Bs efts’ own thunder. This present rw of leftists from Roosevelt is determined : placabl e. : 8 ® a

rE pre present lettist. lasiii nof personal

‘and Soom ar

that he has greater rabble-rousing ability. “He has inherited all Long’s tred of Mr. Roosevelt and adds some of his own. Persons who have talked with Mr. Smith think he is conscious of his power, that he has waited until now to show it, and that during the campaign he will do as much against Mr. Roosevelt as Huey Long himself could have done. Mr. Smith’s: speech at the Townsend convention was, ‘of -its kind, an extraordinary performance. Even the experienced and skeptical Henry L. Mencken had a kind of grudging admiration for the ‘art: of it. “His speech was a magnificient amalgam of each and every American species of rabble-rousing. . . . Its: theme was not the virtues of the Townsend plan but the villainjes of the New Deal. He had not been going two minutes before ‘the Roosevelt men in the hall, so saucy last night, began to look as if they had been robbing hen roosts. He accused Jim Farley and the young professors of every infamy Somoesyable to the human . « » He is a rabble-rouser of the highest ‘voltage. . . . In the he unquestionably will draw buckets of : blood.”

s = =

addition to Mr. Smith will be |

animus. en ee OL Dern | betrayed

Mr. Smith, was the devoted lieutenant of Senator Long. Many think, indeed, that Mr. Smith-pro--

Vided some of Long's astuteness'and |

GRIN AND BEAR IT

Roosevelt won't

NEW. YORK, July 17. My admirati goes to those colleagues in the writi business who compese the ads for liquor cigarets. Two commodities long associa in the public mind with vice and huma

failure. The cigaret has earned a degree respectability since the day it was called the co nail, and a few doctors of respectable professic standing, in loose moments, have gone so far as to

that one cigaret under certain conditions, may have a sedative effect. All medical opinion insists, however, that w. is not a beverage, but medicine, to be measured by the {i drop or spoonful and taken only in urgent circumstances. Used for social refreshment it does things to the arteries, the liver and the duodenum to say nothing of the judgment and morals of the subject. - Obviously, there would be very littleimoney in a cigaret industry adjusted to a maximum consumption of one cigaret per customer in special emergencies, and a liquor trade based solely on medical rather than

package of cigarets might last a family a wh ole month and a quart of whisky would stand in the bath: room cuphoard for years along with the castor oil iodine and court-plaster. All our citizens of 40 years and up will remember that in their youth there we local anti-cigaret leagues which propagated the id that cigarets destroyed character and will pow poisoned the blood and brain and brought w young men to early graves with tuberculosis.

» » 2 Cigaret Industry Grows

GAINST this great prejudice and against the universal knowledge that cigarets are not’ for people, the industry has grown stupendously - 30 years and the clientele has taken in millions | Wome, An advance now is noted in the liquor trade as we

I have marveled at the tact, restraint and delicacy of the advertising copy commending such problen merchandise ‘to a ublie thoroughly familiar; largely through personal experience, with the unpleasant efs fects of indulgence. It would be worse than usee less to say that a cigaret or a brand of whisky ime proves the health if consumed in pay-load quantities, Bo the approach is made from quite another direce on. Cigarets are associated n the ads with pretty girls in bathing suits dnd handsome, athletic males, hire from the agency for $8 a day, to pose in country clula surroundings or driving snappy roadsters. The text “of the copy is based on subtle suggestion rather positive claim and while nobody ever is told 1 cigarets improve the fitness of competing athletes, “you gather thav certain cigarets are harmless. So, in the face of medical testimony and of an prejudice of almost religious fury, the cigaret trade has become a major industry.

i 8 8 = That Hangover Virus

whisky copy has been aware of class dis tions. There are . aristocratic family g toasting the holidays in honest” “respectability | advertise the expensive, but there are also

T'heart-to-heart ads. for 90-cent liquor, explaining

this is good, conscientous whisky, not a day one year old, diluted with pure, wholesome alc Cigarets have been much improved, for longer cause sore throats or lung frouble and it been ' definitely established that they do not n dirty little street-corner loafers of all who take first false step. Bankers and district attorneys even United States judges. indorsed by their party leaders, smoke cigarets. They also drink wh but there is still some room for improvement in product. Suffering’ humanity yearns for the nouncement that science in a white jacket, puzz over the coils and test-tubes in the ads, has discov

‘the hangover virus and ‘eliminated the same.

Merry-Go-Round

BY DREW PEARSON AND ROBERT S. ALLEN ASHINGTON, July 17.—A secret. and very nificant session took place at the White E just before Bernard M. Baruch, heaviest contrib to Roosevelt’s 1932 campaign, sailed for Europe. The tall, white-crested New York financier, of the oldest friends of the President, came down discuss the state of the nation. He took the occe to tell Roosevelt very frankly that the New Deal going too far and too fast to the left. He told the President that business men being alienated unreasonably, suggested that Roo velt was letting his sympathy for labor drive