Merriam Merger

California's egg-headed Governor Frank Finley Merriam has done his best to deserve Columnist Westbrook Pegler's description of him as "a statesman who can be relied on to condemn the housefly and the common cold . . . never straddling the proposition that right is right and wrong is wrong." In 21 months of Republican incumbency, he has flirted with Dr. Francis E. ("$200-a-month") Townsend's plan, been for and against the New Deal, interested in the Mooney case but not interested enough to do anything about it.

Month ago he called Franklin Roosevelt a heaven-sent gift to the U. S. people. Last week he announced that he "could not spare the time" to run for President himself, graciously endorsed Governor Alfred Mossman Landon of Kansas as the second best choice. Observers, quick to see the hand of Publisher William Randolph Hearst behind the move, thought the probable split in California's Republican ranks would be more than Governor Merriam bargained for.

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