No Man's Land

In last week's lull between the opening cannonades of the great Word War of 1936, disgruntled Democratic veterans and guerrilla chieftains made news maneuvering in the political No Man's Land between Republican and Democratic trenches.

Long foreshadowed had been the moves of the stalwarts on the Right. Colonel Henry Breckinridge, who assured himself of a cool reception at Philadelphia this week by opposing Franklin Roosevelt in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland primaries, announced that he would not appear to receive it. So did New York's Physician-Senator Royal S. Copeland, conservative oldtime Tammanyman and warm friend of William Randolph Hearst, who has long been at odds with the President and "General" Farley over matters of privilege and patronage. Governor Eugene Talmadge, a practical politician who wants to go on holding office in a Democratic state, assured a state committee meeting which had just pledged Georgia's delegation to Roosevelt that, while he might or might not go to Philadelphia, he would be on the right side when the fight begins.

Not much more startling, though it exploded in the headlines with a far louder pop, was the final pre-convention volley fired at the Democratic army by its embittered Lost Battalion. Ever since he proclaimed to the Liberty League and the nation last January that he might "take a walk" at Philadelphia, observers have been waiting for Al Smith to take his first step. He waited until the day before the convention began and then, with Joseph B. Ely, James A. Reed, Bainbridge Colby and onetime New York Supreme Court Justice Daniel F. Cohalan for co-signers, released an open telegram summoning convention delegates in the names of Jefferson, Jackson and Cleveland to nominate a "genuine Democrat" (which "would necessarily involve the putting aside of Franklin D. Roosevelt''), or give up their Party name.

The proclamation, a Liberty-League re-hash of the New Deal, closed with a threat: "If you fail, then patriotic voters of all parties will know unhesitatingly to what standard they must rally in order to preserve the America of the great leaders of the past."

This was generally assumed to mean that the dissident Democrats would vote, and perhaps campaign, for Alf M. Landon. But by the time their telegram, in preparation since March 9, had been made public, there were two standards to which Al Smith & Co. could rally.

Guerrilla Union. Far to the Left in No Man's Land, early last week, appeared signs that guerrilla leaders were at last moving to unite their private armies, declare war on both old Parties. In Chicago, Rev. Gerald L. K. ("Share-the-Wealth") Smith announced on behalf of himself and his new ally, Dr. Francis E. ("The Plan") Townsend, that they had reached "a loose working agreement" with the inflationist leaders, Detroit's Father Charles E. Coughlin and North Dakota's Representative William Lemke. To his new Manhattan headquarters went Father Coughlin to prepare for a radioration at week's end on "Why I Can Support Neither the New Deal nor the Old Deal." Questioned about a third party, the political priest explained that canon law forbade his actually starting one. But he readily admitted that a candidate was in view, that a platform had been submitted to him "through a third person," that the candidate had only to accept the platform and announce his candidacy to gain the Coughlin endorsement. The announcement, said he, might come any day from New York, Boston or Washington.

Mention of Boston strengthened a report that the priest had been engaging in a third-party flirtation with Joseph B. Ely. That two-time Governor of Massachusetts quickly denied knowing anything about it. Six hours before Father Coughlin went on the air, Representative Lemke, House member of the famed team of Frazier & Lemke, whose last bill proposed to lift farm mortgages with $3,000,000,000 worth of greenbacks (TIME, May 25), announced himself the Union Party's candidate for President. Picked to run with this Yale law graduate as Vice-Presidential candidate was a Harvardman, Thomas Charles O'Brien of Boston.

An amiable, freckle-faced man who likes Chihuahuas and gladioli, usually appears in unpressed clothes with a stubble on his chin, and who has been connected with almost every farm organization in the Northwest, William Lemke thinks and speaks with a well-trained mind. Even colleagues who question his judgment concede his ability and conscientiousness. Well-versed in insurgent politics by his long career in North Dakota's Non-Partisan League as it wrested control of the state Republican machine from Old Guardsmen, Candidate Lemke replied last week when asked how he was going to finance his new party: "I am not concerned about finances. Money is considered important only when deals are to be made and the sovereignty of the people bargained away before election."

Working as ticket agent and brakeman on the Boston & Albany Railroad to earn his way through Boston Latin School and Harvard served slow-spoken, bespectacled, 225-lb. Thomas Charles O'Brien in good stead. Soon after he had his law degree he became counsel for the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, has since made his name as a Labor lawyer. Switching parties is nothing new to him. Elected a district attorney in 1922 as a Republican, he tried for a Democratic Senatorial nomination in 1930, has currently been trying again with Coughlin backing.

"Lemke and Yale, Agriculture and Republican!" roared Father Coughlin by radio. "O'Brien and Harvard, Labor and Democrat! East and West! Protestant and Catholic, possessing one program of driving the money changers from the temple, of permitting the wealth of America to flow freely into every home."

The Coughlin-Lemke-O'Brien platform was a marvel of inclusive appeal to every crackpot and malcontent in the land. Briefly, it proposed to create a common-man's Utopia by legislative fiat. For Lemke-Coughlin inflationists there was to be a government central bank, with complete control of money and credit, which would issue new currency to retire all Government bonds, refinance all farm and home mortgages. For Townsendites, there was "assurance of reasonable and decent security for the aged." For Share-the-Wealthers, there was limitation of individual incomes and inheritances. For the benefit of anyone not wholly beguiled by these promises, it was also proposed that Congress should guarantee a living wage to every laborer, profitable production to every farmer, prosperity to every small businessman, a job to every youth.

Significance. Had Huey Long lived, opined General Hugh S. Johnson last week, a third party might have brought defeat to Franklin Roosevelt next November. But even with Huey Long dead and leadership of his scattered Share-the-Wealthers fallen to a fustian evangelist; even with Priest Coughlin well past his peak of popularity; even with Dr. Townsend stripped of prestige by a Congressional investigation and minus the shrewd boss who whipped his inchoate following into a potent political organization--yet the birth of the Union Party brought grins to Republican faces, shivers to Democratic spines.

In Philadelphia, "General" Farley refused all comment except to snap when asked if the new party had changed Democratic campaign plans: "Why should it?"

"Governor Landon," crowed Governor Landon through a Topeka spokesman, "welcomes all sincere persons and all sincere parties to the great public debate which will be concluded at the ballot box this year."

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