Lost Lover

One day last week when Michigan counted its primary ballots the New Deal suffered two defeats. The first, utterly inglorious, involved Emil Hurja, Democratic Boss Farley's No. 1 assistant, who was disfranchised when the election board at Crystal Falls discovered that his absentee ballot was improperly witnessed. The second New Deal defeat was that one of the scant 23 Republicans now in the U. S. Senate definitely lost his chance of returning there. He was James Couzens, who made his millions as a onetime Ford partner and his reputation for independence as a longtime (since 1922) Senator.

In last week's primary old white-crested "Jim" Couzens lost to Wilber Marion Brucker, who was Republican Governor of Michigan until he was washed out on the ebb of the Old Deal tide in 1932. Last April when Mr. Brucker decided to run against Senator Couzens he had in his favor the following facts: 1) he was born on June 23, 1894, the same day that the then Duchess of York gave birth to the now Edward VIII; 2) he was the son of a onetime Democratic Congressman; 3) he was a pre-Repeal Dry; 4) he weighed 200 lb.; 5) he was an Elk, Mason, Moose, Odd Fellow, Shriner, Legionary; 6) his favorite expression was "By Golly"; 7) he was a tireless and sometime tiring speaker; 8) his wife, Clara, played the harp. But all these things combined were outweighed by the fact that rich & radical Senator Couzens had appeared to love the New Deal too dearly since that raw day in 1933 when Franklin Roosevelt moved into the White House.

Candidate Brucker harped on Senator Couzens' defection so much that he was nicknamed "The Toy Hoover." But even these harpings did not seem to damage the Couzens popularity in Michigan at first. Instead of grubbing for renomination in the primary campaign, the Senator rented a yacht, disdainfully went off fishing on the Great Lakes. His cause was still far from lost when he returned to shore last month. Then, against the advice of friends, he boldly announced: "Believing as I do that the most important matter confronting the nation is the re-election of President Roosevelt, I intend to support him.

"The outcome of my own candidacy for the Senate is neither important to the nation nor to me. . . ." (TIME, Aug. 31.)

From that moment observers agreed that Senator Couzens would be beaten by himself and his suicidal devotion to the New Deal. Few dreamed, however, how bad that beating would be. Not only did "Jim" Couzens fall badly behind in Michigan as a whole, but even in Detroit, where his friends had predicted a majority for him, he ran a sorry second. Score: Brucker, 315,000; Couzens, 205,000.

Part of the reason for that defeat was that Michigan's New Dealers were not allowed to vote in both Democratic and Republican primaries. No less than 270,000 of them voted on Democratic ballots to nominate Detroit's onetime Mayor, popular Frank Murphy, High Commissioner to the Philippines to run against Governor Frank D. Fitzgerald who was renominated by the Republicans.

Besides the shock of having Senator Couzens badly beaten for trying to cross party lines and espouse the cause of Franklin Roosevelt, New Dealers had another in the Democratic primary for Senator. Representative Prentiss M. Brown of St. Ignace in upper Michigan, while not well-known throughout the State, was expected to win handily. Opposed by Louis B. Ward, Father Coughlin's onetime Washington lobbyist, Representative Brown polled only 124,000 votes, about 4,000 more than the Coughlinite.

Considering that Wilber Brucker had polled 315,000 votes on a strictly anti-New Deal platform, the Michigan trend against the Roosevelt Administration looked so strong to the Detroit Free Press that it published an editorial making fun of all straw votes and polls which indicated that the State was politically nip & tuck, announced that Dr. Daniel Starch's survey which had been appearing in its columns would be discontinued.

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