Candid Friend

To many a run-of-the-mine U. S. politician, Franklin Roosevelt is a phenomenon as overpowering and unpredictable as lightning. But bald, compact Banker Herbert Henry Lehman, who served under Franklin Roosevelt as lieutenant governor of New York from 1929 to 1933, and succeeded him in Albany when he went to the White House, has yet to be overpowered by his old friend Frank. Since Governor Lehman saw fit to attack the President's Court Plan last year, he has become an increasingly candid friend. Last week, independent Governor Lehman abruptly swept some of the Administration's political calculations into a cocked hat.

Since the terms of Senator Robert Wagner and Governor Lehman are both expiring, the death of Senator Royal S. Copeland fortnight ago left the most populous State's three biggest political jobs to be filled at once. Because Governor Lehman was drafted against his will to strengthen the New Deal ticket in 1936 and then did not prove as big a vote-getter as the President, the assumption was that he would step aside in favor of another gubernatorial candidate, possibly popular Bob Wagner. While Franklin Roosevelt's lieutenants pondered what would be the best political line-up to meet this unexpected situation in a key State, a snag arose. Executive Secretary Alex Rose of New York's young American Labor Party, which cast almost 300,000 highly welcome Roosevelt votes in 1936, indicated that his party would not form a coalition with the Democratic (or any other) ticket unless A. L. P. could pick the nominee for one Senator and for lieutenant governor. For Senator, said Mr. Rose, his party would like the Amalgamated Clothing Workers' dynamic little president, Sidney Hillman.

This declaration gave the big State's big Democrats plenty to talk about as they rode to Senator Copeland's funeral, held at his rambling white home in peaceful Suffern. After the funeral Herbert Lehman returned to his summer place at nearby Purchase, picked up the telephone, dictated a 25-word statement to his secretary in Albany: "If my party desires me to be a candidate for the office of U. S. Senator to succeed Senator Copeland, I will accept the nomination." Some leaders rejoiced, others fumed. Franklin Roosevelt and Postmaster General Farley got together for a hasty conference. But such are the rules of party politics that, by his adroit and well-timed move, Governor Lehman had practically appropriated for himself one place on the ticket which the Roosevelt Administration had counted on disposing of.

The Lehman candidacy also sidetracked any ambitions Laborite Hillman might have had, since Democrats would find it inexpedient to nominate two Jews for the Senate. It soon appeared, moreover, that Governor Lehman's ambitions might extend over a front wider than the Senate Chamber. Almost immediately after he announced his candidacy, his loyal Attorney General John J. Bennett Jr., also without consulting party leaders in Washington, announced his candidacy for Governor. And two days later, Candidate Lehman, speaking before 300 welfare officials at a conference at Saranac Inn, sounded a distinctly candid note by suggesting a purging of swollen Relief rolls, warning Spender Roosevelt that "the distribution of public moneys can destroy individual independence and group relationships."

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