Major Test

As the most populous State of the Union, New York is the major U. S. political laboratory. Last week both major parties held State conventions there/- and, in their nominations for the Governorship, set up a test of forces which may be this year's most accurate local gauge of 1940's national election.

Republican Challenge. Republicans, meeting at Saratoga Springs, were able to agree unanimously on their one best bet: District Attorney Thomas Edmund Dewey of New York County, the slim, dapper 36-year-old who has gained national publicity through his prosecution of big-city rackets (72 convictions, one acquittal, one mistrial). The mistrial in his crowning case against Jimmy Hines, alleged Tammany protector of the "numbers" racket (TIME, Sept. 19), gave his partisans a last-minute sinking spell. But they felt that public opinion blamed Justice Ferdinand Pecora (a Democrat) more severely for his ruling than Prosecutor Dewey for the question which evoked it.** Last week, amid cheers, they brought him on-stage to begin an onslaught which they hoped might start a national Republican resurgence.

Representative Bruce Barton, famed adman-into-politician who conceives that at present his most useful function is as articulator of his party's ideas, hung a national backdrop for Nominee Dewey with a speech about the New Deal's shortcomings and how Republicans would mend them. "The next national campaign," he key noted, "will not be fought between a liberal party and a reactionary party. There is no place in America for a reactionary party. The next national campaign will be between a Republican liberal party and a Democratic radical party."

Tom Dewey, born in Owosso, Mich, and schooled at the University of Michigan, intended to cultivate his voice when he migrated to Manhattan 15 years ago Instead, he worked his way through Columbia School of Law by singing in churches. At Saratoga, the ringing baritone which was to have embellished the concert stage clarioned, in tones which rivaled the radio Roosevelt, a challenge as carefully prepared as any legal brief. He expanded his character as a scourger of city lawbreakers into that of a State champion against "the biggest racket of them all ... politics for profit."

Said he: "Without meaning to be so, any Democratic Governor is, perforce, the good-will advertising, the front man, the window dressing for what is in part, at least, a thoroughly corrupt machine. . . . That politics should be in disrepute in this, the greatest of democratic countries, is a crime against the people. The science of representative government should be, it must become, our most honorable profession. For politics is the lifeblood of democracy.

"Let us prove that democracy can maintain itself as master of its own destiny, feed its hungry, house its homeless and provide work for its idle; and prove that these things can be done without reliance on political racketeers."

Democratic Reply. Listening anxiously at Rochester, delegates to the Democratic State convention (among them, Jimmy Hines) little guessed that these fighting words were to help their cause. Governor Herbert H. Lehman, 60, after three two-year terms, the last of which he undertook only to help his friend Franklin Roosevelt carry New York in 1936, had flatly refused to be drafted again. By a new constitutional amendment, the next Governor's term will be four years. Governor Lehman wanted to run for the Senate seat of the late Dr. Royal S. Copeland, leave the rigors of Albany for two years of easier but more nationally significant service in Washington, then retire for the sake of his health and his family.

Bald, bold, honest, able--but tired-- Herbert Lehman felt he owed nothing further to Franklin Roosevelt, with whom he broke last year over the Supreme Court issue. He remained adamant. Jim Farley, who went to Rochester as State as well as National Democratic chairman, last week "put the heat" on him in vain. Then came Nominee Dewey's fighting words.

Governor Lehman himself launched Tom Dewey's political career by making him a special rackets prosecutor three years ago. His own drive on crime-in-politics is one of honest Herbert Lehman's proudest boasts. Tom Dewey's suggestion that even Herbert Lehman was an unwitting tool of criminals did what Jim Farley's eloquent party appeals had failed to do, drafted Lehman again for Governor. In accepting the nomination, he said he would run only if State Supreme Court Justice Charles Poletti would run for Lieutenant-Governor, help carry the load after election. Governor Lehman promptly dropped on young Tom Dewey a cold, wet blanket:

"Aside from his work as a public prosecutor, Mr. Dewey has had no experience or training in any governmental work. He is entirely inexperienced in either administrative or legislative activities. There is no indication that he is familiar with either the fiscal or social problems of government of a great State of 13,000,000 people."

To run against Senator Wagner, Republicans named John Lord O'Brian, 64, of Buffalo, trust-busting U. S. District Attorney under President Taft, assistant U. S. Attorney General under President Hoover, brilliant defender of TVA's constitutionality for the New Deal. To replace Senator Copeland, the Democrats named Representative James Michael Mead, 52, chairman of the House Committee on Post Offices & Post Roads, one-time professional ballplayer and Capitol cop; the Republicans, Italian-born Edward Corsi, 41, deputy welfare commissioner of New York City.

/- So did the Socialist party, which nominated its perennially cheerful loser, Xorman Thomas, for Governor. Said he: "I know I'll not be elected Governor--we might as well be honest about it." **In seeking to prove Jimmy Hines's connection with the ''numbers" racket, Mr. Dewey in cross examination asked a witness whether Hines in an earlier investigation had been connected with the poultry racket--not mentioned in the indictment.

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