"My Party & Myself"

The tanned, rugged-looking President who returned to the U. S. last week at Pensacola and proceeded at once to his "second home" at Warm Springs, Ga., was watched intently by the correspondents whose daily duty it is to report his words and deeds. Hanging in the air like a summer thunderstorm was the question: what would Franklin Roosevelt do now about his purge of the Democratic Party? Especially, what would he do about Senator Walter F. George of Georgia, on whom Roosevelt lieutenants had sicked as an opponent in next month's primary Lawrence Sabyllia Camp, Georgia's onetime Attorney General, now a Roosevelt-appointed U. S. District Attorney?

Franklin Roosevelt did not keep reporters waiting long. His swiftness caught them off guard. To a luncheon at the Warm Springs Foundation for paralysis patients, mostly children, came Lawrence Sabyllia Camp. To the surprise of even his intimates, Franklin Roosevelt arose and introduced Mr. Camp as a "gentleman who I hope will be the next Senator from this State."

Next day at Athens, Ga., accepting an honorary LL.D. from the University of Georgia, Franklin Roosevelt eschewed politics except to say that Georgia "really does not believe either in demagoguery or feudalism dressed up in Democratic clothes." He saved his full thunder-blast for that afternoon at Barnesville, Ga., where he was to throw the switch on a new REA project. Barnesville's population of 3,000 swelled to 30,000 to hear him. On the speakers' platform at his side were Senator George and Candidate Camp. When Franklin Roosevelt began to speak, all present recognized a significant emphasis and deliberateness in his delivery. Before he finished, people realized they had heard a resounding declaration of war.

After reciting his long affection for Georgia and his calling of a conference of Southerners to study the South as "the nation's No. 1 economic problem'' (TIME, July 18), Franklin Roosevelt said: "If the people of the State of Georgia want definite action . . . they must send to . . . Congress Senators and Representatives who are willing to stand up and fight night and day for Federal statutes drawn to meet actual needs. . . .

"You . . . have a perfect right to choose any candidate you wish. I do not seek to impair that right--but because Georgia has been good enough to call me her adopted son . . . I feel no hesitation in telling you what I would do if I could vote here next month. . . .

"Here in Georgia . . . my friend the senior Senator [Mr. George] . . . cannot possibly in my judgment be classified as belonging to the liberal school of thought. . . . I speak in terms of liberal and conservative, for the very simple fact that on my shoulders rests a responsibility to the people of this country. Twice I have been chosen Chief Executive with the mandate to seek by definite action to correct many evils of the past and of the present: to work for a wider distribution of national income, to improve the conditions of life, especially among those who need it most and above all to use every honest effort to keep America in the van of social and economic progress."

Liberal Roosevelt then proceeded to excommunicate Conservative George, whom he called "my old friend" and "a gentleman and a scholar," about as completely as any Pope ever cut off from grace an unrepentant sinner. He classed Walter George, a Democrat of 16 years' service in the Senate, with Republican gentlemen & scholars "like Senator Hale of Maine, Representative Wadsworth of New York and the Minority Leader, Representative Snell." He set as the criteria of cooperation "between members of my own party and myself" 1) agreement on broad objectives, 2) "Does the candidate really, in his heart, believe in the objectives?"

"I regret that in the case of my friend, Senator George, I cannot answer either of these questions in the affirmative."

While Senator George stirred uneasily and Candidate Camp sat mouse-still, the speaker then polished off the third man in Georgia's Senate race: unbrushed, unabashed Eugene Talmadge, onetime hillbilly Governor. Said Franklin Roosevelt: "I have read so many of his proposals, so many of his promises, so many of his panaceas that I am very certain in my own mind that his election would contribute little to practical government. That is all I can say about him."

Far from unanimous was the Barnesville crowd's reaction to Mr. Roosevelt's speech. They cheered their Senator as loudly as they cheered their President, especially when they saw Mr. George reach over and gamely shake the President's hand.

"Mr. President," said Mr. George, "I regret that you have taken this occasion to question my Democracy and to attack my public record. I want you to know that I accept the challenge."

"Let's always be friends," said Mr. Roosevelt. And Mr. George thought he also heard: "God bless you, Walter."

In the excitement of the moment, Mr. Roosevelt forgot all about the REA switch he was to have thrown. Someone else had to attend to it.

Leaving the Barnesville Stadium, where the affair had taken place, the mayor of Barnesville was so mad that he drove his car like a wild man, scaring his passengers --the President's good friend and onetime law partner Basil O'Connor and assistant to the Attorney General Joseph B. Keenan --to a point where there was a near-fist-fight in the car. The mayor's wife was so mad she flatly refused to drive the passengers assigned to her, White House Secretaries Steve Early and Marvin Mclntyre.

Homeward toward Washington proceeded the militant President, nor was he through purging yet. At Greenville, S. C., in the presence of Governor Olin D. Johnston and Senator Ellison D. ("Cotton Ed") Smith, he told a station crowd: "I don't believe any family or any man in South Carolina can live on 50-c- a day." Governor Johnston is the Roosevelt candidate picked to oust Conservative Smith, one of whose most celebrated Senate speeches was to the effect that in God-blessed South Carolina, 50-c- a day spells security. Further than that one crack the President did not go because South Carolina's political picture is less simple than Georgia's. Example: election of Governor Johnston in Senator Smith's place might upset the career of the President's good friend Senator James Byrnes, since he and Mr. Johnston come from the same town, Spartanburg.

Next act of the President's purging week was publication of the National Emergency Council's report to him on the sorry conditions which make the South "the nation's No. 1 economic problem." This report, citing unfavorable freight rates, lack of capital, overpopulation, low industrial wages, etc., differed little from the bill of particulars handed by NEC six weeks ago to the "group of distinguished, broadminded Southerners" called by the President to be its sponsors. Its significance last week was its timing: It provided a studious, statesmanlike background to Franklin Roosevelt's frontal attack upon Southern feudalism.

P: The Purge was a prime subject at Franklin Roosevelt's first postvacation Cabinet meeting. Next moves indicated: cracking down on Representative John J. O'Connor of New York (brother of Friend Basil), the Rules Committee chairman who fought against Reorganization and held up the Wages-&-Hours Bill; boosting Representative David J. Lewis of Maryland to overthrow Senator Millard E. Tydings. Representative Lewis' long public career, said the President, has been marked by successful efforts to help his "fellow man."

P: To the farmers of the South, the newly returned President, while still in Georgia, addressed an apology for the slow and imperfect functioning of the new Agricultural Adjustment Act. Trouble was, he explained, it was passed too late (February) to organize its administration properly in time to help with this year's cotton, tobacco and peanut crops. The President would get Secretary Wallace busy about it at once. In Washington, Secretary Wallace, worried about slumping farm prices of all kinds, sounded off to 200 AAA State committeemen : "The law is wonderful as drawn. . . . Make it work!"

P: In Nice, France, Ambassador to the Court of St. James's Joseph P. Kennedy bought, as a present for Franklin Roosevelt, a submarine harpoon gun for the sport of goggle fishing (TIME, March 28). For Mr. Kennedy's benefit, his friend, the Duke of Windsor, merged himself & gun in the Mediterranean, shot a large sea bass.

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