Out for Deer

Folks in Red River County, Texas, where John Nance Garner was born, have never forgiven Uvalde, where he now lives, for getting the jump on them in starting a Garner-for-President boom in 1931. Last week they repaid Uvalde in full. Six miles southwest of Detroit, Texas, around the cabin where John Garner's mother was born in 1851, they assembled to "direct the attention of our fellow citizens to his outstanding qualifications for President of the United States."

Bigwig Texas Democrats who are nursing the Garner embryo would rather have waited awhile. But when Red River County invited them to its party, they could do nothing but accept.

Out in front for Garner is snow-topped, dandyish Roy Miller of Corpus Christi, a well-paid lobbyist for Texas Gulf Sulphur Co. Roy Miller was of course the principal speaker at Red River's send-off last week. Perched on the rear stoop of the weather-blackened Garner shanty, he addressed the gathering of country folk from Possum Trot and Coon-Soup Hollow and assembled cameramen--anticipating most of the obvious objections to Garner-for-President: that he is too old (70 now; 72 by inauguration day in 1941) ; that he is reactionary by New Deal standards, that he is knifing Franklin Roosevelt or Franklin Roosevelt's man for 1940. Said Keynoter Miller:

"Today he is at the peak of his mental and physical vitality. . . . The only thing old about John Garner is his philosophy. He still believes in the old-fashioned virtues of economy, thrift and self-reliance. . . . We do, however, plant our feet firmly upon Democratic and American tradition in respect to terms of service."

This at least summarized John Nance Garner's chief strength as a 1940 candidate, his potentialities as a Third Term blocker.

Meantime, remote and mum, the Vice President hunted deer and superintended the digging of two new wells on his 23,000-acre ranch in Webb Countv.

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