PARTIES AND LEADERSHIP IN U.S.A.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 September 1939, Page 4

PARTIES AND LEADERSHIP IN U.S.A.

doubt it is perfectly true, as Mr A. M. Landon lias said on behalf of the Republican Party of the United States, that “it would be impossible to eliminate politics in dealing with the problems the European war had created unless Mr Roosevelt renounced his aspirations to a third term as President. Whether this state of affairs is creditable to those who have brought it about, or whether their altitude pays just regard to American national interests are, however, questions of another order. Talk of a possible third presidential term for Mr Roosevelt . did not originate recently and with reference to the present international, emergency. For a considerable time past some of the President’s supporters have been urging that he ought to he returned for a thiyd term in order to enable him to carry the development of his New Deal policies to a reasonably advanced stage. Ardently as it has been advocated in some quarters the third term proposal in this sha\ie has never had very bright prospects ol’ gaining national endorsement. Although there is no constitutional bar to a. third term, no American president has ever held office for more than two four-year terms, and adherence to the tradition thus established is supported by a tremendous weight of public opinion. With only domestic issues at stake, it seems unlikely that even as popular and powerful a President as Mr Roosevelt undoubtedly is could secure nomination and election for a third term. When the late Theodore Roosevelt sought election for a third term, after an interval of four years, the result was to ' split the Republican Party vote- and give the victory t'o the Democrats. A similar result might have been recorded had the present President sought election for another term in an atmosphere free from international complications and withattention concentrated on domestic issues. The unfortunate feature of the existing state of affairs is that at a lime when domestic issues may be so overshadowed by international problems as to justify a. departure from normal procedure, the routine and traditional objections to a presidential third term seem likely to carry as much weight as ever. If the European war should be still in progress at the end of next year, the United States will hardly consult its own interests or'those of humanity by substituting an untried President for the present occupant of the White House. The question, of course, is one that must he determined by the people of the United States in accordance with their own ideas, hut at an objective view it must be regretted that there are no visible prospects of the great issue of the leadership of the American nation in a supreme national and international emergency being dealt with on its merits in a nonpartisan atmosphere. In essence, the statement made by Mr Landon as spokesman for the Republican Party, appears to amount to a refusal by that party to subordinate its own interests to those of the nation.