It is only to be expected that any proposal that President Roosevelt should be elected for a third term of office would be very keenly debated. There is all the weight f precedent against it, and that has also the support of a very large section of the public of the United States. What can be the only point at issue over the whole matter is whether the state of world affairs is such as to make it desirable, at any rate for the moment to suspend precedent and abandon what has been called by Mr. Martin J. Kennedy the third. term "myth." Support, andy powerful support at, that, for the suggestion that Mr. Roosevelt should be drafted for a third term comes from só important a figure as Mr. Harold Ickes, Secretary of Interior, who can be looked upon as someone different from those who have been raising all this third term talk for the purpose of embarrassing the President. Of that Mr. Ickes can never with justice be accused, and the fact that he supports the suggestion, must be taken as evidence of his very real belief that the interests of the United States demand that he should be asked to serve for yet another four years. Reviewing potential candidates Mr. Ickes claimed that "not one of them could be influential in world affairs and at the same time command the respect of his people." Of the powerful influence President Roosevelt has wielded in foreign affairs during the past few years there cannot be the. slightest doubt, and even though his latest appeal to the Dictator States has been productive of no particularly apparent results, there is every reason to believe that the steadfast manner in which he has supported the cause of peace has been for good, and even if he has not attained all that he must desire, there are indications that he has been exercising a moderating influence which the world may sooner or later come more clearly to appreciate. If there are still divi-siebs of opinion as to Mr. Roosevelt's internal policies, and it would seem that on them the country is still sharply divided, there can be none regarding the manner in which he has retained his popularity amongst the masses, and the probability is that, if he did decide to run again for president, he has captured the imagination of the people of the United States so much, that the prospects of his success would be by no means slim.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.