1939: Democratic Party

The Democratic party in 1939 continued its control of the Federal Government and of most state governments. When the 76th Congress convened on Jan. 3, 1939, there were 262 of the 435 members of the House of Representatives who were Democrats; 169 were Republicans; and 4 were classified as Independents. In the Senate, the relative strength of the Democrats was even greater; of the 96 Senators, 69 were Democrats, 23 Republicans, and 4 Independents. With a Democratic President in the White House the party's dominance of the national government was complete.

The dissension within the Democratic party which had been so conspicuous during the previous year was much less noticeable in 1939. Of course, this comparative harmony within the party may be largely attributable to the simple fact that, quite by chance, nothing occurred to bring the factions into conflict with each other. Seasoned observers, though, believe that a much more logical explanation of the apparent unity among the Democrats is to be found in the eagerness of their party leaders to avoid disruptive party disputes just before a presidential-election year.

The results of the elections in 1939 may have been an important factor in bringing about a willingness on the part of the Democrats, who had been fighting among themselves, to bury their differences, at least temporarily. Although the Democrats elected 262 Representatives to 169 for the Republicans, the difference in the total number of votes cast for two parties for members of the House was not nearly so great. Moreover, the gain of the Republican party in the numerical vote from the 1936 to the 1938 election was so marked as to suggest an important shift of public support away from the Democratic party. In 1936, for instance, the Democrats, in the vote for Representatives in Congress, had received 24,906,389 votes to 18,104,649 for the Republicans; whereas, in 1938, the Democrats received 27,989,751 votes to the Republicans' 26,837,245. It can be seen that the lead of well over 6,000,000 votes in 1936 was reduced to little more than 1,000,000 in 1938.

There was widespread speculation as to whether the drastically reduced numerical lead of the Democrats was the result of purely local conditions and Democratic factional quarrels, or whether it represented a growing unpopularity of the New Deal. This latter conclusion, it was widely rumored, was the opinion of several Democratic leaders who hitherto had not been wholly unsympathetic to the Roosevelt program.

Shortly after the beginning of 1939, on Jan. 7, in speaking at the Jackson Day Dinner in Washington, President Roosevelt referred to the struggle going on within his party between liberals and conservatives and virtually invited the latter to leave the ranks of the Democrats and join the Republicans. In retrospect, this fighting speech of the President seems to belong more to the history of the Democratic party in the discordant year of 1938 than to the relatively harmonious year of 1939. Thereafter, nothing seriously disturbed the outward calm and solidarity of the party.

The Democratic National Committee, at the close of 1939, showed signs of trying to outmaneuver the Republicans in fixing a date for the National Convention which will select the party's presidential nominee for 1940. It has been customary for the Democrats to meet after the convention of the rival party, but the Republicans indicated that for strategic reasons they would like to reverse the procedure in 1940. Plainly the change was unacceptable to the Democrats, who were evidently prepared to await the announcement of the Republican Convention date before naming their own.

For the Democratic presidential nomination, Vice President John N. Garner and Paul V. McNutt, Administrator of the Federal Security Agency and former Governor of Indiana, were avowed candidates at the close of 1939. Chief among the others, who had not publicly announced their candidacy but who were generally considered as possibilities, were Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Postmaster General James A. Farley, who at the close of 1939 continued to be Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Naturally, until President Roosevelt makes a definite statement as to his attitude toward a possible third term, he, too, must be included among the prospects for the Democratic nomination.