(See front cover) Weather: Democratic.
Track: "Dark and bloody." Course: Kentucky's Senatorial primary.
Starters: 1) Senator Alben William ("Dear Alben") Barkley, 61; 2) Governor Albert Benjamin ("Happy") Chandler, 40.
Past Performance: 1) Smalltown lawyer (Paducah, 1901-05). prosecuting attorney of McCracken County (1905-09), county judge (1909-13), U. S. Representative (1913-27), unsuccessful candidate for Governor (1923), U. S. Senator (1927-39), Democratic national keynoter in 1932 and 1936.
2) Smalltown lawyer (Versailles, 1924-29), State Senate (1929-31), Lieutenant Governor (1931-35), Governor (1935-39) after beating Republican King Swope* by 96,000 votes.
Starting Time: Aug. 6, 1938.
Odds (quoted by Gallup's American Institute of Public Opinion): "Dear Alben," 61-to-39.
If the U. S. people take their governance as seriously as some do their horseracing, next Saturday's political handicap in Kentucky ranks in national news-interest with the Derby at Churchill Downs. Of all 32 Senatorial primaries this year, Kentucky's Democratic race is the most significant and most colorful—significant because, in the person of his Majority Leader of the Senate, Franklin Roosevelt himself is in effect running to avert a rebuff to his New Deal; colorful because Senator Barkley's challenger is a brassy colt who, on sheer political form, could win in a walk if this were not a Roosevelt Handicap.
Last week the plodding champion of the Roosevelt colors was leading by several lengths. The young challenger was gaining ground, when he suddenly had to go to bed with stomachache & fever. His doctor declared that when the governor was in Louisville his drinking water was poisoned. To gather himself for the stretch run this week and next, he retired by ambulance to the executive mansion at Frankfort over the weekend while Candidate Barkley paused for breath at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville. Mrs. Chandler and Daughters Mimi and Marcella pinch-hit at Happy's meetings. Said loyal Mrs. Chandler: "Happy is absolutely certain to win."
Wheelhorse. Alben Barkley is a dependable, likable, old-dog sort of man whom no one, ten years ago, would have picked as a central character in the national scene. Today, Franklin Roosevelt wants young blood in the Judiciary but not, in this case, in the Senate. More than anything he wants "yes" men in the Senate, not "yes but —" men. In the Majority Leader, a "yes" man is essential. Where would any Administration's steamroller go if the engineer turned and argued about his orders? For this reason Franklin Roosevelt wrote as he did last summer to "Dear Alben" to swing his election as Senate Leader, by one grudging vote (38-to-37) away from Mississippi's able but too-independent Pat Harrison.