National Affairs: Jimmy on the Sawdust Trail

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Out of the crowded, hot assembly chamber of California's capitol at Sacramento walked a pair of famous sons. Arm in arm, they turned on grins that reminded many an onlooker of their fathers' smiles. Bald Jimmy Roosevelt had just been elected chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee, the Party's top job in California. Tweedy Will Rogers Jr., nominee for the U.S. Senate, had got it for him.

There had been a remarkable condition: Jimmy Roosevelt had agreed to renounce all connection with the red-fringed Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions, which once paid him a $25,000 salary to be its secretary. Will Rogers had denounced it: "It behaves like a Communist front group."

Now, for the benefit of newsmen, Jimmy publicly hit the sawdust trail. Said he: "I've never been on the far left. I have been just slightly left of center." But he was far enough to have given ill-concealed primary support to Rogers' Communist-supported opponent: Ellis Patterson.

A reporter asked: "Is this a new progressive Democratic Party?" Replied Jimmy: "Oh, no; we consider President Truman a progressive." He turned to Rogers: "Don't you think we should say Truman is a progressive and we're just strengthening his hand, Bill?" Said Rogers: "Certainly."

Hollywood had never produced a sweeter love scene.