The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-06-27

American membership IN the lnterna-
tional Court of Justice this subject
probably will be removed from the
field of issues not onlg in the next
presidential campaign but in the pre-
convention campaign of the winter
months.
A careful reading Of the various
leaflets and pamphlets printed for
public perusal by the national Demo
cratic and the Republican committees
disc,oses the fact that the leaders of
the two parties recognize the absence
from the field of anything which re-
sembles a real issue between the rival
political organizations.
1t may instantly be said that the
League of Nations still is an issue.
So 1t is. but it is not an issue which
has complete and consolidated sup
port or opposition in either party.
There are plenty of Democrats. as the
peoples ears have told them, who are
opposed to the league, and there are
plenty of Republicans who are in
favor of it. 1t is not, strictly speak
ing, a party issue.
1t still seems to be certain that the
Republicans will lay claim to o
tinued preferment in national affairs
on the strength of the general pros
perfty of the country, provided the
strength does not become a weakness
by the time that tine presidential
campaign begins. Prosperity is not
an issue, although the Democratic ma
tional committee seems In a way to be
striving to make an issue out of Ii.
The effort of the Democratic campaign
leadership is to prove that present
prosperity is fictitious. that the rich
continue to be rich and the poor con-
tinue to be poor.
Prohibition Not Party Issue.
Prohibition is not an issue as be-
tween the parties. The strongest adj
vocates of the amendment to the Con-
%stitution which a good many people do
not like are Democrats. Senator Shep-
pard of Texas was the most earnest
and, generally speaking, the most vo-
cal advocate of the cause of the
parched throat. That great and good
Democrat William Jennings Bryan
stood, metaphorically speaking, at
Senator Sheppard's elbow, an elbow
by the way which never was crooked,
to give more power to it when it
worked ON its hinge in the gesture of
oratory in behalf of the of
causes.
Neither Democrats nor Republicans
today can find a party issue in the
great public utilities question. Not so
many years ago the public carriers
and others looked to the Republican
party for their salvation from exploit
tation from oyerdrastic forms of regu-
lation and from the bogey of govern
ment ownership. Today in the con-
gress of the United States the saliva
ton of railroads and some other utill-
ties depends not on the Republican
party but upon a group composed of
Democrats and Republicans who must
fight for old-time conservatism against
an element composed of members of
both of the great political parties.
Both Have the Same Aims.
There never was a time when immi-
grafton strictly was a party issue. 1t
Is true that today some of the advo-
Gates of less drastic restriction laws
look to the Republicans to help lower
the bars, but 1t is virtually certain
that the great majority of the mem
bers of both houses of congress. ire
| spective of party. are in favor of put
ting the bars higher than they are
today. immigration is outside the field
of party issues.
Both the Democrats and the Repub-
licans in their speeches. and in the
"leafiet pl%eadings' of their national
committees indorse plans for lower
taxes, proper consideration for labor
on the one hand and capital on the
other. and for uplifting efforts for ag-
riculture. Some Republicans and
some Democrats are ~denouncing radi-
calism while others, although avoid
ing the use of the word radicalism, are
charged with doing what they can to
radicalize the land. There are a few
Republicans and Democrats in both
houses of congress who are charged
with being to all intents and purposes
Communists.
The bloc system in attempts to ac-
complish things legislative has reused
the ire of President Harding, and he
has disclosed the rousing in speech
and in manner. There are members
of 10th parties who think that if the
bloc system has come TO stay the old
political parties as such may be unable
to perform their functions. The issues
of the day are between factions and
not between parties.