Evening star., 1928-11-15
SMITH TALK FAILS
TO STIR HIS PARTY
vaIedictory to "FormuIate
and Adopt" Program Viewed
as Almost impossible.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.


Gov. Smiths valedictory recommends-
ton that the Democratic party proceed
to formulate and adopt" an organiza-
tion program for submission to Con-
gress signally fails to arouse the en-
thusiasm of responsible Democratic
leaders. Their opinion, as summarized
by one of the most prominent of them.
is that Smith proposes something easy
TO say, but almost impossible to do"
What the leader in question means is
that the Democratic party at the pres
ent moment-and not particularly as a
result of the 1923 election--is a house
so divided against itself that anything
in the nature of program" such as
Gov. Smith urges is not within the
realm of practical politics.
On the four or five public questions
now before or about to be brought be-
fore Congress, Democrats are almost
hopelessly at odds. If the party wanted
to revert to the tariff as a paramount
issue and eSSayed to get anywhere with
it leGislatlvely, things have to originate
in the House of Representatives. There,
as a minority group, the Democrats
under the rules can do nothing except
indulge in a pious caucus gesture. The
Senate Democrats might re-pass the
McMaster resolution in favor of tariff
reduction. but 1t could only be re-
adopted, as in the first instance, with
Republican Progressive votes. That
would not be an essentially Democratic
program"
Boulder Dam Issue.
Boulder Dam is now the unfinished
business of the Senate. The basic uueS-
ton at stake in that connection is
whether the Colorado River project
shall be carried out as public works, or
by a private corporation with powers
under the water power act. The Demo-
Gratis are far from being unit on
either side of the controversy there in
Volved. No party program" could be
put forth with any show Of unanimity.
There is equal difference of Democratic
opinion on the subject of the Great
Lakes-St. Lawrence waterway. The
Progressive Democrats from the farm
Ing West are heart and soul for the
ST. Lawrence scheme. but Eastern
Democrats like Senator Copeland of
New York, for example, are opposed to |!
1t. 1t would take conjurer to divise |
a Democratic program" on that issue. |
On the eternal matter of farm relief |
the Democrats are just as split among |
themselves as the Republicans are |
Whenever farm relief is enacted into |
law, either during the waning weeks of |
the Coolidge administration or during |
the Hoover administration, it will be |
fashioned and voted by Democrats plus |
Republicans, or vice versa. Nothing in /
the shape of Democratic program"
on agriculture is held to be feasible.
Farm relief has friends on both sides
of the aisleS in House and Senate. and
would have to be legislated by a BIZ
partisan fusion. McNary- Haugen bills
have all had to be passed by that
method
The Kellogg anti-war pact is soon to
become the dominant issue in the Sem
ate. Most Democratic leaders are for
ratification, and would hesitate to see
the treaty rejected simply for the pur-
pose of winning a victory for Demo-
cratic party" program. There does
not seem to leading members of the mi
nority at this moment any foreign issue
around which the entire Democratic
party could be successfully rallied.
Deplore Constructive Trend.
While on the whole his brother Dem
ocrats think that Gov. Smith made an
inspiring" farewell address to the party
and doubtless fired some pessimistic
to deplore the constructive" note on |
which he harped. Smith said the party
must not be content to be an "obstruc-
tive opposition" but must work out
and work for some definite purposes.
Leaders are very much afraid this may
give handle to critics who always have
alleged that in showing up the oil scam
6als, the Daugherty affair and other
happenings during the contemporary Il
regime the Democrats were
merely playing politics" Smiths
language, 1t is pointed out, is open to
the implication that he means to rebuke
the Democratic leaders who have been
50 ccnspicuously to the fore in recent
Senate history, like Senators Walsh
(Montana) and Wheeler. The COVER
nor may have had no such intent in his
mind But there is, it is thought, the
distinct suggestion of reprin1and in
the way he put matters.
No other view is encountered, among
leading Democrats returning to House
and Senate Offices from the late war,
as national standard-bearer of the
party. They are confident he realizes
that rs clearly as anybody. No sue
cessor to him is in sight at the mo-
ment. Were Franklin Roosevelt steadily
on his feet, he, as gubernatorial win.
ner in New York State in the teeth
Of Hoover victory there, would be
locked upon as logical heir to the
crown knocked from Smiths head.
Many think he is, despite his physical
(Couyrieht, 1882