Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-17
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

month. casual exchange OF
~ remarks took place between
two Democrats. The question
before the House, judged by reason
able standards and locked upon In a
| calm mood, was Enthusiastically unimport-
ant 1t involved difference of 1000
| in the total number of immigrants that
may be admitted to the United States
| each year 1t was matter of deciding
| between the census of 1890 basis and
| the so-called national origins" basis.
| Specifically a resolution was pending
| to postpone for year the taking effect
| of the national origins basis.
| One of the participants in the ex-
| change was FINS j. Garrett of TenneS-
see. He was the official leader of his
party in the House Though he retired
| from Congress at the close of the recent
session.. In this role Mr. Garrett had
the function of parceling out the time,
allocating so many minutes to one
! speaker, so many to another and so on.
Mr.. Garrett was not himself making
speech. He was not arguing. In so far
AS one could gather, he was not in an
argumentative mood: in discussing the
status of the resolution he merely said:
! Il do not think it ought to pass
and I hope this body will stop it,"
Resentment Fills Air.
1
| Instantly there was resentment in the
air--resentment from members of Mr..
! CARROTS own party. Representative
| question in the form of a statement,
said: The gentleman Is speaking as the
minority leader or individuality"
| Mr.. Garrett replied: "Oh, speak in
| dividually, of course"
Thereupon a second Representative,
Douglass, also Democratic, and also
| from Boston, spoke up:
IT lust want you to know you do not
represent the Northern Democracy in
your position as Southern Democrat
today"
To that Mr.. Garrett replied: "Mr.
| Speaker, hope the gentleman from
Massachusetts, will note that did not
claim to-
Upon which retort the painstaking
! Congressional Record reports there was
| laughter and applause"
Republicans Amused.
Representative Douglass of Massa-
chusetts concluded the exchange by
saying: And you never will have the
right to claim 1t either"
One may guess that the Laughter
and applause" came from the Repub-
lican side. Certainly it is they. and
they alone, who have any occasion to
smile or approve so deep a cleavage as
this incident reflects in the Democratic
party.
Looked upon from the disinterested
standpoint of country that has two
great political parties and is dependent
upon their mutual functioning. the
cleavage is not thing to smile about.
While one deplores it, one can under
stand 1t.
Mr.. Garrett and other members of
his party from the South undoubtedly
feel that historically they have priority
as cuStodians of the partys traditions.
They represent the territory that year
in and year out has produced Demo-
cratic electoral votes in presidential
elections-often at times when Massa-
chusetts was going Republican.
Bostonians Represent Power.
On the other hand, the facts will
support the feeling of the two Repre-
sentatives from Boston, that they rep
resent the denser bulk of the Demo-
cratic party as it is today.
That part of the Democratic party
which in the last election came from
the Northern cities cast more votes
than the Southern portion of the party.
In Representative Douglass district the
Democrats are so powerful that he had
no opposition in the election last Fall
In Representative McCormack's district
he got 64.351 votes to his Republican
opponents 1887.
However that may be, whatever may
be the respective excavations, the fact
that stands out is historically important
and seems to have unhappy future
meaning. One may state it thus: The
Democratic party. dividing angrily
upon an aspect of the last election.
incapacitates itself from winning fu-
ture election. That exchange between
Tennessee Democrat and the two BoS-
ton Democrats was precisely in the
angry spirit of the 1924 convention
and forecasts similar outcome for
1882.
Two Parties Viewed.
That episode in Congress constitutes
an apt beginning for a consideration of
the state of the two great parties at
the moment when a new presidential |
administration is beginning and new
Congress is about to function.
The Democrats are divided. The Re-
publicans, on the other hand are less
divided than at any time during more
than 90 years. To find a period in
which the Republicans dwelt in such
unity as they do today one would need
to go back to the Mckinley admins
tration, preceding the insurgency that
arose in Roosevelt's administration.
The Republican insurgency that was
born as partially reflection of Roose-
velt's personality. that expressed itself
in prolonged and finally successful
fight against Speaker Cannon and his
rules, that became in 1912 a seeding
third party larger than the Republican
party itself, and that continued until |
the death of La Toilette, about four |
years ago-that insurgency which be- |
deviled the Republican party for prac- |
tically 20 years, apparently is now as |
dead as La Toilette and Roosevelt them
selves.
Frear Restoration Significant.
OF the healing of ancient griefs with |
in the Republican party, there is COM |
paratively minor and yet distinct sig |
nificance in the restoration of Repre- .
sentative Frear of Wisconsin to a place l
on the ways and means committee. The |
presence or absence from the ways and !
means committee of one Representative |
even so conspicuous and able a one
as Frear, may not mean much to the |
casual reader. To the close observer of |
politics. however. it means the end of /
the detection from the Republican
party that came to its height in 1924,
when La Toilette ran as third party
candidate After that election, when
Congress met. the orthodox Republican
leaders decided to eXcommunicate such
Republicans as had supported La Fol-
lette or been friendly to him. In both
the Senate and House. the Republicans
solemnly met and went formally through
the ritual of expelling La Follette's
friends and supporters from the COM
mittees upon which they had formerly
held places.