Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-16
BY MARK SULLIVAN.


ton between these two groups that any
body can remember offhand Though
this statement is made without close
search of the records. The coalition
controlled the Senate. 1t controlled the
making of the tariff bill in the Senate
1t did whatever 1t wanted to do as re-
spects practically every rate and COM
modify.
Then on March S, in a vote on sugar
nine of the Democrats deserted. to-
eether with six of the insurgent Repub-
licans. The coalition was broken. In
succeeding votes, on cement and other
commodities, roughly, the same de-
serters from both Of the groups went
over to the common enemy with,
roughly, the same result.
The episode was doubly sensational,
because these particular roll calls were
a repetition of previous roll calls on
the same ommodities-that is to say,
in january there had been a roll call
on sugar and the coalition had held its
ranks, as usual. and had been success
full, as usual. When the second roll call
direct reversal Of the way they had pre-
viously voted.
Party Leaders AcuteIy Interested.
Naturally, the political consequences
of the episode became the acute inter-
est of party leaders in both parties and
/, all factions. Emotionally the immediate
result was extreme anger on the part
4 of the Democrats toward the heretics
from their ranks and, similarly, acute
anger on the part of the insurgent Re-
publicans toward the deserters from
( their ranks.
This was in accordance with an in
falliple law Of human nature. The be-
trayed Democrats and the betrayed in
surgent Republicans were certain, for
the moment, to hate the deserters from
their own ranks more than they hated
the common enemy, the regular Re
publicans.
AS soon as the vote on sugar was
taken and in every one of the similar
roll calls succeeding Senator La Fol-
1ette of Wisconsin did a thing which
was sensational at the time and will
be, in some quarters, even more SenSa-
tional later on. Immediately after each
Toll call Senator La Toilette inserted In
the Congressional Record the old roll
call of weeks before on the same COM
modify. The comparison, of course,
caused the names of those Senators
who had switched their votes to stand
out conspicuously on the same page.
Senator La Follette'S amiable purpose,
without any doubt, is to have these par
ticular pages of the Congressional Rec
ord sent in immense quantities to the
voters of the States from which those
Senators come who had voted two ways
on the same subject.
Adopts Fathers Tactics.
In doing this Senator La Toilette is
following strategy that was invented
by his father when in the Senate many
years ago. The senior La Toilette used
to see to 1t that copies OF the Con-
greSSional Record containing the roll
call in cases like this were sent to the
voters Of the States of the Senators
whom La Toilette disapproved. In adj
dition, 1t was the senior La Follette's
practice to make Chautauqua lecture
tours in those States and to read to
his audiences, with appropriate excoria-
ton from him, the records Of the Sena-
tors whom he wished to defeat.
Anger of the insurgent Republicans
against the deserters from their faction,
and anger of the Democrats against the
apostates from their party, was the first
emotional consequence. To large ex-
tent that emotion still lasts. But there
Is arising, especially among the Demo-
Gratis, a secondary and more permanent
state of mind which looks to the future
consequences of the whole episode
which looks to the future effect next
Fall and later upon the fortunes Of the
Democratic and Republican parties.
From this later point of view the Demo-
Gratis are taking much comfort.
Glance at the Future.
This more distant viewpoint looks to
the election next November Of IS Sena-
tors and 435 members of the House
the whole OF the House. Still more
distant the new viewpoint looks to the
presidential election of 1882.
In considering these more distant
matters, it is not the recent and SEN
sational disruption of the coalition that
Is importantly Is the nature of the
new tariff bill.
This new viewpoint must start, of
course. from the nature Of the tariff
Dill. From the nature of it and-what
is even more important in practical
politics-what the public will think the
nature Of it to be. So long as the
Democrats, with their insurgent Repub-
lean allies, were in control of the MAX
ing OF the bill in the Senate, they re-
garded their work as good. AS soon as
they lost control and the regular Re-
publicans were able to make some i'm
Portant rates, the Democrats regarded
the bill as bad
The Democrats assume that the coun-
try Will regard the bill as bad-and this
is pretty certainly true. What the coun-
try may think Of any tariff bill may
or may not coincide with the accurate
judgment Of the bill held by tariff ex-
pertS, or business men, or any one else.
The public commonly does not make
up It's mind, or arrive at a state OF
feeling about bill. as a result of in
innate understanding of all the rates
and their effects. What usually hap
pens is that the attention of the public
becomes focused on some one item The
public comes to think of this one item
as bad or as good: Newspaper headlines
and nditnrf0le IN mir
the rate on this one commodity as
either wicked or beneficent. In accord
ance with that trend the public verdict
on the bill Is made.
Sugar Tariff Leading Issue.
In the present case it is the judg-
ment Of practically every politician and
every newspaper man that the one fea-
ture Of the pending tariff bill which
has achieved this prominence is sugar.
(In the tariff bill of 1909 it was wool1
1t is equally the Judgment of politicians
and observers that the ultimate verdict
OF the public will be adverse That was
settled as long ago as last July. At that
title, soon after the first tentative YER
sion Of the bill was written, the news
papers and the public took prevailingly
the line OF condemnation. Painstaking
examination OF newspaper headlines
dispatches and editorials, by the head
quarters of both parties in Washing
ton, arrived at the conclusion that fully
30 to 80 per cent of the press had
thumbs down" on this tariff bill
Assuming that the verdict of the pub
lie on this tariff bill will be adverse
the Democrats have begun to cheer up
They are just now at a point where
their early anger against the deserters
from their ranks is dying down, and
they are beginning to think of party
advantages to be gained, as against the
Republicans next Fall ond la3ar rrt.nr