Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-08
BY WILLIAM HARD.

| AA'C OACSI1lS pOWCI lSouc bOOk oh UNI
noted, but important, hand in the de-
liberations of the Democratic party in
Washington last week and seems now
to be In full course toward a high seat
at the table in the presidential political
game of 1892.
While prohibition got the clarnor and
the limelight at last Thursdays meet
ing here of the Democratic National
Committee economic forces were doing
most OF the management back stage.
Chief OF those forces was power.
y ~
Chairman John j. Raskob of the
committee spoke some kind of words for
power. He deplored any general at
tack upon the industry as a whole" He
thus, in effect, divorced himself from
Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt of New
York State
Gov. Roosevelt meanwhile had been
IN steady communication with United
States Senators in Washington for the
illustration OF Chairman Raskobs plans
at the committee meeting. Raskob is
a wet. Roosevelt is wet, The basic
rift between them is not regarding pro-
hioition. 1t is regarding economics.
Raskoo is trying to give the Democratic
party an economic tendency toward So
calied liberal conservatism. Roosevelt
/
right progressivism. Outstanding in
Roosevelt's progressivism is precisely a
general attack upon the power industry
as whole and q determination to bring
INTO existence publicly owned and oper-
ateo power plants to compete with it.
| X u
Most Senator's cooperating here with
roosevelt were at heart more alarmed
py EasKoos economic than by his alco-
nollc or anti-alcoholic proposals. They
! were firmly convinced that Raskob
originally intended to put those pro-
posals TO immediate vote in the com
mlttee. They gained this impression
through communications from Albany.
Tney now are claiming a victory over
HaSkon and over Wall Street" They
maintain that it was silly to think that
naSkon would have summoned the total
membership Of the Democratic Ma
tional Committee out of ali sections IF
the country to travel in some cases
three or four days here and there or
| TOUR days back just in order to hear
MN make speech. They assert II 10
De TACT that his first intention was
70 call for action upon his speech and
20 enoeavor TO secure an acceptance of
should adjourn.
They count it as a triumph for their
wing OF the party that adjournment
was mad without a vote taken. Thev
mink that they obliged Raskob to ston
look and listen. 0O''
Raskobs friends, on the other hand
insist that his final behavior was All.
soiutely in harmony with his original
puIpoSe ana that his plans were in no
welt and his allied senator's.
IN any case, and irrespective of
denominations, the great fact that
| emergeS out of the Democratic gather
ing here last week is that the vets and
the drys are still at their old contest.
nut tnat the Raskob economic program
ana the Roosevelt economic program
nave oeen hfted to a contest that is new.
So far as the vets and drys were
concerned, masterfully conciliatory
and harmonizing speech was made by
former Gov. James M. Cox of Ohio.
NO harmonizing at all was effected or
even attempted of the Raskob and
Roosevelt schools of economic thought.
The struggle between them will persist
underground and will in all probability
come actively to the surface at the next
meeting OF the Democratic National
Committee toward the end of this year
or soon after the beginning of next
year.
by that time the chief topic Of legis-
latiye interest in the next Congress
will be similarly actively on the sur
lace and on its way into great hearings
and debates. That topic is the bill by
Senator James Couzens of Michigan
for the interstate regulation of the
interstate operations of power COM
lpanies. The President will be found
earnestly supporting the central prin-
ciple of this bill,
The power companies look upon the
bill with horror. The President prob
ably, as most of his friends believe,
does not regard every feature of it
with complete approval. He neverthe-
less Is known several times to have
expressed impotence with the slow
progress made by the bill in the Con-
gr' ). He repeatedly has recommended
; Interstate regulation Of interstate
power. In his veto of the Muscle
Shoals bill he made 1t possible to de-
fine with precision his power policy
Of 1882 in the following terms:
II am against taking the Federal
Government into the ownership and
operation Of the power industry. am
in favor Of taking the Federal Govern
the Federal aspects Of power.
Il 4 II 4
Presumably and, indeed, inevitably
the policy Of the President in this mat
ter will become in 1882 the platform
policy of the Republican party. The
least therefore, that the power COM
, panies can expect in alleged correction
OF their alleged faults next year is that
the Republican party will stand forth
as a champion OF the idea that they
J should have the Federal regulation that
, they do not now have.
The question is:
Will the Democratic party go far
! ther2 The Republican party will favor
additional public regulation. win the