Evening star., 1934-07-12
The Political Mill
By G. Could Lincoln.

It's been a long time since Repub-
Hcan leaders agreed about issues"
and the conduct Of the affairs OF the
/ c.. o. P. Hope was expressed before
the Chicago meeting of the Republican
National Committee in June that
reorganization would be effected that
would bring all the leaders and all the
factions more closely together and
j into harmony-vhere there had been
no harmony before. That reorgani8a-
tion. with the election of Henry p.
+ Fletcher Of Pennsylvania. for many
years 9 distinguished member Of the
diplomatic corps abroad. as chairman,
has brought q buzz of activity among
the Republicans in its wake. But the
particular kind of buzz does not please
some OF the Western Republicans.
/ even those OF the so-called regular"
l type.
The new Republican drive has been
/ directed principally against the RooSe-
/ Welt new deal on the ground that It
/ is subversive Of the Constitution and
that it is bringing bureaucracy on q
major scale and regimentation OF the
people and all their affairs. According
/ TO one at least. OF the important Re-
publican leaders from the West. such
/ a campaign is likely to get nowhere.
| In the first place, the ordinary man.
in business and on the farm and in
( the shop. is not going to be wildly
/ excited over constitutional issues. and
} secondly. these men are more inter-
ested in obtaining business and work
/ and making little more money right
now. II there is to be RECOMMENDATION
Of the people and violation Of the con-
I stitutional liberties OF the people
under the new deal program. he con-
tends. at least it has not yet ma
terialized sufficiently to make an i'm
preston on the voters. Unless some
other issues are developed, 1t Is his
opinion that the G.. o. p will be but
ting its head Intellectually against the
political walls in the coming cam
paign.
The people-and by people he
means the business men as well as the
I farmers and the industrial workers
| and the white-collar clasS-can be
! made to feel an interest In such
/ questions as the tariff, sound money.
! taxes and certain features of the
( N. r. A., which touch them closely.
! The new Roosevelt reciprocity tariff
| act. permitting the President to make
I reciprocal trades agreements with
foreign nations and to lower tariff
duties by SO per cent, has a number
of business people really worried.
/ They are worried also about how
much the dollar is going to be worth,
/ particularly II they have any dollars
or if they are being paid in dollars
| for their labor They can be made
| to see the approaching burden of high
| taxes which must be imposed il the
Government is to pay its huge debts.
Probably the Republican National
| Committee will take up these issues
during the campaign. Indeed. some
OF them have already been touched
| upon. But up to the present time
the main stress in the speeches OF
chairman and other allied Republican
leaders has been against regimenta-
ton, bureaucracy and the alleged as
sauIts upon the Constitution by the
new deal.
Senator Borah of Idaho has taken
the Republican leadership to task be-
cause it has not seized upon mo
nopoly" as the real issue of the cam
paign. At the same time he has him
self Joined in the attack upon bu-
reaucracy and regimentation of the
/ people. 90
One Of the great difficulties which
confront the Republicans today lies
in the jealouSies and personal ambi-
| tionS of many of the leaders" De
| feating the Democrats, who are under
| the leadership of President Roosevelt,
is not an easy task right now under
any conditions. 1t looks as though
the Republican leaders were making
it harder.
Now and then all Is not beer and
/ skittles for the Roosevelt Democrats.
John w. Davis, Democratic candi-
date for President in 1924, speaking
at the Virginia Institute at Char
lotteSville the other day, took the
| new deal for a terrible ride. virtually
charging that 1t was seeking to set
up a social state controlled entirely
by the Government. He predicted
that only by force could the Ameri-
can-or any other people-be held
/ in such a state. Al Smith, months
ago, denounced many of the expert
ments of the Roosevelt administration
and protested that the American peo-
pie were not just guinea pigs, prop
erly subject to any experiment that
the Roosevelt brain trust wished to
try out. Al Smith was the presi-
Dental candidate in 1928 and still
has a big following in the country.
But the Roosevelt Democrats call at
tention to the fact that Mr.. Davis
took an awful trimming at the hands
of the voters in 1924 and that Al
Smith had a worse beating in 1928.
Look, they say, at what our man did
to the Republicans in 1882. Never
theleSs, with assaults from the G.. o.
P. and from more and more Demo-
Gratis against parts of the new deal,
the Roosevelt planners may be in
cdned to go more slowly.
n y
II the Roosevelt Democrats find
they have lost a trick In the political
game because of the attack made upon
their program by John w. Davis, they
may point with considerable satisfac-
ton to the fact that Tammany is
about to have a new leader who is
regarded favorably by the admins
tration and who is friendly to the
President. That Is something, both
tangible and satisfactory. The Roose-
velt Democrats in New York have had
a real battle to clear the decks Of the
opposition which rallied behind John
F. Curry, former Tammany boss. They
have been working for months to
clean up this situation in Democratic
politics in New York State. And
slowly but surely they have gained
ground. Now it appears that James
J. Dooling. choice of the admins
tration, has the Tammany leadership
practically within his grasp. Curry
was ousted earlier in the year, after
much maneuvering. Edward j.
I AhRaru leader nf tha fourth Avcan,bl.,