Evening star., 1934-03-30
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Politics is strange animal. as, to
his sorrow, President Roosevelt has
Just discovered. Here he was, last
Monday, vociferously acclaimed from
one end of the Capitol to the other,
particularly by Democrats, for his
triumphant leadership in preventing
the automobile strike, only to have
that leadership ruthlessly fouted and
crushingly overriden in both houses
during the two succeeding days.
There's no attempt in administration
quarters to disguise the significance
of the rebuff Mr.. Roosevelt has suf-
fered, but emotions are those of dis
appointment rather than alarm. No.
body around the President fears that
his prestige has received an irrep-
arabic blow. Confidence is expressed
that the country is still with him.
Congress has overriden vetoes of vet
eranS' legislation by other Presidents,
who were not undone thereby. The
most classic illustration is Calvin
Coolidge's 1924 veto, followed by his
landslide election to the presidency.
Although Congress had the Novem-
ber polls conspicuously in mind, you'll
find politicians, as well as veterans,
who concede IN candid moments that
the Importance of the much-f feared
veterans vote is and always has been
exaggerated. These authorities eX-
plain that while the ex-soldiers, their
dependents and others whom they
can influence amount in the aggre-
gate In many communities to a con-
siderable body, the veterans vote" is
a doubtful quantity and by no means
deliverable to any candidate or party
en- bloc. The labor vote" is of the
same sort. To be remembered, too
is that there are innumerable veterans
who do not favor such legislation as
has just become law. All in all, it's
claimed that the veterans vote" is
not what it's cracked up to be, and
that members of Congress who sue
cumb to it are in plenty of cases
yielding to minority bogey.
x x X x
President Roosevelt, shrewd politi-
cal diagnostician, may have all these
considerations in mind. Other fac
tors apart, he may hold that after all
the non-veteran elements represent
vastly more political strength than
is welded by the ex-service man, and
that policy of economy, advocated
in the name of the entire community,
regardless of class, is likely in the
long run to be supported by the ma
jority. Taking his stand firmly on the
necessity ito maintain the credit of
the United States Government" Mr..
Roosevelt is filled with serene conf
dence that sooner or later public opin-
ion will vindicate and support him.
and that his political fortunes, how
ever damaged they may now seem,
will emerge eventually in as good
shape as ever,
X X X X
From F. D. RS standpoint, the
most unkindest cut of all, is the fact
that q Congress so overwhelmingly
Democratic saw fit to turn him down.
When the Senate smashed the st.
Lawrence Waterway treaty its chief
Democratic opponent, Senator Wagner
of New York, observed that the Presi-
dents defeat did not affect "the
grand sweep of. the recovery program"
Mr.. Roosevelt hardly feels that way
about his latest mishap because Of
its thrust at his economy policy.
Respect for the veterans vote is the
commonest explanation of what has
just happened. But other reasons
are advanced. One Is that Congress,
smarting under criticism of its "abdi-
cation" and "supine surrender" of its
constitutional prerogatives, determined
to give an exhibition that would belle
those taunts. Another suggestion is
that many Democratic members, espe-
cially Senators, have sore heads over
patronage ana thirsted for IN oppor-