Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1934-01-05

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session.
Third, and most important of
the items which seem likely to make
this session of Congress memoir
able, it will have to decide whether
the United States of America is
going to Swing to the left" and go
in for Socialism in it's more radical
form, or whether the middle-of-
the-road policy, neither radical o
ultro-conservative, is going to be
the guiding principle for further
progress toward recovery.
What Congress will decide is
anybody's guess as yet, but some
of the considerations which will
contribute toward the decision are
obvious.
This is a Democratic Congress.
That party has 316 members, as
against only ia Republicans and
five Farmer-Labor. That, on the
face of it, if recent political history
counted for anything, would neal
a decidedly Conservative attitude:
for the Democratic party has been
almost as conservative as the Re-
publican since 1920. Indeed
many of~the most radical members
of both hoessin s.1e past few years
have worR~ the Republican label.
The only party represented which
is avowedly radical is the Farmer
Labor.
But political labels count for
little or nothing, in these days.
There is still a strong conservative
clement in the Democratic party,
but it is nowhere nearly as domln-
ant as it was four years ago. And
in Congress there is no strong
leadership that can hold the various
clements of the party together if
its members show signs of splitting
up into minor groups. The only
leadership is in the White House
or outside of public life entirely.
Beyond doubt there will be vigor-.
Gus efforts made to form a conser-
vative Democratic bloc, to stand as
a bulwark against the assaults of
the radical element. How tar that
effort will succeed will depend up
on how far the President goes in
proposing or asserting to- a pro-
gram more radical than that which
he asked for, and got, last Spring.
lust where the President will
stand, as between the eager young
revolutionists in his Administra-
ton, who would turn the nation
over to Socialism willy-nilly, and
the conservative element, which
thinks his program as developed so
far contains elements of danger and
needs trimming, is as yet a matter
of opinion. Mr.. Roosevelt's sue.
cess as a practical politician is
largely due to the fact that he,
does not tip his hand in advance.
There is no doubt that the majority
of the Democratic majority will
follow him wherever he leads, but
there is a good deal of doubt as to
whether most of them would fol-
low him any farther to the Left.
Every member is keenly consci-
Gus that his term Of office expires
at the end of this calendar year,
and that the only way he can get
back into Congress is by the vote
of the constituency that elected him
last year. And most of them
don't know, yet, now their consti-
uents like the New Deal as far as it
got. They are going to view
every new proposal with one eye
on the voters of their home dis
tricts. This is one session when
Congress will have its collective ear
close to the grassroots, to catch the
first mutterings of approval or dis
approval.
Last Spring, in the extra session.,
there was no such misgivngs. They
had been elected in the greatest
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