Evening star., 1934-03-04

~ enced political observers as
Samuel G. Blythe and David
Lawrence. Both these men are like
the vast majority of newspaper OBJ
servers at washington. They are men
having no party affiliations themselves
and no more affection for one of the
two existing parties than for the
other.
AS rule, however, political observ-
ers tend to prefer both or either of
the existing parties over any proposed
new one. For this, a part of their
reason lies in their experience. They
have seen during a lifetime several
new parties attempted and none sue
ceed They have seen La Toilette fail
In 1924 and Theodore Roosevelt fail
in 1912 They have seen, almost every
four years during lifetime of ex-
perience, the two old parties poll over
95 per cent of the total vote, while as
q rule all the third parties combined
polled less than per cent OF the
vote.
With the background of this life
time of observation, political observ-
ers tend to take it for granted that
no new party can ever succeed. They
tend. therefore, to think that all Sug-
gestions of new parties are imprac-
tical, and that the country's political
future must be determined. in the
main, by the Democratic and Repub
lican parties. Furthermore, in their
experience they have seen again and
again occasions when both the Repub-
lican and the Democratic parties had
suffered such disastrous defeat as to
suggest complete fatality. The Demo-
cratic party was dead" as late as
1928, when with eX-Gov. Alfred E.
Smith of New York as its candidate,
1t carried only 8 States out OF
the 49, The Democratic party was
dead once before, as recently as 1920,
when with eX-Gov. James M. Cox as
its candidate it carried only IL States.
The Republican party was even
deader in 1912 when with the late
William H. Taft as its candidate it
carried only States, Utah and Ver-
mont.
Proposals Significant.
All this is by way of saying that
1t is an important and significant
event, a real sign of the times. when
Samuel Blythe in the Saturday Eve
ming Post proposes a 'Centrist" party
and David Lawrence in the United
States Weekly proposes a "Constitu-
ton Democratic" party. In both
cases the assumption is that the new
party would supplant the Republican
one.
1t is perfectly true that, as respects
the principles involved, the Repub-
hcan party has little in its own prin-
ciples or in its history to make it
adequate for the present situation.
Nothing like the present situation has
ever arisen in American history. To
a certain extent, since the very eX-
istence of the Union is among the
ultimate issues involved, one might
say there was some similarity between
the present and the period before and
during the Civil War. But in the
broader and truer sense there is no
precedent for the present situation.
What is happening is that the United
States is being carried rapidly ana
with increasing momentum toward the
collectivist type of organized society,
and toward the form of Government
which rather necessarily must accom-
pany the collectivist form of society.
If the country's social organization IS
to become collectivist, then its form
of Government would be likely to be-
come one of the two that now accom-
pany collectivism in the two great
countries where it exists, Italy and
Russia
This is happening. What is needed,
therefore is party to express the con-
victions of those who do not want COL
lectivism as form of social organlza-
ton and do not want for America
either the Italian or the Russian form
of government. For this purpose the
Republican party has no particular
equipment of principles or traditions
for the simple reason that no such
situation ever existed before.
G. @. p. Going Concern.
Yet it is also true that the Republic
an party has the advantage OF being
going concern. There is no reason or
principle why the Republican party
should not become the framework and
vehicle with which opposition can eX-
press itself. There is no reason of
principle. There is, however, a reason
of expediency.
For effective opposition, for accom-
plishing what ought to be done, for
giving the country the broadest pos
sible opportunity to register opposition
to what is going on at Washington
for these purposes the Republican
party is clearly under one practical
handicap. It is for the moment what
business men speak of as bad
brand" 1t is not merely that the
Republicans suffered disastrous de-
feat in the last national election; that
kind of calamity alone need not serl-
ously embarrass the Republicans nor
deprive them of hope for the future.
Again and again and yet again in our
American two-party system one party
or another has suffered defeat so dis
astrous as to seem utterly fatal, but
has revived and again come into power
within few years.
What makes the Republican party
"bad brand for the present and for
the national purpose Immediately
ahead is something different from the
mere fact of disastrous defeat. The
term Republican" is associated in
much of the public mind with the
term depression. This is not correct
thinking. but it exists. 1t Is what
psychological science calls Associative
thinking'-but this is precisely the
sort of thinking that much of the crowd
does.
To those who think this way pro-
posal to put the Republican party back
in power is a proposal to restore the
conditions of the time when Republic
ans we're last in power-and that time
conceded with the four years OF the
depression.
With the Republican party as the
vehicle of the opposition to collec-
tivism, and with the old Republican
figureheads and spokesmen as the
leaders of the opposition-in that con-
dition there would undoubtedly be
some advantage to the administration
now in power and to the collectivists
generally. Correspondingly there
H. Iw,-S 80 - l<r