Evening star., 1934-05-23
Girding for Battle.

cies, timid and halting over a long
period. shows signs of increasing
vigor. 1t is coming more strongly
now from both the progressive and
the regular wings of the Republican
party. Senators Nye Of North Dakota
and Borah of Idaho, both of the
progressive group, have sounded the
call to battle against the N. r. A.,
insisting upon a full restoration Of
the antitrust laws in the interest Of
the small business man and the con-
sumner. Out in Wisconsin another
group of Republican progressives,
headed by the La Follettes, have de-
termined that they will not this year
become the political henchmen of the
Democratic party there. The forma-
ton of the new Progressive party in
Wisconsin knocks the props from
under the Democratic party there,
which can only hope to win with the
support of the Progressives.
The regular wing Of the Repub-
lican party is becoming more vocal at
last in its attacks upon the Roosevelt
policies. This is true, both in the
halls Of Congress and outside. For
example, at a meeting Of the Repub-
ican Builders, Inc, in New York.
last night the Roosevelt policies were
handled without gloves. A call to
battle was sounded by Representative
James w. Wadsworth Of New York
and Representative John B. Hollister
Of Ohio. Ogden Mills, former Secretary
of the Treasury, and Col. Theodore
Roosevelt, president Of the National
Republican Club of New York, Joined
in the attack on the bureaucracy"
the "wastefulness" and the regimen
tation of industry and agriculture"
which, they contended, permeate the
whole Roosevelt program.
Representative HolliSter laid down
three-part program for the Repub-
licans. He proposed that the G. o. P.
go into the coming congressional cam
paign pledged to balance the Govern
ment budget, both regular and ex-
traordinary; to adopt a stable and
sound currency policy. and to put an
end to the regimentation of industry
through Government. The burden Of
Mr.. HOLSTERS address, as it was the
principal theme running through the
addresses of Mr.. Wadsworth and Mr..
Mills, was that the people must decide
at the coming election whether they
are willing to drift further and
further away from the freedom guar
anteed by the Constitution and from
American institutions, chasing the
will-o-the-wisp Of the new deal, or
whether they wish to return to an
ordered liberty under the Constitu-
ton.
Mr.. Wadsworth pointed out, and
quite properly so, that the so-called
emergency measures put through by
the Democratic administration are
due in the main to expire at the end
of two years from their enactment.
The President and other members of
the administration, he said, had made
it quite clear that the projects which
had been adopted as emergency meas
ures would be made permanent. It is
certain, therefore, that a fierce battle
will be waged in the next Congress
which meets in January, to determine
what shall be the fate of the new deal
measures.
The most sanguine of the Repub-
licans do not believe that they will be
able to capture control of the House
in the elections next November. It is
impossible for them to gain control
of the Senate. They do insist, how
ever, that If substantial gains are made
in the House by the Republicans after
a campaign in which the new deal
legislation is heartily denounced, the
Democratic administration and the
Democratic Congress will think long
time before they undertake to make
permanent many of the bureaucratic
laws now on the books.