Evening star., 1934-12-16


the Farmer-Labor program.
Longs Project Cited.
Aside from radical parties already
existing, Senator Huey Long of Louisi-
ana has a project for out-radicalling
all the others. 1t would be sheer
blindness not to take account of the
remarkable grip Mr.. Long has been
able to take and hold on his State.
Persons familiar with the Middle
South say there is little reason to
doubt that Senator Long might be
able to do as well in other States
as he has in louisiana Senator Long
is ruthless, reckless, forceful person,
capable of being a radical of the
French Revolution type. His am
bition, or his reckless daring, is with
out limit. While much of his power
rests on his personality, it is the
sort of personality that can only
prosper politically in troubled times.
In such times it might spread pro-
digiously. If 1886 should be, indus
trially, as unhappy time as 1894,
Mr.. Long, from the springboard he
has already acquired, might be able
to get formidable following for his
project of putting himself in the
White House.
In Detroit Father Coughlin aims to
build an organization of 100000
people for certain economic objectives.
Since economics and politics are for
the time largely one, Father Cough
Inns objectives are necessarily politi-
cal. Some Of these objectives are ones
which Mr.. Roosevelt and the Demo-
cratic party do not indorse. Whether
Father Coughlin and his 5000, 900
should express themselves either as a
political party with some candidates
Of its own. or as adherents to some
existing radical party, they would, in
any event. be likely to be substractions
from the Democratic party.
Democrats Face Loss.
If conditions in 1886 are as troubled
as they now are all these new parties
and all these radical movements ex-
isting or latent would be subtractions
from the Democratic party. BY hardly
any possibility can Mr.. Roosevelt go
far enough to the left to satisfy the
followers of Father Coughlin, Mr.. Sim
clair, the Farmer-Labor party, Sena-
tor Long and the others. If Mr.
Roosevelt should try to placate all
these he would then be faced by a
wholesale detection of conservative
Democrats, especially in the East and
South. The detection, if it should
come, might readily express itself
formally as conservative Democratic
party with its own candidate for the
presidency.
The sum of all is that on the prem
iSe that conditions in 1886 should
continue to be as they now are, Mr..
Roosevelt and the Democrats would
suffer large defections to radical par
Jies. From this it follows, incidentally
that President Roosevelt must have a
compelling reason for hoping that the
times get better, and for promoting
recovery.
What of the Republicans in 1896?
If recovery has come and come con-
vincingly, and especially if the re-
covery has come in orthodox ways,
without material departure from
American traditions and without ma
terial inf1ation-in that case the Re-
publicans can have little chance in
1886, and must postpone their hopes
until later.
No G. o. p. Defections Seen.
But what If 1886 Is as unhappy a
year as 1884? In that case the Re-
publicans and conservatives should be
formidable. They would face a Dem
ocratic party diminished by radical
defections. The Republicans. on the
other hand, should suffer no defec-
tions.
The 100000 votes cast by the
Republicans last month was a re-
markable demonstration of the size
and compactness of the conservative
forces in America. 1t was some As
per cent of the total vote. 1t was an
irreducible minimum. Every voter
who had any disposition to be against
the Republican party had abundant
opportunity for registering his defec-
ton in 1894 His range of choice ran
from voting the Democratic ticket
through the gamut expressed by Mr..
Sinclair and by the Farmer-Labor and
La Toilette progressive parties.
The 100000 votes cast by Re-
publicans last month must have
been rock-bottom. 1t included COM
paratively little of what the late Col.
Henry Watterson used to call the
fungus vote" The compact masses
of city voters, in such cities as Phila-
delphia and Pittsburgh, were this year
largely Democratic. Those 100000
votes came together against handicaps
that can hardly ever be worse. The
Democrats had all the advantages;
they had prestige, they had organiza-
tion, they had funds-not only funds
in the ordinary sense, but also the
immense relief funds distributed by
the administration, which Mr.. Frank
Kent of 1.-The Baltimore Sun" de-
scribed as the largest campaign fund
in history" A conservative Repub-
lican party that was able in 1884 to
cast l3,OOO,0 900 votes against some
1900, 900 for the Democrats, should
in 1896 certainly cast no less and
might readily cast very many more.
downright. 1934)