Evening star., 1934-09-14
Senators Fess and Robin
son Continue Battle in
Race for Reelection.
VANDENBERG AFFIRMS
ATTITUDE AS LIBERAL
Ohio Leader Reports Fess Making
Heavy Gains by Opposing
Administration Policy.
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.


The New Deal victory in Names
election has given those Republicans
who were reluctant to make violent
campaign against the New Deal this
year q chance to say II told you So"
So far, however, there has been no
evidence produced of a changed atti-
tude on this issue by Republican con-
gressional and senatorial candidates.
Nor has the Republican National
Committee nor the Congressional
Senatorial Committee abated the at
tack on the New Deal. The fight
goes on.
What is to be the attitude of the
Republicans of the great Middle West
section toward the New Deal? There
are three Republican Senators run
ming for reelection in three Of the
most populous of these States, Van
denberg in Michigan, Fess in Ohio
and Robinson in Indiana. Two of
these Senators, Fess and Robinson,
make daily and nightly assaults upon
the New Deal. The third, Senator
Arthur H. Vandenberg, has taken the
position that, as a liberal Republican,
he can favor some parts Of the New
Deal while denouncing other parts.
vandenberg Stands Pat.
He insisted today that the Maine
election results had not changed one
iota his stand on the New Deal and
that it win be an issue in the Mich
igan campaign the lines he has
followed in the past. Senator Van
denberg's opponent will be Frank A.
Picard, 100 per cent Roosevelt New
Dealer. With Picard in the race, 1t
would seem almost impossible to take
the New Deal issue out Of the cam
paign unless Senator Vandenberg de-
clared himself also q 100 per cent
New Dealer, which he does not.
The Michigan Senator, In Washing
ton today, undertook to make his
position in regard to the New Deal
clear, particularly in view OF the sug-
gestion that he might drop the New
Deal issue in the light Of what had
hnpppned In MAil1e 81
He said he was strongly opposed
to State socialism, State collectivi1m
or national regimentation. on the
other hand, he said that he believed
the Government must accept larger
social responsibilities.
Emphasizes His Position.
''There has ben no change in my
well-known attitude toward the New
Deal" said the Micigan Senator, who
has been mentioned frequently as
presidential possibility on the Rep
publican side in 1896.
"I do not At by attitude to cam
paign expediency. 1T my campaign
to my attitude. Unquestionably that
attitude differs from the attitude of
many Of my Republican colleagues.
So does my record. I believe In Re-
publican liberalism as distinguished
from reactionaryism at the right and
radicalism at the left. Indeed. Re-
publicanism must be liberal or it
should abandon its Lincoln tradition
because Lincoln was the greatest Of
all liberals. But he always was q
liberal within the spirit and the let
ter Of the Constitution. Human rights
are superior to property rights; but
both must take firm order If either
Is to survive.
II believe that Government must
accept larger social responsibilities
than heretofore and build more seri-
ously toward mass projections and
mass advantages. Thus believe in
Federal bank deposit insurance, for
example. Thus I believe In the expert
ment to be tried in respect to railway
retirement pensions. I believe in the
necessity for rational and practical
unemployment insurance. Certainly
I believe in the practical control Of
market speculation. I believe In tax
alton scrupulously rejecting the ability
to pay. am opposed to tax exempt
securities. I am opposed to private
profits in war or in preparation for
war. ! have ernphatically favored the
emergency use of public credit for
debt-harrassed home owners and farm
owners. I prefer composition of debt
to reputation of debt. I believe IN