Evening star., 1935-10-31
THE POLITICAL
MILL
By C.. Could Lincoln.

the consumer vote, the millions of men
and women in the cities who have to
buy pork and other foodStuffS at high
prices. 1t is quite certain that from now
on the efforts of the administration to
gain the confidence of the consumer in
the industrial centers will be strenuous.
In fact, the administration spokesmen,
from the President down, have already
begun telling the consumers how much
they have the interests of these people
at heart. The President has revealed he
is having daily conferences with indus
trial leaders to find out, if he can, what
may be done to bring employment and
duction. Production In this country has
risen to about 80 per cent of normal but
employment lagS at 81 per cent and
wages at "a.
Prof. TugWell. out ON the Pacific Coast,
has declared that "the most serious at
tack will be the attempt to separate the
two great masses of the people who have
been helped most by our policies and
from whom we draw our strength-the
farmers and the workers" The professor
apparently recognizes the political dam
5Sio "iliSII may COlIlc IO Lilc NcW OcdicIS
who pay Government benefits to the
farmer at the cost of higher prices for
food and higher taxes paid by the work.
erS. He can see that the Republicans are
likely to try dirty trick on the Demo-
Gratis by convincing the workers that
there is something wrong with a sys-
TEN that forces them to pay high prices
for their food and which gives the
farmers Government checks for reduc-
ing production of food
Mr.. TugWell wants to succeed in eStab-
hshlng a farmer worker alliance, a DO
litical alliance. Such an alliance he
insists. would be irresistible The ad-
mlnlStration has been very friendly with
organized labor. 1t has put through leg
islation desired by the A. F.. L.. although
1t resisted the McCarran prevailing
wage" amendment to the work relief ap-
preparation bill and insisted on the sub
SiStence wage" In fact the administra.
tlon has been sitting pretty with organ
lied labor. Then along came high prices
Tor food. The workers must have food
and they usually resent high prices,
Furthermore. labor is only organized in
part, and there is danger that it will
not follow William Green, John Lewis
and others of the leaders as man.
Mr.. TugWell said to his California
audience that an alliance between the
farmers and the workers would not ONLY
carry all before it, but would reduce our
dependence on halfway measures" and
allow us to carry through these re-
constructive ones both in agriculture and
industry, without which our Nation can
not continue either free or prosperous :"
He added. Our best strategy is to surge
forward with the workers and the farm
ers OF this Nation, committed to gen.
eral achievements, but trusting the
genius of our leader for the disposition
OF our forces and the timing of our at
tacks." In other words. this New Dealer
par excellence wants the laws which give
Government control over agriculture and
industry made far broader-no more
halfway measures" for him.
X
Jouett ShouSe, president of the Ameri-
can Liberty League, in a statement on
the victory of the Roosevelt administra-
ton IN the recent referendum to learn
whether the farmers wished to continue
the corn-hog programs of the A. A. A.
with attendant Government checks, said:
There is one thing which the con-
sumers and taxpayers of the Nation
meaning the entire population-should
remember. In the first sixteen months
OF A. A. A. operations the price of lard
advanced l48 per cent. the price of pork
chops 1l6 per cent. the price of bacon
lit per cent and the price of cornmeal
48 per cent. What another year or an
other four years will mean to the con-
sumer can best be left to his imagina-
ton"
1t Is against such assaults and the
effect they and high prices may have on
the consumer when he and she go into
the polling booth a year from now that
the New Deal Democrats must guard
themselves.
The Republicans have sent number
OF speakers into New York to take part
in the campaign for the election of the
Assembly, control of which the G. o. P.
hopes to wrest from the Democrats in
next Tuesdays election. Last night
James M. Beck. former member of the
House from Pennsylvania and former
solicitor general of the United States,
spoke at White Plains, N. Y. The title
OF his address was Does America Need
a Dictator" Mr.. Beck insisted that:
The coming struggle will be a vital
one between two theories of Government.
the one represented by the Constitution
OF the United States and the other that
OF totalitarian socialistic state, in
which practically, if not theoretically,
governmental power is concentrated in
one man. The one contemplateS a wise
distribution of power bV which the noli.
cieS OF the Nation are determined by the
composite intelligence of the American
people as represented by the Congress.
The other, the supremacy of the Execu-
tive and his practical assumption of both
legislative and executive powers"
That is the kind of criticism the New
Dealers laugh off. However, if Mr.. Tug
wells dream comes true, and the New
Dealers find it possible to do away with
halfway measures" and to go the whole
route, what will the answer be then?
X 4
The attention of the Republicans
throughout the country is turning more
and more to the Governor of Kansas, Alt
M. Landon, as presidential possibility.
No one thinks of calling the Governor
Alfred" although this is his name. He
IS "Alf' to his friends and to the people,
He is easy to meet and easy to talk to.
His one failing, according to the political
observers, is that he is no orator. Perhaps
he could 60 in training for Speechmak-
ing during the next four or five months.
Or perhaps it would be better for him
to conduct just Misunderstanding cam
paign, next year, with few principal
SDeecheS delivered at Stratepic r,oints