Evening star., 1935-04-28
BY JOHN SNURE.

III WHICH lie plCIuIcu Tie SIUNLll VI llic
public debt as startling and dangerous,
with the menace Of national bank
ruptcy. national calamity, national ca
tastrophe"; the address of Senator
Harry F. Byrd of Virginia colleague of
Senator Carter Glass, in which he
made a sweeping assault on the
amendments to the A. A. A. act, which
are sought by Secretary of Agriculture
Henry A. Wallace: the utterances of
Senator Josiah H. Bailey of North Car
olina, in the Senate during discussion
Of the Bankhead bill to have the Gov
ernment finance purchase of farm
homes for tenants; and the challenge
by Senator Glass to the constitution
ality of the Bankhead measure.
There is also the continuation OF the
protest in which New England and
the South are joining over the cotton
textile complications mill closings, in
vasion of japanese imports, while the
market for Southern cotton abroad
falls of and the specter of largely in
creased production Of cotton in Bra
zil, Argentina and other countries
keeps rising.
Textile Row Arouses Leaders.
This cotton textile difficulty. though
not partisan, has aroused some OF the
ablest Democratic leaders of the South
and New England, as we'll as in the
Central Atlantic region.
The administration, to appease the
agitation, has started cabinet and
Tariff Commission Investigations. but
there is little indication that these
will calm the agitation. Linked with
it and a part of it is the opposition
to the processing taxes, not alone on
cotton, but on other commodities.
While the efforts of the admins
tration to kill bonus legislation have
upset party lines. the proposed hold
ing company legislation continues TO
be a subject of wide differences and
| there are many symptoms of grow
| ing revolt. in which Democrats will
! join, against the administrations
/ program on this subject. The troubles
over the Costigan-Wagner anti-lynch-
I ing bill, with its threat of serious
| party split, may not be overlooked.
While such conditions obtain.
largely indicative of the protest OF
conservative Democratic chieftalns
| against phases of the New Deal, the
radicals are not silent.
| The vitriolic direct attack Of Sen
| ator Huey P. Long Of Louisiana on
| President Roosevelt, while minimized
in some quarters, must not be lightly
dismissed. in the opinion of many
! competent observers who saw the
milling crowds at the Capitol wanting
| to hear the Senator speak. but un-
| able to find room in the galleries. 1t
| is widely regarded here as not at all
unlikely that Senator Long in 1895,
President. will be able to lead many
voters who supported Mr.. Roosevelt
| in 1882 in some other direction.
Pension Reprisals Hinted.
It is the fashion to regard the
Townsend old-age pension movement
as suuelched since the House short
time ago, with but 33 votes in dissent,
passed the administrations modified
social security bill. Nevertheless, it
is worthy of notice that new food
of letters descended on the Capitol
this week, in which the writer's asked
members how they voted on the
Townsend measure. The implication
of political reprisals is plain.
The abler political leaders in Con-
gress who are actively supporting or
going along with the administration s
policies are far from blind to what is
happening.
And they are not a little perturbed
over it. They see months OF turmoil
and controversy ahead of Congress,
with possibilities that the session will
run into August or September, and
with insurgency getting worse. The
difficulties arising over dispensation
of works and relief funds, not only
in Louisiana but in such States as
Georgia, Pennsylvania, Illinois and
Ohio, are not comforting.
If the Democratic leaders really eX-
pected a thorough reorganlza-
tion of the Republican party soon
with development of an able and mil
liant leadership and something like
unity and cohesion, they would be
alarmed over the prospects for 1886
But, viewing the inconsequential ef-
forts of the Republicans in the House
and the Senate this session, they can
not bring themselves to believe that
they will have strong opposition.
The Kansas luncheon at the Cap
itol the other day, though marked by
many outward expressions of a pur-
pose to rehabilitate the Republican
party, also showed widely differing
views under the surface. For in
stance, the ideas of Senator William
e. Borah of Idaho and of some of his
sympathizers, and of "Old Guard
chiefs, were as far apart as ever.
Borah in Foreground.
Since then, while the Midwestern
Republican conference and other re-
gional Republican conferences are be-
ing promoted in the hope that they
will unite and energize the party, SEN
ator Borah Is promoting meeting OF
independent and progressive Repub-
licans at Chicago in the next few
months.
Senator Borah Is demanding as
strongly as ever that the old-time
conservative Republican leaders ster
back, and declares that, unless they
do or unless they are driven into the
background, the Republican party will
20 down to another disastrous defeat
Were it not for the internal diSsen-
sions of the Republican party, the
growth of revolt in their own ranks
would jeopardize continued Democratic
control of the House. to say nothing
of the effect on the 1886 presidential
contest. AS it is, the Democrats
though working to organize for the
next congressional campaign. are con-
vinced that they can hold the House
and that President Roosevelt will bs
returned.
} The repeated warnings from Demo.