Evening star., 1935-05-12
s<PRESSURE OF BILLIONS"
SEEN BEHIND CONGRESS
Reactions to New Deal Determined by
Necessity to Keep ''In" With
Roosevelt, Observer Says.

llcan, tool must come up for renOff1-
ination and reelection next year. ex-
cepting such few as voluntarily retire.
They assume that the head of the
Democratic ticket in the Nation next
year will be Mr. Roosevelt, and to
that extent their individual fortunes
are tied up with those of the Presi-
dent. From this point of view 1t is
polite for Democrats in the House to
praise the Democratic President and
cxalt him, and identify themselves
with him. Also they must bear in
mind the part that that four billions
will play in next years election. Pru-
IDENTIFY they must remember that it
would be possible for whoever allo-
Gates that four billions to be stingy
with the districts of Representatives
who do not support the President
Loyalty. lavish with the districts of
Representatives who do.
1t is in the Senate that most of the
insurgency against the Presidents
course arises. In the Senate, with its
six-year term. only one-third of the
members come up for denomination
and reelection next year. The Demo-
Gratis among this third are in the
same position as Democrats in the
House; they must look forward to
being candidates next year. running
on the same ticket with the President.
But another third of the Senate does
not come up for reelection until
1888, and another third until 1910. 1t
is from the Democrats in these groups.
mainly, that open criticism OF the
President comes.
Senator Glass Role
To what have just been saying
there are material exceptions. Senator
Carter Glass of Virginia will be up for
reelection next year and he has been
from the beginning the most outspoken
| Democratic critic of the Presidents
course; indeed. Senator Glass, because
| of his clarity of mind and forcefulness
| of expression, has understood the fu-
! ture implications of the Presidents
course more clearly and criticized it
more forcefully than any Republican
| critic I can think of at the moment.
| Two other Democrats who go before
| their celebrates next year, excellent
men both. Senators Gore of Oklahoma
and Bailey of North Carolina. have
| criticized some parts of the President S
course. And there is, of course. Senator
Huey Long of Louisiana. but he and
his motives are not to be mentioned
as having any relation to the others
| quote again Mr.. Frank Kent: 1T is
difficult to name six Democratic Sena-
tors tout of a total of 69) who at
heart believe in Roosevelt policies,
trust the Roosevelt judgment, or want
to go in the Roosevelt direction. That
is the literal truth. No well posted
newspaper man and no candid Sena-
tor can be found to dispute it privately.
Yet a majority, following leaders
| themselves unconvinced vote to
continue in a direction they do not
want to go and enact more legislation
in which they do not believe"
This condition the sincere dissent
of four-fifths of the Democratic Sena-
tors from the Presidents course, in
cluding the privately sincere dissent of
Democratic leaders who publicly pilot
the Presidents measures through the
Senate-this condition cannot forever
be kept under cover. Sooner or later
it must explode. A faint outbreak of
it occurred about week ago.
Meningitis Charges.
The incident deserved more attention
than it got: A rather high official of
N. r. A, head of its litigation depart
ment. A. G. Mcknight, broke out in the
Associated Press with a charge that
the Democratic leaders of the Senate
are privately opposed to the Presi-
dents wishes about continuing N. r. A.
Among other things Mr.. Mcknight
charged, Pat Harrison and Joe Robin
son internally are not for the N r. A."
Now Senator Robinson is Democratic
leader of the Senate and Senator Har-
rison is chairman of the Finance Com
mittee, which has charge of N. r. A.
legislation. BY internally" I assume
Mr. Mcknight meant "conscien-
tiously'' or privately as distinguished
from publicly.
1t is not necessarily in all cases
blameworthy that a party leader
should follow publicly course not in
dorsed by his private conscience. 1t is
the business of leaders of all parties
to practice a certain amount of COM
promise But the present situation, in
the Senate and in the country, is not
an ordinary one of getting agreement
upon legislation. Before the country
is laid the choice between two funda-
mentally opposed theories Of society.
One is the individualism long familiar
in America. The other is the collec-
tivism which in recent years has arisen
in Europe. Between these two there
can be no such thing as compromise;
the two are mutually exclusive either
one must prevail or the other. In a
controversy of this magnitude it is not
wholesome that some of the ablest
leaders in the Democratic party should
be on the side with which they do not
agree.
The fundamental fact Is that the
Democratic party is divided into two
groups whose respective ideals are
more antagonistic to each other than
Democrats ever were to Republicans.
One group consists of orthodox Demo-
Gratis following the party's familiar
traditions and principles The other
group can only be described in the
terminology of European politics-they
are Socialist Democrats" 1t Is worth
remembering that in California last
August the Socialist Democrats, fol-
lowing Socialist Upton Sinclair, were
a majority in the Democratic primary,
nominated Mr.. Sinclair as the So
called Democratic candidate for Gov
ernor and got possession of the party
machinery. What happened in Cali
fornia last August can happen in
other States next year-unless the
orthodox Democrats are willing to
stride out into the open, announce
their convictions and fight for them.
Chinese General Bans