Evening star., 1935-04-08
Mill
BY C.. Could Lincoln.

Tie rtepuDiICdH phELy anu lLS luJuIc
Is sufficient evidence TO many that
the @. o. p ls far from being dead"
What has given impetus to the Re
publicans however, is the onslaught
on the New Deal, which they inter-
pref as an indication that the Roose-
Velt administration and the PreSi-
dent himself Is slipping in the esti-
nation of the people. 1t was to be
expected that there would be a re-
crudescence, a renewal Of activity
among the Republicans as the ma
tional campaign more nearly ap-
preached. A year from now the
primary elections for presidential
preference and the selection Of dele
gates ~ the Republican National Con-
ventiou Will he under way.
The activity among the Republicans
now stirring IN taking new form. The
Republicans Of the Middle West are
To hold convention" In Kansas
City. presumably Sometime next
month The Republicans Of the six
New England States are 10 meet In
conference perhaps even earlier.
Whether there will be sectional meet
ings Of the Republicans OF the Middle
Atlantic States or the Far Western
States Is still matter Of conjecture.
How the two sectional meetings
already planned work out may have
a bearing ON what other sections do.
There is always the danger that
such meetings, well advertised, may
not live up To expectations. But there
is no such thought among the Re-
publican promoters of the Middle
West and New England meetings to-
day. They are convinced that such
meetings are bound TO stir up in
terest and enthusiasm for the party
all over the land. The great difficulty
in recent years with which the Re-
publicans have had to contend is the
division of the party into liberal and
conservative camps. If the G. o. P.
is to regain its strength and have
hopes Of returning to power in the
Government, some middle ground on
which both the liberals and the con-
servatives may stand must be found.
No one really expects the conservative
Republicans or the liberal Republic
ans TO give up their pet ideas, even
for the sake OF a consolidated Re-
publican party and victory at the
polls. But both may be able to cam
paign on a platform which denounceS
the New Deal as a movement toward
fascism, for example, or as de-
parture from democratic government.
toward state socialism, with the
Oh nf GtotafS rjDI1fc arG thu
concentration of power in the hands
of the Federal Government in Wash
ington.
The attacks on the New Deal. many
of which have come from Democratic
have been many and varied in recent
weeks. The country has caught its
breath and begun to ask whether all
the New Deal plans are sound or
workable, even in the midst Of the
great spending program of the admin
istration. There has been an increase
in business along some lines in this
country, largely due to the Govern
ment money which has been poured
out. At the same time, the cotton
textile industry has met more and
more difficulty. with more and more
men and women thrown out OF en-
ployment III both the North and the
South. The cotton farmers in the
South. seeing the difficulties of the
mills OF this country. are beginning to
wonder more and more what they will
do with their cotton. since their mar
kets cbroad are more and more re-
stricted.
Two schools Of thought on the re-
covery question have been at variance
for a long time. One contends that
the country must follow a policy
entirely nationalistic; that it must
produce and consume its own products
and let the rest of the world go hang.
The other insists that the only way
to bring real recovery Is to open the
world including the United States
to international commerce. Obviously
it is impossible to move along both
these roads at the same time. You
cannot have an America living en-
tirely on its own efforts and within
its own borders if you are to expand
American foreign trade. The tendency
of the A A A with its curtail-
ment of crops and its processing taxes
TO make up to the farmer for what
he does not produce, clearly tends
toward a nationalistic state. If that
plan is followed to ultimate con-
clusion. there will have to be an
entirely new economic and social ad-
justment IN this country. The farm
ers who have planted cotton, for ex-
ample, will have to quit it in large
part and find some other means of
livelihood, unless the Government
pensions them for the rest of their
natural days. The same will be true
of wheat farmers. The droughts
which have ravaged the land for the
last two years. have had their fingers
IN the wheat growers pie, too.
Secretary Hull of the State De-
partment is confirmed believer in
| the lowering of international trade
barriels and the development again
OF great commerce overseas. The
reciprocal trade agreements which
this country is now entering into with
IoI6lSn nations are the means J0rOuSn
which Mr.. Hull is laboring to bring
about a resumption of international
trade. Sooner or later the admin
istration will have to drive ahead
along one of these lines of endeavor
or the other.
x X X
President Roosevelt is due back in
Washington tomorrow or next day.
When Congress assembled more than
three month ago. the predictions were
freely made that it would go to work
quickly and put through the legislative
program of the President and leave
Washington. There was talk in those
early days of completing the program
by May IS at the latest. These pre-
dictions of speed and of harmony be-
tween the President and the Congress
have proved empty. One bill. a big
one to be sure, has been put through
Of all the Presidents program-the
work relief bill. When the President
returns he and leaders will have tn