Evening star., 1935-07-28
BY MARK SULLIVAN.


" " election next year; about
the fact, as it is assumed,
that the change being made in the
American form of society and govern
ment can only be stopped by defeating
Mr.. Roosevelt for reelection. Those
who wish desperately to avoid what
Mr.. Roosevelt is taking us to are will
ing that his defeat should come either
by Republican candidate for Presi-
dent, or by coalition ticket of Re-
publicans and conservative Democrats
headed by some Democrat like Senator
Harry F. Byrd of Virginia.
To talk about that is well enough.
But the election is more than a year
away. And the fact is there is a
simpler way to save America from
what is being done to. it. There is a
simpler way and an agency more i'm
mediately available That agency is
the Democratic party in Congress.
The Democratic leaders in Congress
know well that America is being taken
toward changed form of society and
government. They say so frankly, in
private conversations, and they de-
plore it. They could stop the process
in an hour, if they were willing to
do so.
How Changes Start.
Let us look at how the change to a
new form of society in America is be-
ing brought about. 1t starts, of course,
with President Roosevelt and the Curl
GUS little coterie of advisers who are
close to him. From these proceed the
extraordinary series of ideas, more and
more startling as time goes on, that
compose the New. Deal.
What happens is this: President
Roosevelt sees one or another or sew
eral of the advisers. Out of the meet
ing a new idea arises. Occasionally
the new idea surges up in Mr.. RooSe-
velt's own brain. More often the new
idea comes from one of the coterie
around him. 1t is going to be neces-
sary for the public to understand Mr.
Roosevelt's temperament, the ways of
his mind. That is too large subject
to be dealt with fully here. For the
present it is enough to say that Mr..
Roosevelt has an extraordinary re-
sponsiveness to new ideas from all
sources and of all kinds.
Mr. Roosevelt does not get all his
ideas from the brain trust. Some he
gets from perfectly conservative per-
sons who hsrpen to talk with him.
And some of the ideas Mr. Roosevelt
generates himself are entirely con-
servative. At the conferences Mr.
Roosevelt hold5 twice a week with
newspaper men he sometimes talks as
conservatively as if he were Calvin
Coolidge. But the very next occasion
he will talk with equal earnestness in
behalf of some idea so alien to Amer
ican habits of thought as if it were
Stain speaking. It Is one of Mr..
Roosevelt's principal traits that he
gets boyish pleasure out Of expert
ment In some of his speeches he
praises what he calls bold expert
mentation." Ii is not so much an
intellectual conviction as temper
amental trait Sometimes it seems a
case Of experiment for experiment. s
sake.
Permanent Convictions Hit.
In Mr.. Roosevelt's mind is no body
of permanent principles or convictions
prejudices or settled points of view
such as most men have by inheritance
or education o. association, which are
to most men at once the ballast and
the compass OF their minds. The con-
sequence is that the ideas Mr. Roosevelt
embraces have no pattern, his course
no consistent direction. CWhile this
may be true OF Mr.. Roosevelt, there
are in his inner coterie men who know
perfectly all the minute distinctions
who know exactly what the American
system is, know exactly what the alier
system is and know exactly what woulc
carry America to the alien system.
In session of Mr.. Roosevelt with
one or more of his advisers, as otter
as not a casual and informal coming
together in tile White House, a new
idea Is generated. Mr. Roosevelt be.
siaSm for the new is one of the PreSi.
dents marked traits. Mr.. Roosevelt
tells one of his coterie to put the new
idea into the form of bill. The bill
when written is sent to the Demo.
cratic leaders in Congress with direc.
tionS to enact it.
Most of the legislation that has
been enacted since Mr.. Roosevelt be.
came President was not written BY
anybody in Congress. 1t came tc
Congress from the administration al
ready written, AS a rule IL has beer
enacted by Congress without reading
or certainly without close reading. Not
only has the legislation not been read
by the rank and file of Congress; in
some cases it has not been read by the
Democratic leaders, certainly not
closely enough to understand it fully
This is an extraordinary condition
Under normal conditions it is the
leaders of the majority party, the
chairmen of the various committees
who write the statutes. In the debate
the other day about the Presidents
measure outlawing suits on Govern
ment bonds, Representative Hollister oi
Ohio, turned to the Democratic leaders
and asked: "How many of you chair
men of committees here today know
who prepared the bills you have intro
duced in the last two years? How
many Of you even read them before
their introduction"
Question Goes Unanswered.
Bear in mind Representative Hollister
was addressing himself not to the
rank and file of Congress but to the
Democratic leaders, the majority
leaders who in every administration
from the beginning of the Govern
ment until the Roosevelt one. were
supposed to write the bills. No one
answered Mr.. HOLSTERS question.
The relation between the Demo-
cratic leaders in Congress and the
President is so unusual as to be fam
tastic. Almost it is safe to say, that
during the Roosevelt administration
there has never been an occasion on
which the President has received his