Evening star., 1935-10-25
VOTERS CRITICIZE
!. NEW DEAL AIMS
Electorate Lines Up For and
Against-Fight Held
Crucial.
BY JAY G. HAYDEN.

Any one who travels 5000 miles from
the Atlantic. to the Pacific and back
again, talking with people of all sorts,
as have done in the last four weeks,
is bound to come home laden with a
confusion of impressions, but this
much can be said without peradven-
ture:
The presidential campaign Of 1886
Is going to be one of the greatest po-
litical battles in the Nations history.
comparable both in importance Of the
issues involved and the intensity of
the conflict with the election won by
Abraham Lincoln in 1860, the McKin-
ley-Bryan campaign Of 1896 or the
Wilson, Roosevelt contest of 1912.
Voters are lining up for and against
the New Deal and this is true as much
in the sandy reaches of Arizona and
Utah and along the Pacific Coast as
it is in the industrial East. Every
American citizen, man or woman, has
opinions and there is no difficulty in
persuading him or her to express
them.
4SVVcCNCtb EdtUT SuTulhS.
President Roosevelt has lost heavily
in popularity with the business men
during the last year and, excepting a
few isolated communities which are
more than ordinarily dependent on
Federal bounty, this goes for the small
shopkeepers as well as the big fellows.
The same is true of the more pros
porous farmers, among whom dislike
OF the largely increased governmental
expenditures and the consequent
threat Of increased taxes outweigh
even the crop benefit checks they are
receiving from the Federal Treasury.
The big question mark is as to the
attitude of the far more numerous
classes Of industrial workers and poor
farmers, considerable proportion ot
whom are drawing their whole in.
come from the Government in doles
OF one form or another.
Adherents Of President Roosevelt
are confident that these latter groups
make his political position i'm
pregnable. Republicans and many
neutral-minded observers, on the other
hand, declare there are deep currents
OF discomfort among the masses, as
well as the classes, and that these
are bound to become more pronounced
as the inequalities and wastes in dis
tribution of doles are further devel-
oped.
Novelties Cause Detection.
It IS an axiom Of politics that the
off1ceholder lasts longest who attempts
the feWeSt innovations; that each new
thing devised, however popular gen.
orally, stirs up its opposition minority
President Roosevelt has initiated more
new and startling measures than any
President in history, and in the appli-
cation Of these to communities as
widely divergent as are found in the
United States there unquestionably
have been many inequalities and in
justices.
1t is a significant fact that almost
every man or woman interviewed
whether friendly to the New Deal OF
otherwise, had some detail to complain
OF. Each one had a story to tell as
to how the unemployment relief pro-
gram, the farm program, the N R A
or some other Federal activity haC
been mishandled in his particular
community, or of some individual O,
class who had been beating the game
There is tendency for these stories
to grow with each repetition, and there
is an impression at times that the
tellers are vying to see which can
produce the biggest one.
Almost without exception these
stories relate to Roosevelt spending
and, judged by the talk now going on
in the country, this is irnmeasurably
the biggest single issue that the New
Deal has produced. Everybody knows
about the $4.880,0oo,0oO unemploy-
ment relief appropriation, the $780,
100000 a year being dispensed in farm
bounties, the Presidents promise OF
''parity prices" to every farmer and a
full-time job for every employable
now on the dole.
Taxes Cause Unrest.
1nescapably linked with these things
In the public mind are the processing
tax and its effect on living costs and
the Presidents ''share- wealth