Evening star., 1935-08-08
THE POLITICAL
MILL
By G.. Could Lincoln.

| segment of the entire country. A VIC
tory for the Republicans in such dis
trict does not necessarily mean that the
| G.. o. P. can hope to carry the country
| a year hence. But it is safe bet that
the Republicans today are more hopeful
than at any time since 1880, all due to
the fact that a gentleman by the name
of Risk took Antonio Prince, a Democrat,
for a political ride in the first congress
sional district of Rhode Island.
New England, according to an astute
editor of one Of the foremost newspapers
in this part of the country, is lost to the
Roosevelt New Deal. If that be true, it
is not at all unlikely that Pennsylvania,
| New Jersey and New York may be found
swinging back next year to the Repub-
lican column. Already, it is said, Demo-
Gratis high in the Roosevelt councils are
beginning to talk again of q political
coalition between the Democratic solid
South" and the West to return the
President to Office.
If it were not for the traditional
Democracy of the South, however, due
to the race issue and the feeling that
has existed since the Civil War, that Sec
ton of the country might easily turn
against Roosevelt and the New Deal.
| There is no other part of the country in
which both the President and his policies
| have been so strongly criticized.
X
For years the Republicans have had
trouble getting the Eastern States and
the Western States to see alike politically.
| When on Tuesday the first congressional
district of Rhode Island turned its back
on the Roosevelt New Deal, and more
orf; ;orIla arIx M TO 1
still left a doubt in many minds as to
whether the States of the West, particu-
larly those which grow wheat, corn and
hogs, would feel satisfied. The processing
| tax, the administration has been telling
the farmers in many ways and with wide
Government propaganda, is the
savior of the American farmer. 1t has
backed up this propaganda with Gov
ernment checks paying the farmers for
not producing wheat and corn and hogs,
cotton and tobacco. This is easy money
for the farmer But it is not so easy
| either for the manufacturer or for the
city worker. The first has been hit hard
because of the increase in production
costs. The second has felt the burden
of the rise in the cost of living, in the
cost of all kinds of things he or she
must eat or wear.
| Down in the South, however, there
has been a growing realization that the
| curtailment of the American cotton crop
means the increase in the cotton crops
| of Brazil and other parts of the world.
| With this increase in foreign cotton pro-
duction has come also a falling of in
| the markets for American cotton abroad.
It's difficult to have your cake and eat it,
too. How soon the farmers of other
crops will realize that they, too, are
losing their markets because of reduced
production remains to be seen. In the
end. if this program of scarcity is con-
| tinued the country may become tired
of trying to live off its own fat. But
so far the politicians from the West
are pinning their faith to the Govern
ment checks for the farmers, They be-
lieve that it would be a great mistake
to shoot holes in the A. A. A, for ex
ample.
Probably there will be lot of explain
| ing done about the loss of the first con-
greSSional district by the Democrats in
Rhode Island. There is, of cc.'rSe, the
fact that the Democrats had factional
differences; that the present Democratic
Governor, Green and his administration
| have made a lot of SoreheadS. 1t is said,
too. that Prince. the Democratic NOM
inee, who is of French extraction, had
lost the support of the Franco -Ameri-
cans because he was selfish and would
not let any other man of French strain
attain high position through party NOM
ination or appointment.
The Franco-American vote In Rhode
Island is said to be about 26 per cent
of the total vote cast. But none of these
reasons seems to cover the defeat of
Prince, who was ardently supporting the
Roosevelt New Deal. The turnover in
the vote on Tuesday as compared to
the vote cast for the Democratic candi-
date in November 1884, in the same con-
gressional district was too great for that.
| Furthermore, it looks as though the up
rising against the New Deal had lodged
with the working class as well as with
those of property and more leisure.
1t looks, too, as though the people
not the bankers and the rich alone
were beginning to understand what is in
store for them in the matter of paying
taxes to meet the huge expenditures of
the New Deal. The Rhode Islanders
on Tuesday turned their backs on what
Gov. Green's bond issue folly" despite
the fact that the Federal Government
was willing to put up As per cent of the
cash. as outright grants, to pay for the
public works projects.
The Journal said: THE folly of much
| OF the State administration imprac-
ticable program has been evident from
the outset of the strenuous campaign in
its behalf. 1t ran counter to every con-
sideration of prudence and good judg-
ment. 1t set at naught the teachings
of all fiscal experience 1t contemplated
the light-hearted abandonment of tested
principles of economics and of public
philanthropy also. with certainly a
strong suspicion of political purpose un-
derneath it all 1t demanded uneco-
nomic methods of relieving the pressing
problems of unemployment. 1t chose
extravagant means for meeting the vast
perplexities of the depression. 1t went
out of its way to think up fanciful
methods of spending money Of the tax
payers of Rhode Island. In the guiSe
| of benevolence it asked for such an out
pouring of the peoples diminished re-
sources as was never before proposed in
Rhode Island history
While the Journal spoke particularly
of Gov. Green's program of public works,
what it said was applicable to the public
works programs advanced in other
States, and strongly urged upon the
States by the Roosevelt administration.
/