Evening star., 1936-06-18

OF Ine fSepuDu.
can Party is matter of private
honor" and binding contract. Yet
it is contended, on the other hand,
that the Republican platform con-
tains enough contradictions within it.
self to make it difficult for Gov.
Landon, if elected President, to carry
out some of the principal planks.
These contradictions will, of course,
form the basis of the whole cam
paign of opposition on the part of
the New Deal to the new Republican
approach. Thus the tariff plank has
inconsistencies, the monetary plank
Is likely to cause Gov. Landon diff
culties if he follows it literally or
even attempts to follow his own
amendment, made in his telegram.
Likewise, there is vulnerable language
in the farm plank
Circumstances Govern.
All this is understandable to poll
ticians whether they be Republicans
or Democrats. For in the minds of
platform makers there is never any
real intention to let platform
plank interfere with the enactment
of legislation that deviated from
It. The usual cry is that "circum-
stances have arisen" which make a
change necessary. Had the Republi-
can written and adopted an un-
equivocally worded platform, they
might have introduced a novelty in
political warfare. So 1t appears
doubtful, according to the view of
many strategists here, whether the
argument on platform breaking is 60
ing to amount to very much after all,
and if this Is the case it is the Re-
publican platform committee at Cleve-
land which brought that situation
about.
The other issue on which the
Democrats were apprehensive was the
constitutional issue and the Su-
preme Court. The platform commit
tee at Cleveland endeavored to make
1t clear that the Supreme Court was
all right but that the New York
State statute was not properly drawn
or that the issue was not clearly
presented, and that eventually by re-
hearing or otherwise the constitutional
question could be decided. But Gov.
Landon by his telegram to the con-
vention argued that while he hoped
the convention committee was right
about 1t, nevertheless he wanted to
be free TO advocate a constitutional
amendment.
See Same Attitude.
In a sense, the Kansas Governor was
saying that the present framework
OF the Constitution is not adequate
TO take care of the minimum wage
problem and that a change in the
Constitution was necessary. The
Democrats have all along contended
That the Constitution was not ade-
quate and that the Supreme Court
was interpreting existing statutes too
narrowly, thus forcing constitutional
changes.
Now that the Republican nominee
comedies the broad ground that the
reforms needed cannot be accom-
plished within the Constitutions DO
sitlon directly refuted by such emf
nent constitutional lawyers as Sena-
tor Borah-the Democrats feel better
about their own position. They will
argue that fundamentally the Re-
publican attitude is the same as
theirs.
1t would not be surprising, on the
other hand, if the Republican yeered
away from the constitutional issue
as such altogether and transferred
the emphasis to the question of un-
constitutional delegation of power
by the legislative to the Executive and
the usurpation Of legislative power by
the Executive through patronage and
the use of public works awards. In
other words, the Republicans will
probably take dictatorship" as a bet
Ter issue than censtitutionalism since
the consolidation of executive and
legislative power in the last three
years has been going on irrespective
OF constitutional restraints.
The people generally are much more
familiar with the dangers of "dicta-
torshlp" than they are with the in
trlcacies of constitutionalism.
Ihe New Dealers insist that the
Democratic platform to be adopted
next week will fight shy of making
any specific proposal to change the
broad character of the Constitution so
as not to give the Republicans any
issue on that point. Much, no doubt.
Will be said about it in KEYNOTE
speeches, but aside from a possible
suggestion about an amendment to
take care of minimum wages the idea
OF cutting down State powers and give
the Federal Government authority
over agriculture, labor and industrv
h not likely to be put forward In
she party platform.
(copyright, 1850