Evening star., 1936-10-22
Mr.. Davis onthe New Deal.

Mr.. Davis Onthe New Deal.
Because of the speakers own political
background, his reputation as one of the
leaders of the American bar and the i'm
personal and temperate tone of his re-
marks, the address of John w. Davis on
Tuesday night will rank as one of the
important utterances of the campaign.
That the speech represented a devas-
tating attack on New Deal policies may
be attributed in part to Mr.. Davis
polished skill in forensic discourse. He
is a pleasant speaker who indulges in
little of the emotional breast-beating
with which the American radio public
has become so satiated in the course Of
the present campaign. He addressed
himself to issues and centered his fire
on what many consider the most inde-
fensible portions OF the New Deal record.
AS a Democrat Mr.. Davis expresses
concern for the new rainent with which
the party of his past allegiance has
adorned itself and, if parties as well as
people are to be judged by the company
they keep, is more than ever anxious
over an alliance with the Farmer
Laborites of Minnesota, who have forth
rightly expressed an objective which may
be attributed to the New Dealers only
by deduction: THE complete reorgan-
i5ation of our social structure into a
cooperative commonwealth" Having
scanned the record since Chicago in 1882,
Mr.. Davis is unable to find anything in
common between himself and the Demo-
cratic party of today or between the
Democratic traditions of the past and the
New Deal tendencies of today. He may
have accepted the current theory that
the Democratic party as 1t was known
in 1882 no longer exists and that four
years hence the majority of the in
compatible elements now united under
the Democratic standards will be found
under the banners Of an entirely new
party parading under the name Of
Farmer-Labor or something else.
oUI WILLIE 4lC cpCdho do q
the spirit that moved Mr.. Davis to place
his views on record was deeper than mere
concern over the destinies of party.
He spoke as an American citizen, alarmed
not so much that fires have been kindled
in the past under conditions that may
or may not have been justified by the
ri,c Sfo hut CT,
sive as to how those fires. threatening
what he conceives as the inner Struc-
ture of his country, are going to be
extinguished before great damage has
been done. He lists, in the nature of
counts in an indictment, eleven things
we have lived to see" under the present
administration and concludes that they
cannot be reconciled with the Democratic
platform of 1882, with the Democratic
platform of any year or with any pre-
vious conception of the American system
OF government"
To his former comrades Mr.. Davis
charges tacit reputation of the spirit and
the letter OF the Constitution, use of the
taxing power to take from one and give
to another, indoctrination through cash
OF the theory that the government must
support the citizen in place of the tradi-
tional concept Of the citizens support
of government, the spendthrifty habits
Of living on borrowed money, the attempt
to centralize in Washington dominion
over "the economic, industrial and social
life Of the continent" and tanning, "by
direct appeal and subtle suggestion, the
flames of class feeling, class hatred and
class cupidity."
Neither Socialistic according to the
theory Of Socialism, Communistic accord
ing to the theory of Communism, Fascist
according to the theory OF Fascism, the
New Deal in Mr.. Davis opinion is hard
to classify. But he satisfies himself it
Is neither Democratic nor American and
that in the heat of doing something" it
has started fires which are not easily to
be extinguished.