Evening star., 1936-06-21
NEW DEAL FOES LIKELY
TO DELAY PARTY FIGHT
Democratic Opponents of Roosevelt
Policies Due to Keep Silence
Until After Election.

friend Itself cautiously cryptlc, IS tne
only expression from Mr.. Garner that
has slipped into print. In private con-
versations, unless it be with other
Democrats with whom he is extremely
intimate, Mr.. Garner puts on his
poker mask zone of the best in Amer
ica} whenever the New Deal is dis
cussed.
Other Democrats. almost as highly
placed as the Vice President, give
greater freedom to their tongues. Some
of the most exalted and respected talk
openly Everybody knows that Sem
ator Carter Glass of Virginia has said,
in a newspaper interview, that the
New Deal, taken all in all, is not only
q mistake; it is a disgrace to the Ma
ton" Everybody knows that Demo-
cratic Senator Harry F. Byrd OF Vlr.
ginia Gin a public address on May %,
1880 said that the Triple A powers
asked for by Secretary of Agriculture
Wallace would make Mr.. Wallace
Hitler of American agriculture" and
reduce American farmers TO the status
of peasants in Soviet Russia" Every
body knows that Democratic Senator
Bailey of North Carolina, speaking in
the Senate on the bill giving Secretary
Wallace power to dictate how much
cotton a farmer might raise, said: L
believe we have come to the crucial
hour of decision; it is going to be a
free Republic or it is going to be
sociaIstic, regimented communism"
Private Talk Forceful.
These and a few others have spoken
out publicly. Still others, while avoid
ing public condemnation of the New
Deal, express themselves in private
with force and bitterness. When talk
ing with fellow Democrats they are
almost savage in their denunciations;
when talking with Republican tlti-
mates in the cloak room, they are al
most as candid. A few. practicing a
caution as great as Vice President
Garner's, refrain from saying any
thing definite either in public or in
private or, when they do say any
thing, are careful to surround what
they say with precautions Of con-
fidence. But the net of all is that OF
the entire Democratic membership In
Congress a large proportion think OF
the New Deal in much the same terms
that Senator Glass and few others
have put into words.
Il am speaking of Democrats in
active leadership, Democrats who hold
office and hope to continue to hold
Office and who therefore are subject
to precautions of personal prudence.
Yet quite a number of these, like
Senator Glass, have been willing to
speak. There is another class of DEM
ocratic leaders, men whose Office
holding is in the past, who do not
expect to run for Office again and who
therefore need not be curbed BY pru.
dent self-interest Many of these
ex-Gov. "Al" Smith of New York,
ex-Gov. Ely of Massachusetts,, ex-Sen-
ator Reed of Missouri and others
have spoken freely)
The complete picture of the Demo-
cratic party leadership is one in which
: leaders out of Office and with no self
, interest to serve have strongly pro-
+ tested against the New Deal; in which
few of the leaders holding Office
have protested openly, in which per-
haps half of the whole leadership feels
; that the New Deal is an apostasy from
: the Democratic party and an appalling
: danger to America.
To Point with Pride"
) Yet here is the Democratic party,
5 led in large part by those same lead
, ers who abhor the New Deal-here
| they are, going next week to renom-
mate the President who Is the source
and symbol of the New Deal: going to
S write a platform which presumably
S in the usual, conventional way, will
J point with pride" to the record OF
e the Roosevelt administration-whic
f record includes precisely those New
i Deal measures about which perhaps
= half of the best Democratic leader
e ship feels something like horror.
}. 1t is pretty saddening. Yet one car
understand it. One can see an ex-
: planation Of it, an explanation tha
, is not necessarily sordid, not confined
: to self-interest, not mere act oi
! self-preservation by individual Demo
Gratis who wish to continue in oflc'
and know that the only way to re-
: tain their Offices is to "go along" with
. the President, whom they regard q
r representing not the Democratic par
q Continued on Third Page.)