Evening star., 1936-10-05
THE POLITICAL
MILL
BY C. GOULD LINCOLN.

| MINNEAPOLIS, October 5.-Al Smith,
| Democratic nominee for President eight
| years ago, has gone the full distance.
| He Is no pussyfoOter, as he says. His
declaration that he will support Landon
in the presidential race, which is to
be settled on November 3, comes as q
surprise to many Democrats. who be-
lieved up till the last that he would not
announce for Landon, but would merely
content himself with attacking the New
Deal policies and President Roosevelt.
And yet 1t was the obvious thing for
Smith to do. AS practical proposition,
the only way that the New Deal Presi-
dent can be defeated is through the
election of his opponent. Smith has
never been anything if not direct.
There is much controversy as to how
much effect Smiths declaration for
Landon will have on the election. The
New Deal Democrats insist that it will
have little. Naturally they do not like
to think that it will have much adverse
effect on the Roosevelt candidacy. The
Republicans and anti-Roosevelt Demo-
Gratis take the opposite slant. Only on
election day will the answer to the
conundrum be finally known, and then
not fully. But 1t seems idle to believe
that Smiths stand for Landon will be
without any effect. He has had too
great a following in this country. And
his declaration is the capstone OF the
anti-Roosevelt Democratic attack. The
New Dealers say that his definite break
with Roosevelt is merely due to personal
pique. They have started mud singing
campaign against the former New York
Governor. When it comes to throwing
brickbats. Mr. Smith will be well able
| to take care Of himself.
Smith is to deliver q number Of CAM
paign speeches in the coming four weeks
at key points in the country. 1t is ex-
pected that, having made his position
perfectly clear, he will in these coming
speeches take up the ma jor issues of
the campaign; that he will discuss New
Deal legislation and administration and
New Deal aims. No man in public life
has been better able to talk issues in q
way which makes them clear to the run
of-the-mine citizen. When he examines
the record, the examination may prove
rather devastating.
The present presidential campaign Is
bringing the usual crop of political re-
alignments-and something more. And
yet such political realignments have
been many in past campaigns. These
realignments have always been accom-
| panied with predictions that at last
there was to be definite division along
conservative and progressive or liberal
lines. That was expected when the late
Senator Robert M. La Toilette of Wis
consin ran for President in 1924 as
| Progressive, with the definite indorse-
ment of the American Federation of
Labor. 1t had been predicted a dozen
years earlier when the late Theodore
Roosevelt launched the Bull Moose
party. There were very considerable re-
alignments politically in 1928, when AL
Smith was the nominee of the Democrats
and four States of the Democratic solid
South" broke away and voted for the
Republican Hoover. In 1882 a galaxy of
Republican progressives turned on
| Hoover and slid over to the Roosevelt
camp. Yet the country has still con-
tinued, after these realignments, to
| divide politically into the Republican and
Democratic parties. Even today Roose-
velt still has the backing OF lot of So
| called conservative Democrats, among
them Glass and Byrd of Virginia, Harri-
son of Mississippi Robinson of Arkansas
and hundreds of others.
| In 1928 it was the religious and prohibi-
ton issues which caused lot of Demo-
Gratis to break away from their party
| and support the Republican nominee In
1882 1t was another issue, the pocketbook
issue. which caused many Republicans to
break away from the Hoover ticket and
go over to Roosevelt. The issue this
year which is moving many old line
Democrats to desert Roosevelt for Lam
on is the old issue Of States rights and
tremendous concentration of power in a
bureaucratic Government in Washington,
plus the huge public debt which the
Roosevelt administration has rolled up
and is continuing to roll up.
1t does look, however as though Presi-
| dent Roosevelt is seeking new political
alignment in this country. He is doing
his best to get all the so-called liberal
elements into his own party. What the
New Dealers are doing in Minnesota, in
wisconsin, Is very little different from
what they are doing in New York and
| Pennsylvania along this line. And yet,
who would be SO brash as to say that
Roosevelt was seeking to drive away the
support of conservative Democrats at the
polls on election day? Probably no one
would be more disappointed than he If
the Glasses and the Byrds, the Harrisons
and the Robinsons should take a walk" )"
The Roosevelt high command clings to
the belief that there are many conserva-
tive business men who on election day
will cast their ballots for the Democratic
national ticket. 1t takes pains to point
out to them how much money they have
been enabled to make during the last
year. due, the Democratic National Com
mittee insists, to the Roosevelt recovery
program.
There are labor leaders and progress
sive" leaders who believe, however, that
the Roosevelt campaign this year is
paving the way for them to set up new
and independent liberal party in 1910.
In the old days, the Republican party
appealed to American labor on the full
dinner pail" issue. It got their votes in
very large numbers. Today the Demo-
cratic party is appealing to the workers
on the ground that Roosevelt has fed
the millions out of work and has put
through Federal laws favorable to or
ganized labor. The Republicans say to
labor: Put us back into power and we
will see that you get jobs-in private in
dustry. They say to labor: There Is no