Evening star., 1936-03-30
VOTE MAY CURB
NEW DEAL AIMS
Roosevelt "Second Regime"
IL Seen Influenced by
Size of Vote.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.


candidate with an affirmative plat
form and assuming also the failure OF
any third party to enter the field to
give an opportunity for truly liberal
Democrats to express themselves with
out swallowing Republicanism, the re-
election Of President Roosevelt might
we'll be expected.
This is but another way OF saying
that If Mr.. Roosevelt has no oppo-
sition he will win a greater number
of electoral votes in 1885 than he had
in 1882. It will be recalled that
this feat was accomplished by Presi-
dent Andrew Jackson about 100 years
ago.
The paramount question is, there
fore, will Mr.. Roosevelt have any real
opposition?
Ritchie's Death Factor.
Within recent weeks and particu-
larly since the death Of former Gov.
Ritchie of Maryland. it has been taken
for granted among writer's on national
politics that the idea of making a
fight at the Democratic National Con-
vention against the denomination of
Mr., Roosevelt has been abandoned.
1t became apparent that the delegates
to the convention-as happens always
with the party in power, be it Re-
publican or Democratic-wouldb be just
hand-picked selections comprising
Federal otiiceholders or their hench-
men.
The take-a-walk plan had merit in
the eyes Of Roosevelt opponents only
as a means of focusing attention on
the possibility of a spectacular pro-
test against what they termed trans
formation Of the Democratic party OF
Jeffersonian principle into the New
Deal party of emergency opportunism.
But If the plan is discarded as
futile, the question of the nature of
the opposition campaign to be made
after the conventions are held has by
no means been settled. To the extent
that lack of harmony or deflniteneSs
prevails in the ranks of those opposed
to the New Deal the curve in the
political chart Of Mr.. Roosevelt would
seem to have been correspondingly on
the upward trend. What with the
Republicans for Roosevelt divided into
groups supporting Messrs. Landon
Borah, Knox and Vandenberg, re.
spectively, and with criss-crosses OF
sentiment based on old cleavages OF
reactionary and progressive forces in
side the Republican party, Mr.. Roose-
welt appears to be sitting serenely in
an improved position since the recent
Literary Digest poll.
New Favor Won.
Another explanation of the sup
posed use in his political stock is that
Mr.. Roosevelt in the last few weeks
has done some of the things which
are designed to recapture millions of
votes that were undoubtedly reflected
as negative in the Digest poll. The
President has manifested, for instance,
another of his inclinations toward
economy in public expenditures and
he has actually offered-however con-
troversial may be its aspects-a tax
program to meet portion of the
annual deficit.
Observation-Disclosures they be mere
partisans-cannot withhold from Mr..
Roosevelt their sympathetic approval
when he does the very things for
which they have been clamoring. The
question might we'll be interposed that
the Roosevelt moves are temporary
and only a means Of inSuring elec-
tion, after which unorthodoX policies
will again be pursued and the con-
stitutional system remolded by the
appointment of what are expected to
be political judges.
Foes Short Sighted.
But the key to what Mr.. Roosevelt
will do if he is reelected is to be
found in the quality and power Of
the opposition that is lined up against
him between now and next November.
1t is on this point that many anti
New Dealers are short-sighted. They
have worked themselves into such a
frenzy or passion against Mr.. Roose-
welt personally that they forget he
derives his main strength from a
supine Congress, against which hardly
any opposition has developed back
home. II Mr.. Roosevelt has made
mistakes of judgment or policy or
has broken faith with his platform or
has blundered in his adjustment Of
minority and majority viewpoints in
o critical period of history-well, he
is entitled as one human being to
a large margin Of error. But what
OF the 96 members of the United
States Senate and the 435 members
of the House of Representatives who
constitute the principal difference to-
day between Germany and Italy on
the one hand and the United States
on the other?
The usual answer made is that
members of Congress are being in
1luenced either by the Presidents ap-
pointment of their friends to office
or by the fact that large sums are
being spent In their districts by the
Roosevelt bureaucracy and that hence
members of Congress are submissive
to the executive will. There may
be some truth in this but 1t can never
be accepted as the whole explanation
by any one familiar with national
elections. The reason why most men,
bers Of Congress-and in the House
at least two-thirds are new men
elected in 1882 or 1934-are following
Mr.. Roosevelt blindly is because rela-
lively few people back home have
risen up to point out that they really
care one way or the other whether
the Federal Government becomes ex-
ressively centralized or whether the
public purse is worn out and prohibi-
tive taxes are imposed.
Few In Mighty Protest.
This is not saying there has been
no opposition of importance. On the
contrary, a small group Of business
and professional men and some women
leaders have developed protest
which, while numerically small. Is
aualitatively about the most intense
the Nation has witnessed since the
days before the Civil War. But these
protesting groups are few and far
between. Their brethren are busily
-l- s~u~