Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1936-10-01

Issues lie a n campaign
com m tees in
their efforts to shape and join the
issues upon which the electorate will
choose the next occupant of the
White House. There has been a
tremendous amount of hauling and
filling, each side coming forth with
trial balloons in an effort to find out
what it is that will attract the most
interest among the voters and to de-
termine what particular matters af-
ford the best vehicle on which they
can ride into Office.
From the beginning of this year,
President Roosevelt has been trying
to shape his issue on the basis of
single question-whether the Ameri-
can people in dollars and cents are
better off then they were when he
took Office. I think admittedly that
If Mr.. Roosevelt could force that
question into the center of the stage
and make it the real issue, he would
have very little campaigning to do.
But the trouble is Mr.. Roosevelt
has been unable to accomplish his
purpose and no little credit for his
threat to force a joinder of issues
on this point is due to the Republi-
can leadership. The Republican
managers simply will not be led
into that trap. Thus, we must look
elsewhere to see what the real is
sues are, or are likely to be, in this
campaign decision.
1t has nearly always been true
that the issues prominent early in
the campaign have proved not to
be the issues at all near the end of
a political battle. This year prom
ises to be no exception. Political
leaders attempt to figure out the
proposition upon which their oppo-
nents are most vulnerable and OBJ
viously this figuring takes place in
advance. 1t has to happen that way
in order that methods Of attack can
be arranged in advance.
The New Dealers thought they
could smoke out the Republicans by
shouting far and wide that the peo-
pie as whole are better off than
they were when Mr.. Roosevelt took
Office. But, again, it was a case
where political strategy did not
work. Even though many hundred
thousands of people are better off,
the fact remains that there are
some twenty million persons receiv-
ing relief in one form or another
and the further fact remains that
there are somewhere between nine
million and ten million workers
without jobs. Consequently, Mr..
Roosevelt's question whether people
were better off in dollars and cents
did not quite click.
In the meantime, the Republicans
have found what they believe to be
very vulnerable spot in the New
Deal armor and they are shooting
at it with machine-gun rapidly.
This question, this spot, centers
around taxation. The Republicans
apparently thought at the start of
the fight that Democratic waste Of
federal money and the vast debt
that was piled up would force a re-
vulsion of feeling against New Deal
policies. So they started out on
that campaign horse. But they
found that the question of taxation
over-shadowed the other, even
though the taxation about which the
Republicans are talking has been
an offspring Of the alleged waste of
the party in power.
I doubt that the taxation issue
would have been as important as it
is proving to be
Err IN had not the New
Strategy Dealers made q
mistake in politi-
cal strategy. This mistake, it may
be said in passing, illustrates how
very minor things influence the ulti-
mate result in politics to a greater
extent perhaps than in any other
activity of American national life.
The mistake which I refer to was
made by Attorney General Cum
mings.
The story Of the circumstance
chronologically is something like
this: The Republicans from their
headquarters in Chicago began call
ing attention to increased tax bur-
dens in connection with their ex-
posture of the increase of more than
thirteen billion dollars in the coun-
try's debt. They pointed out how,
If the Roosevelt administration had
not wasted money, preparations
would not have to be made for rails
ing the taxes and how, if this waste
had not occurred, tax increases
which we already have had would
not have taken place.
AS a part of the demonstration Of
increased taxation the Republicans
issued campaign literature item
izing the amount of taxes each and
every one of us pays on the COM
mon everyday necessities of life.
They showed how each loaf of
bread, each pair Of shoes, each
pork-chop, among other things,
bears so much tax which all of us
pay in buying those necessities Of
life.
Probably the distribution of this
campaign literature by the Repub-
licans would not have stirred up so