Evening star., 1936-01-12
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
SEEN AT STAKE In RACE
Ex.President Hoover Held Outstanding
Leader i'm Defense of Traditional
United States Liberties.

far his almost eccentric individualism
may have carried him in other re-
spectS, he has never in the faintest
degree modified his loyalty to the
American form of government He Is
as loyal to it. values it as highly and
understands it as well as the men who
wrote the Constitution and launched
the new Nation. If any one doubts
what I here say about Mr.. Borah, let
him read the Senator's article in the
current February) number of the
Red Book magazine. That article is
the best answer have seen to the
attacks made upon the Constitution
and upon the independence of the
courts by New Dealers Senator
Borah's article deserves to rank with
utterances of John Marshall, Roger
Taney, and Justice Story. among the
10 or 20 best eXpositions of the Con-
stitution ever written.
Will Name Loyal Men.
Consider a test that probably will
come during the next four years-if
Senator Borah should be President,
and if it should fall to him to name
majority of the Supreme Court, he
would be dependably sure to name
men loyal to the Constitution. loyal
to the principles of the independence
of the courts and loyal to the di-
vision of powers which is a corner
stone of the American form of gov
ernment. Senator Borah's dependa-
bility on this point is alone a large
commendation of him for the Repub-
lican presidential nomination.
The weakness of Senator Borah,
however, is that this is said of him
in defense. His occasional actions
about other matters have caused the
public to be less clear about his sound
ness on the fundamental issue. No
one feels it necessary to say that the
other five possibilities for the Repub-
lican presidential nomination would,
II President, appoint to the Supreme
Court only men loyal to the Consti-
tuition and the existing form of gov
ernment.
For while a disturbing aspect was
associated with the recently increased
activity in connection with Mr.. Borah
and the presidential nomination. 1t
seemed as If Senator Horah was being
promoted. in considerable part by per-
sons whose opposition to the New Deal
is not completely unqualified. For ex-
ample, if Senator Borah gets the dele
gates from Wisconsin. he will prob
ably get them through entrance into
the Republican primary of a large
number of persons who are not Re-
publlcanS or conservatives, but men,
berS of the La Toilette Progressive
party in that State or of the Demo-
cratic party. The Democrats and
ProgressiveS, having no interest in the
primaries of their own parties because
there is no contest in those parties for
the presidential nomination. are ex-
pected to go largely INTO the Republi-
can primary in Wisconsin and there
support Senator Borah. If. however,
Senator Borah should be the Republi-
can nominee, or whoever is the Re-
publican nominee, these Progressive
and Democratic supporters. when the
general election comes in November,
will in large numbers vote for the New
Deal and Mr.. Roosevelt.
1t is obvious that whoever is Sc
lected to lead the fight against the
New Deal should not be chosen by
voters who are themselves New Deal
ers. However, the disposition of fol-
lowers of Senator Borah to make an
aggressive fight for his nomination has
diminished. At present there is little
dissent from the idea that the Repub-
lican National Convention next June
should consist mainly of uninstructed
delegates who, when they come to-
gether. will make Whatever nomina-
ton seems best.
Dramatic Development Seen.
If the Republican National Con-
vention were to meet today instead
of June 9. if the thouSand-odd dele
gates were uninstructed, or if the
convention were made up largely of
small groups instructed for one or
another of the six possibilities-in
that set of circumstances, the nomi-
nation would probably go either to
Gov. Landon or Col. Frank Knox. If
both these fail to grow, or if there is
stalemate between them, the con-
venion would survey Senator Vanden-
berg and Senator Dickinson. This
is as of today Between today and
June g. conditions could change
vitally, and even dramatically. There
might be conditions that would cause
the convention to turn to Mr.. Hoover
or Mr.. Borah. Instinctively, Repub-
lican leaders and the public, includ-
ing Republican voters, feel this pos
sibility of dramatic developments !
during the period before the Repub-
lican nomination is to be made.
Among other things, by June 9, it
may seem easier to defeat Mr.. Roose-
velt than now appears. That the tide
has begun to run against him. is
shown not only by the informal straw |
votes, but by the isolated elections |
that took place in some States last
November. 1t is all a question of |
how fast this tide will run. Since |
the coming of the. radio, such tides |
seem to move faster than formerly. |
The presen. tide may be accelerated |
by some one or more events, by some
thing Mr.. Roosevelt does, or some
thing that his enormous party ma
jority in Congress does under his di-
rection. American sentiment might
be moved by possible developments in
Europe. Sooner or later. MuSsolini
in Italy and Hitler in Germany, both
adopting desperately one device after
another to keep their holds on their
respective peoples, may run into a
smash-up. If misadventure occurs to
personal government in Italy or Ger
many, the event would have bear
ing on American opinion about the
experiment-so far very much milder
than in Europe-toward personal gov
ernment that now exists in the United !
States.
Copyright. 1850