The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1936-11-21
CONGRESS LEFT
FREE TO BALK
DESPITE ALL
CERTAIN ACTIVITIES WILL
STILL BE CARRIED ON RE-,
CARELESS OF MIGHT OF.
ROOSEVELT
By BYRON PRICE
Chief of Bureau. The Associates
Press NmnhfmEfomR

Press Washington
The almost unbelievable dimen-
sions of Mr.. Roosevelt's election
victory raise one extremely vital
question: Has the American
electoral process, regarded for
generations as a guarantee Of
democracy, suddenly created a one
man government at Washington
Certainly there are arguments
to support such a thesis The
President himself was, in far more
than the ordinary sense, the issue
of the campaign. His policies, run
ming so directly toward cOncen-
tration of power, were well known
to the people. And the answer
was an almost unanimous elector-
al college, and a congress IN which
only a corpol al's guard Of the op-
position party survives.
More than that: the candidate
had openly expressed his Opposi
ton to the logic of important de-
cis.ons of the supreme court He
had openly asked for the passage
of legislation, regardless Of doubts
of its constitutionality. And ms
fellow-citizens reelected HIM BY
the biggest popular plurality IN
history.
Not All New Dealers
Looking at these facts, as they
stand unembellished and unquah-
fled, it is easy to conclude that
the people have given Mr. ROose-
welt a mandate to rule, and that
he viii proceed to carry that man
date into effect with vigor-
This may be, indeed, the correct
conclusion. Yet there are certain
qualifying circumstances. which
really should be noted carefully
One is the circumstance that
party labels do not mean what
they once meant. The new con
gress will be Overwhelmingly
Democratic in the sense that the
vast majority were elected on the
Democratic ticket. But II viii be
much less overwhelmingly New
Deal.
Even under ordinary conditions,
it would be remaI 6able if one man
could dominate a party made mp
of such numbers, and including
such varying types of opinion A
generation ago, when the Repubh-
cans began to have great congress
sional majorities, it split into
groups and blocs. The natural
supposition would be that any 9th
er party so situated would do the
same.
The conditions are not, furth-
ermore, ordinary. Some Of the
most influential members of con
gress. within the Democratic par
ty, have been openly against most
of the New Deal. They supported
Mr.. Roosevelt for reelection with
the specific reservation that they
would oppose henceforth those
policies with which they disagreed
Possibly the devastating charae-
ter of the 1896 majorities may
convince them that they must 20
along. The general character Of
these men themselves, however,
argues strongly to the contrary
The balance of proof is indicative
of far more trouble on capitol
hill than the election returns re-
motely hint.
Congress May Turn
The expectation that congress
sional lines viii stiffen is upheld
by two additional circumstances
One is that Mr.. Roosevelt now Is
in his second term, not his first
The other is that the emergency
which led to the creation Of the
New Deal appears to be passing
A President who faces a re-elee-
ton campaign, and who is certain
to head the ticket again, has q
strong lverage over members Of
his party in congress. They know
they must themselves run on that
ticket, and they do not want TO
be out of step. But when they do
not know who the next Presiden-
tial nominee viii be, they begin 70
look out for themselves. That is