Evening star., 1937-10-01
DEMOCRATS SPLIT
IN THE NORTHWEST
Labor and Power Issues
Dominating Factors in
Oregon, Washington.
Special Dispatch to The Star.


SEATTLE, october l (N.A.NA).-
Yntra-labor union warfare and the
use that is to be made of the great
accretion of electric power coming
from the Bonneville and Grand Coulee
Dams have crowded out all other
political issues in Washington and
Oregon, and their first effect has been
to split the Democratic party wide
open.
Gov. Charles H. Martin of oregon,
who got his start as a supporter of
President Roosevelt and the New Deal
during his membership in the National
House of Representatives, has taken
q firm stand against all strikes, and,
excepting Portland, where the State
police do not operate, he has man.
aged to keep the industrial wheels
moving But by his course he has
incurred the bitter enmity of the c.
I. O.. and, in somewhat less degree,
the enmity of the A. F. of L.
Radical Elements Alienated.
Gov. Martin also has led the fight
for use of the Bonneville power in
ways that will foster existing private
industry, rather than put the Govern
ment in competition with it. BY this
course, he has alienated all Of the
more radical elements in the State,
which have fed for years on what
their conservative opponents derisive-
ly term the issue of free power for
nothing"
When President Roosevelt threw his
support, in his speech at Bonneville,
unmistakably to the cheap power ad-
vocates, he put Gov. Martin in a
very bad spot, but the effect of the
speech also has been to rally all of
the conservative elements in the State,
Democratic and Republican. behind
the Governor. Party lines, so far as
this race is concerned, already have
been wiped out in Oregon.
In Washington, the issues are es-
sentially the same, but the lineup
may be very different, due to the
rising partnership of the A. F. OF l..
unionists, headed by David Beck, and
the Seattle industrialists. 1t is too
early to predict that this combination
will hold in the election here next
year, but there are many indications
that it may do so.
Commonwealth Federation Strong.
For several years past the foremost
vehicle of political radicalism in
Washington has been the Common
wealth Federation, originally organ
ized by the present United States
Senator, Louis B. Schwellenbach, to
marshal the unemployed as political
force. The organization served its
major purpose, so far as Schwellen-
bach was concerned, when it placed
him in the Senate in 1884, but since
then it has extended its operations in
many directions.
In 1886, in addition to supporting
Roosevelt, it brought about the sub
mission of proposals for establishment
of production for use" system of
Government-owned industries, and, as
bid to the Townsend planners, a
State old-age pension system. Both
of these were defeated at the polls.
Now the Commonwealth Federation
has allied itself with the c. I. O., with
. purpose not so much to aid mass
an agency for organization of the in
dustrial workers in support of all
sorts of socialistic enterprises, includ-
ing use of the newly created Govern
ment power plans as a means of driv-
ing out private enterprise.
Conflict With Unionists.
The crucial fact is that the Com
monwealth Federation, by espousing
the c. I. O., has come into open con-
flict with Mr.. Beck and his A. F. of
l.. unionists.
Becks first political task is to bring
about the reelection of Mayor John
F. Dore, who faces the voters next
Spring, and to this end he needs the
support of the Seattle conservatives.
If the candidate against Dore is
backed by the C. I. o. and the Com
monwealth Federation, as it seems
certain he will be, all of the con-
servative interests of the city are
certain to go down the line for the
A. F. Of L. mayor.
And because control OF the State
administration and congressional seats
Is equally vital to both the Industrial
ISIS and Beck, their combination may
hold for the election In the Fall of
1898.
The shifting political currents in
this section Of the country are in no