The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1937-07-22
SEEN and HEAR
around the
NATIONAL CAPITAL
By Carter Field

Washington. - Republicans in the
house and senate are receiving an
astonishing number of letters from
lifelong G.. o. P. voters insisting
that practical expediency dictates
the breaking up of the Republican
party as a national institution.
The writers almost without excep-
tion take the ground that the i'm
portant thing, both from their own
selfish interests-Which they gener-
ally construe as the good of the
country-and the carrying out of
the old Republican economic ideals,
is not only to prevent the reelection
of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1910 but
to prevent the election of any one
chosen by Roosevelt who will carry
on the New Deal policies.
The only thing that holds the DEM
ocratic party together at the mo-
ment, many of these writer's insist,
is the presence on the field of battle
of their enemy, the Republican par
ty. Some of them make the point
that the old truism that there are
more Republicans in the United
States than Democrats-that this
is Republican country-is no long,
er accurate. A new generation has
come of voting age, which has no
party ties rooted in the old tradi-
ton, they insist, and apparently
very large majority of the younger
folks have very definitely affiliated
with the Democratic party.
Even the often made statement
by Republican Chairman John D. NJ.
Hamilton about the tremendous
number of Republicans who voted
in the last election, nearly seven
teen million, is the bunk, many Of
these writer's go out of their way
to assert. They point to the fact
that q tremendous number OF these
Republican" votes were actually
cast by Democrats who have no
love whatever for the Republican
party, its traditions or leaders. They
instance Alfred E. Smith, John w.
Davis, cambridge Colby, former
Senator James A. Reed of Missouri,
and though he never made public
statement that he was going to vote
for Alfred NJ. Landon, many writer's
also mention Newton D. Baker.
Would Scrap G. O. F.
There is no way of telling how
many Democrats, unhappy a b u t
the New Deal tendencies of their
party, voted for Landon. But every
one of the folks writing in recently
| and asking that the Republican par
| ty be scrapped in order to open a
clear road for an effective conserv-
alive opposition to the New Deal
seems to think a great many.
Yet the opposition to being
classed as Republican, or to Civ
ing aid and comfort to a revival OF
the G. o. P, the writer's point out,
deferred literally millions Of Dem
ocrats from jumping party lines.
Many of the letters mention such
Well-known Democratic leaders as
Senators Garter Glass and Harry r.
Byrd of Virginia, Willard E. Tyd-
ings of Maryland, Josiah w. Bailey
of North Carolina, and Walter f
! George of Georgia as among the
Democrats who supported Roose-
welt, some tepidly and some strong.
ly, merely because he was the Dem,
ocratic nominee, running against {
Republican.
Without the national Republican
party opposition to hold it together
many of these letter writer's be
Ieve, the Democratic party woulc
almost Immediately split into two
parties, giving the country the con
sentative and progressive division
on economic lines to which it is
entitled, and getting rid of bygone
issues, labels and prejudices which
should no longer be permitted to be
cloud our presidential campaigns
Holding Corporations
Not many votes are involved, Sc
there is no telling what congress.
will do about it, but there are {
great many individuals on Capito
Hill who think the personal holding
corporation, in many instances, i:
perfectly moral and justified
The best demonstration is one
that did not happen. But let us take
the case of the author of Con,
With the Wind. THAT book came
out just over a year ago. 1t j!
generally estimated to have earned
one million dollars for Margare
Mitchell. All of that million wa.
earned in two calendar years, mos
of it in the first. And the govern
ment will take approximately hal
of thatl
Now no one would object to tn,
government taking fifty per cent o
an income of half million dollar
a year-if the income came ever,
year--if it was interest on invested
capital or earnings from a goinl
concern.
But here is case where an all
thor, certainly from a comparative
standpoint, eked out an existenc,
during the ten or fifteen years il