Evening star., 1937-03-14

lican Governors is not 10 per cent of
| the country.
4. In the II largest cities in the
! country the Republican party has
only 2 Mayors. And in one of these
the fact that the Mayor is described
as Republican has little meaning. The
| significant fact is that in only l
large city out of II do the Republicans
control the city organization. This
Republican weakness in cities is an
| ominous sign for the future, because
control Of city machines has much to
do with winning national elections.
5. The Republicans in last Falls
election carried only out Of 48 States,
Maine and Vermont.
! 6. The Republicans are reduced
to a point where, so to speak, they
have no territory, no adequate foot
| hold from which to grow. This is an
! important condition common to the
Republicans The Democrats, even
in their darkest days, always had
territory, the solid South. And in
addition they usually held four or
five of the largest cities; almost al
ways they held New York City. Even
when the Democrats suffered their
disastrous defeat of 1923 when al"
Smith was their presidential candi-
date, they elected more than rs Gov
ernors.
7. The Republican weakness in the
| national government is of kind that
| cannot be fully overcome in the near
future. 1t cannot be fully overcome
in one election or in two. This is due
to the situation in the Senate. If
next year the Republicans should win
| every senatorial election in every State
| (omitting only the Southern States
| they would still be minority party
| in the Senate. Everybody knows, of
course, that the Republicans will not
! next year win all the senatorial elec-
| tions outside the South For a rough
| estimate, assume that the Republicans
next year should win half the sena-
| torial elections outside the South. And
| then assume the same for 1940 Even
| on this assumption, which is generous
to the Republicans, they would not
! dNAllCfC q illdJOI4LJ VI VIC SCLldGts LII
short, it is most probable the Demo-
Gratis will control the Senate until
| 1912.
Must Defeat Court Plan.
These are hard facts. They are
fundamental facts. They are facts
which Republicans must face when
they consider the simple question
whether the party can survive in any
circumstances.
But the Republicans must consider
this question with respect to one para
mount and immediate condition. They
must consider it with respect to de-
feating Mr.. Roosevelt's proposal to
change the Supreme Court. Prac-
tically every Republican would say
promptly and cheerfully that the most
urgent present duty Of the party is
to do whatever is best to help defeat
Mr.. Roosevelt's proposal.
Now the fact is Mr.. Roosevelts pro-
posal is being resisted primarily not
by Republicans. but by Democrats. 1t
is primarily resisted by Democrats for
the simple reason the Republicans are
not able to. Every Republican in the
Senate will vote against it-but there
are only 16 Of them If the proposal
is defeated at all, the Democrats must
supply at least 80 votes. The Demo-
Gratis must supply two votes to every
one the Republicans can.
In this condition would it not help
to defeat the Presidents court pro-
posal if Republicans would announce
that next year they will refrain from
functioning as party, at least in
those States in which there are Demo-
cratic Senator's up for reelection who
are now opposing the court proposal?
To be specific, in the current lists
Of Senator'S believed to be opposed to
the court proposal, there are "a in all.
Of these l8 are DemocratS-and there
will be more Democrats on this side
in the ultimate roll call.
Of the Democrats already described
as opposing the court proposal, at
least six come UP for reelection next
year. They are Senator'S Clark of
Missouri, George of Georgia, Gillette Of
Iowa, Smith of South Carolina, Tyd-
ings of Maryland and Van Nuys of In
diana. If theses Democrats are left
to their fate within the Democratic
party they may have hard time.
For President Roosevelt and the party
organization dominated by him pre-
sunably will discriminate against
Democrats who oppose his court pro-
posal
In this situation, would not the Re-
publicans do we'll to let it be known
that they will not run any candidates
for Senator against Democrats who
oppose the Presidents court pro-
posal?
Real Peril in Primary.
But to make such an announce
ment would not be enough. Indeed.
it would not help at all For the real
peril to these Democrats comes not
so much in the election as in the party
primary. 1t is in the party primary
that the Democratic organization,
rejecting Mr.. Roosevelt and Mr.. Far
ley. will try to defeat these Democrats
for denomination.
] In this condition, If the Repub-
licans are to help at all, they must
announce that in the States named
they will cease to act as party next
year; that they will cease to be Re-
publicans; that they will go into the
Democratic primaries and there sup
port for denomination those Demo-
cratic Senators who vote against the
Presidents court proposal BY this
course the Republicans would really
achieve something. For in the coun-
| try as whole, the 100000 Repub-
licans, added to the number of Demo-
cratic voters who are shocked by the
Presidents court proposal, would make
majority of the total electorate
Any Republican who has followed
this reasoning thus far will be obliged
to admit that if defeat of the Presi-
dents court proposal is paramount
to any other consideration, the Re-
publican party would best serve the
country by announcing that, for next
| year at least and possibly also for