Evening star., 1937-03-02
THE POLITICAL
MILL
BY G.. GOULD LINCOLN.

EIcSlucIlt pldI W lIlCICdSc IIlc IIlculUC1.
ship Of the Supreme Court of the United
States up to Is are shouting more and
more about propaganda" against the
plan and about special interests" and
the "hardshell conservatives" This may
be natural. At the same time 1t Is in
dicative Of the "jitters" which seems to
be affecting the administration leader
ship. The administration and the rank
and file Of the Senators and Repre-
sentatives who are expected to follow
the Presidents wishes have been amazed
at the quantity of protests which have
come from all parts of the country and
from all kinds of people against the
Presidents court bill They have fastened
upon the device of labelling all the pro-
test letters and kilograms propaganda"
All the favorable letters and kilograms,
of course, are something else.
**+*
When the administration Is putting on
a campaign Of the dimensions and char
acter such as have never been seen be-
fore in this country over piece OF
legislation. 1t seems almost childish for
the leaders to complain about propa-
ganda on the other side. President
Roosevelt is, 1t is now reported, to make
public appeals over national radio hook
ups on March and again on March 9.
On March he will be speaking to the
guests at the victory dinners" given by
the Democrats all over the country in
honor of the Presidents reelection. On
March 8 he will make another of his
"fireSide talks" to the American people.
Members of the Presidents cabinet,
headed by Attorney General Cummings,
have been doing, and will continue to do,
their bit. Secretary Wallace is working
on the farmers of the country in person
to make them see the true light. Pro-
administration Senators, Representatives
and Governors are going on the air,
night after night. Harry Hopkins, who
is the great dispenser of relief to millions
of the people, is going to tell them
all why the President is right about the
court. This kind of campaign is propa-
ganda and propaganda on big scale.
The opponents of the Presidents Su-
preme Court plan know they are up
against tremendous odds in this cam
paign. They have been vastly en-
couraged, however, by the way in which
the country has reacted agEinst the
plan to pack the court. In fact, the
outpouring of protests from thousands
upon thousands of persons. many of
whom have never before written to their
Senators and Representatives on any
subject whatever, is more than nine
days wonder. Although the opposition
is unable to call upon high officials of
the Government to get into the CAM
paign, it is doing its best, and many
Democratic Senators have already gone
on the air to voice their dislike of the
Presidents plan. The time has come,
however, for some of the Republicans OF
the Senate to get into action, in the
opinion of the Democrats who are lead
ing the fight against the court bill.
So Senator Vandenberg of Michigan will
go on the air tonight to speak in oppoSi-
ton The Republicans have tried to
keep out of the campaign, and very
successfully, during recent weeks, for
they wished the country to understand
that this was not partisan fight, and
that partisan politics were not mixed up
in it.
With more Democratic Senators COM
mitted against the Presidents court bill
than there are Republicans in the Sem
ate. it seems to have been pretty def
nitely demonstrated that the battle Is
not a partisan affair. With more of
the progressives in the Senate fighting
the measure than there are progressiveS
supporting it, it seems clear that it Is
not a fight between the liberals and
the conservatives, although that is what
some of the administration spokesmen
would have you believe.
~ -
The kind of fight which the President
and his supporters have been forced and
are being forced to make in support of
the court bill was not expected by the
President. He had no idea, it is be-
lieved, that so many Of the most widely
known liberals in the country would go
against him, nor so many of the Demo-
cratic members of the Senate and House.
But the President gave no inkling OF
what he had in his mind, until he
brought forth his court bill, full-fedged,
at his press conference on February 5,
almost month ago. Apparently he had
not asked the advice of any one, except
the Attorney General and the solicitor
general, or at least he had not suggested
that he had such a plan for the Supreme
Court in mind. The surprise was there
all right. when he made his announce
ment It begins to look, however, as
though the surprise was not all on one
side.
Sooner or later, many of the opponents
of the Presidents court bill believe, the
measure. as it relates to the Supreme
Court. will have to be revised by the
administration. They do not pretend
yet to say exactly what form of COM
promise will be sought. But they expect
that the brains of the administration
will seek to find way of getting the
results desired by means of some other
formula.
The Democratic Senators who have
come out with emphatic statements de-
nouncing or opposing the Presidents
court plan make an imposing array.
Among them are Wheeler of Montana,
George of Georgia, Connally Of Texas,
Clark of Missouri, Copeland of New York,
Glass and Byrd of Virginia, Bailey of
North Carolina, Van Nuys of Indiana,
King of Utah, Donahey of Ohio. Burke
of Nebraska and Holt of West Virginia.
There are others ready to announce
themselves in opposition. They are bid
ing their time to make their announce
ments the more effective.
~ *x
The reaction against the Presidents
demand for the power to increase the
Supreme Court and so mold decisions of
the highest court is particularly strong
in the South and gives promise of grow
ing stronger The South had a good
Jor,opetrotion in reconStruction davs Of