Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1937-08-19


have contributed to President
Roosevelt's recent troubles with
congress, and promise to make him
a lot more trouble in the session to
come.
One of these is nationwide
other southern. The former is much
easier to understand. 1t is another
evidence of that age-old trait of hui
man nature illustrated by the old
rhyme:
"The devil was sick, the devil
monk would be.
The devil got well, the devil monk
was he"
When President Roosevelt went
into office the country was sick,
economically. The chief criticism
of the administration he supplanted
was that it had foundered along, in
stead of doing something to cor
rect bad situation So the voters
were willing to try anything. When
Roosevelt came into power, and be-
gan doing things in a spectacular
way, he aroused enthusiasm. He
continued to arouse it for at least
two years before there was really
whisper of protest from the folks
who had been pleased in the begin
ming.
Unquestionably there were some
OBJECTIONS from his supporters dur
ing the second two years, but these
were much more than replaced by
the people who had come to be
dependent on the federal spending
policies, both as to farm and work
relief, so that his popular victory
in 1886 not only exceeded that of
1882, but the congressional election
of 1884 as we'll
But the dissenters have been
growing in number. The emergency
having passed, they began to chafe
at the continuance of what they had
hailed earlier as remedies. Dur
ing the 1886 campaign the Republi-
cans tried their best to make the
people tax conscious. They harped
on the payroll deduction taxes, and
the hidden taxes, and so on until
the voters got sick of hearing about
it.. Certainly the Republicans got
nowhere with the issue.
Revolt Likely to Grow
In the first place, the voters did
not believe them. In the second,
the idea of an emergency was still
present. There was not any gen.
eral conviction that the hard times
we've definitely over.
But since January all the little
employers, especially the lads in
the small towns, have been paying
those security taxes. So have the
workers. And nobody likes to pay
taxes.
More important, with the passage
of the months since last November
has come a general feeling that the
emergency has passed. Along with
this conviction is a growing feeling
that the country would have recov-
cred anyhow, without the drastic
Roosevelt cure. Those who feel this
way-those who have changed their
views since last November-are
probably very small minority of
the entire people. Even added to
the people who voted against Roose-
welt last November, they almost be-
yond question are in the minority.
Most political observers still think
that Roosevelt has a majority fol-
lowing in the country.
But the folks who have changed
are in evidence everywhere. They
are known to their senators and
representatives. The mail reach
ing Capitol hill speaks no uncertain
language about the change.
To all this in the South is added
the fact that party loyalty, and even
stronger dislike of the very word
Republican, has made any
thought of insurgency unlikely.
Then, due to farm benefits, etc.,
there was general feeling for the
first time since the Civil war the
South was getting something from
Washington.
The revolt seems more likely to
grow than to fade.
Turn Conservative
Significance of the fact that twen-
ty-two Democratic senators voted
to recommit the wages and hours
regulation bill is more obvious than
the deductions to be made about
opposition to President Roosevelt on
the Supreme court enlargement bill,
but the two things are down the
same alley.
There are exceptions, of course,
such as the fact that Senator Burton
K. Wheeler of Montana was against
the President on the court and for
him on wages and hours regulation.
Most of the Democratic senator's
who opposed the President on either
issue had the same motive. They
want to curb the New Deal phases
of the administration. They want
to force the Democratic party back
into more conservative policies and
principles. They want to force the
nomination of some one more con-
sentative than Roosevelt in 1910,
and they want a much more con-
sentative platform than the Brain
Trust wing would favor.
There has been a most interest
ing swing of Southern Democrats