Evening star., 1937-10-29
THE POLITICAL
. MILL
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

have been inclined to oppose the national
gathering idea have reached the conclu-
sion 1t Is going to happen. Herbert
Hoover's address in Boston, nationally
broadcast, helped to clear the atmos-
phere and to make it clear he is not
seeking a personally conducted conven-
ton for his own particular interest.
Former Gov. ALI M. Landon, in Topeka,
soft-pedaled opposition to the conven-
tion idea, though he stuck to his
demands that the delegates be chosen
to represent the rank and file Of Repub-
lican voters and all groups.
= "
Holdouts from the national convention
idea among the Republicans in Congress
are beginning to pipe down-not all OF
them-but some Of them. The predic-
tion that many of the Republicans in
House and Senate will give the confer
ence plan their support eventually seems
sound enough. The Republican National
Committee will pass on the proposed
plan officially at meeting in Chicago
q week from today. Reports are to the
effect that the committee will approve.
Former President Hoover told the
country on Tuesday that he did not
want any public Office. That should lay
the ghost of the story of his ambition
for the presidential nomination in 1910.
Probably 1t will not in some quarters.
And, indeed, Mr.. Hoover has enthusiastic
friends who may yet endeavor to push
him forward as the Republican standard
bearer. Mr.. Hoover may turn cold
shoulder, just as Calvin Coolidge did
when the late Senator FesS of Ohio and
others sought to boost him for President
after he had issued his Il do not choose
to run" statement. For the present, he
seems to have done all he can in reason
and good taste. Any man who steps out
and says Il will not take presidential
nomination under any circumstances"
when it has not been offered to him, is
presuming lot any way you look at it,
More and more Senator Arthur Van
denberg of Michigan has come to be
looked upon as a principal spokesman
OF the Republican party in Congress.
This is due not to any official position
he holds in the party organization. but
to the fact he is able and willing to
speak. He is not the Republican leader
of the Senate-an office held by Senator
McNary of Oregon. He is not chairman
of the Republican Senatorial Commit
tee. He is just Vandenberg But the
Michigan Senator has been a thorn in
the New Deal side on many occasions
in the last year. He has come forward,
moreover. with concrete legislative pro-
poSals which made some of the New Deal
laws and methods look quite sick. And
he has lifted his voice again; this time
at meeting in his home city. Grand
Rapids. His speech came a few days
after those delivered by Landon and
Hoover.
The Vandenberg speech undertook to
tell just why American business is fall
tering now under the New Deal admin
istration. and why jobs are not plentiful
enough to give employment to all. Predi-
eating his remarks on "the creation of
unlimited central power which follows
no consistent pattern" the Michigan
Senator said that American business has
vertigo on a merry -go-round that never
stops" 1t does not know the value of
money because the President can change
the value of the dollar at any time; it
cannot anticipate a reasonably reliable
price range because the President can
manipulate the price index through his
inflationary control of money; it does not
know at what moment the Government
will enter into destructive commercial
competition against it because the Presi-
dent may himself, alone, wipe out the
protection If he sees fit; it does not know
whether to expect peace or war because
| the President himself, alone, is handling
| that; it cannot know whether there is
| to be labor war or labor peace because
an inconclusive, unilateral Wagner Act
| fails to create q mutually reliable pros
| pectus"; it is at the mercy of thousand
| big and little bureaucrats who strut
| their pompous stuff" and 'it cannot
| escape the darkening menace of an ever
| unbalanced Federal budget, which
threatens every value in the land"
"Only specific and direct profit shar-
| ing" can be the ultimate relationship
| between capital and labor" Vandenberg
| insisted. He continued: "We talk OF
| partnership between capital and labor,
but there is no partnership worthy the
name which stops at the moment when
| the final profits from a mutual under
| taking are to be divided-the final profits
| after both labor and capital have been
adequately paid"
| Socialism or collectivism, he. said
would approach such a problem by pass
| ing laws which would assume to dictate
uniform prof1t-sharing rule to all
| industry. This, he insisted, would not
work because Of the imposSibility OF find.
ing a standard formula that would work
| for all industry. Vandenberg's solution
would be the enactment of tax law
under which tax exemptions and tax
rewards would be offered for whatever
portion of an annual profit any employer
voluntarily and in his own way may
dedicate to profit sharing with his
employees"
| To-day we have punitive taxation u
he said. 81 venture the prediction that
the exact opposite-incentive taxation
will one day make vast contribution to
the economic stability and happiness OF
the United States"
X
Senator Vandenberg is q foremost
apostle Of the coalition" idea to fight
the Roosevelt New Deal. He has
on several occasions In the past ad.
vanced the proposal that the Republic
ans and anti-New Deal Democrats get to-
gether. In his most recent speech he said
IT am prepared to support any party
old, fused or new-which gives depend
able promise of brave program to save
America, to serve the common welfare
of our whole people, and to give prosper
| ity a chance" He said that the court
fight, won in the Senate, which pre-
served the constitutional form Of Govern
/ want uoe not a rti 90 ~ HOhf fbn