Evening star., 1937-08-15

lCoiuCHO Pei Soldlly tllcy NUulu dllcus
ate Democratic voters In time, Of
course, as 1910 approaches. the Dem
ocrats opposed to the President will
not resent being called "anti-Roose-
welt Democrats"-they will welcome
it,
In the struggle between President
Roosevelt and the independent DEM
ocrats in Congress. Mr.. Roosevelt in
the near future will force the fighting
He lost the first battle, a decisive one.
To recover ground he must take the
initiative.
The independent Democrats who
won the court battle will not force the
fighting. On the contrary they wish
now, for the time being. to move
little closer toward friendliness with
the President. Having got far away
from the President in the court battle,
and thereby having shocked some
Democratic voters. they wish to re-
assure those voters.
In the first important issue in the
Senate after the court battle was end
ed, many of the independent Demo-
Gratis preferred to be conspicuous on
the Presidents side. The roll-call
was on the wage-and- hour bill. Just
because that roll-call came so soon
after the court battle is the principal
reason the wage-and- measure
won. II all the Democratic Senators
had voted as they felt about that
measure. it would have lost. But they
wanted to avoid subjecting the Presi-
dent to a second defeat so soon after
the first. After a little while they
won't feel that way.
Roosevelt Still Confident.
The President is confident he has
the people with him, confident of
the magic of his voice and personality.
Besides, he thinks he is right. He
thinks the economic and social forces
at work in the world fight on his side.
He thinks his measures are impera-
lively necessary. He will 90 forward
with them, asking Congress to enact
them. And he will ask Congress to
re-enact some of his measures that
were invalidated by the Supreme
Court. Notably he will almost GER
tainly ask Congress to re-enact an
other triple-A. Finally. in all prob
ability, he again will ask Congress to
to It. for remade court is essential to
the Presidents program.
The Presidents coming moves are
related to the economic condition of
the country. Two things are happen
ing which do not jibe with each
other and which bring danger The
prices OF farm crops are going down
and at the same time wages are going
up. The declining prices of farm
products are what the President will
take notice of and act upon. He does
not want wages to come down-on the
contrary he is determined to keep
wages up and even higher than they
now are. Consequently. he will try to
bring prices of farm products up to
parity. What l am saying here about
the Presidents course is speculation.
Substantially equivalent things have
been said by the President himself in
press conferences.
II Told You SO" Prices.
Starting with the lowering prices of
farm products, the President will say,
in effect: Il told you so; I told you
this would happen. I told you at the
time the Supreme Court held triple A
unconstitutional. and also N. r. A."
The President will 60 on to say that
in order to halt the falling prices Of
crops, he wants Congress to pass an
other triple A, substantially identical
with the first. And then little later
he will say. once more. that he must
have the change which he wanted in
the courts.
To put it more broadly. the Presi-
dent, since 1888. has set up a number
OF economic stills. Because some of
them are about to break down, he must
set up still other ones Some of these
stills. present ones or future ones, are
so clearly unconstitutional that the
present Supreme Court would invali-
date them unanim ously, as it did N.
r. A. And Mr.. Roosevelt will be
obliged to say that he must have a
court which would not invalidate
them.
What the independent Democrats
wish to know is, What will Mr.. Roose-
velt do when the 1910 election comes
around? Possibly they might find a
clue in something Mr. Roosevelt said
to Congress in>his annual message of
January 3, 1886. On that occasion he
said:
We (the Roosevelt admins
tratlon) have built up new instru-
ments Of public power. In the hands
OF peoples government this power is
wholesome and proper. But in the
hands OF political puppets Of an eco
nomlc autocracy, such power would
provide shackles for the liberties of
the people"
II Mr.. Roosevelt were to project that
into 1910 We might imagine him saw
ing that the independent Democrats
must not be permitted to nominate the
presidential candidate, because they
would nominate political puppet of
an economic aristocracy." He might
say that the only person safely to be
entrusted with the new instruments
OF public power is the man who made
the instruments, Mr.. Roosevelt him
self.
Copyright 1879
q INDIGNANT