The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-06-23

AASAgEAANA
 It is important first as an inc dication that the President final ly has realized that, between an incompetent personal secretariat and an inadequate liaison with Congress, he has lost contact with his host on Capitol Hill and as a result is being subjected to a lot Of needless undercover sniping.
 He was repeatedly warned that rank-and-flle members were becoming restive over their inability to get his ear and faiI- ure to be consulted on Adminis- ton policies and measures. But he airily brushed this counsel 2 side.
 The adverse vote on his court bill in the Senate Judiciary com. mittee, and the revolt in the house on the relief appropriation jerked him up short. It began to dawn on him that perhaps there was something to the warnings.
 When Maury Maverick, the San Antonio New Dealer-plus, took the House floor during the debate on the tax-evasion investi- gation, and declared that he and the rest of the liberals were "get- ting sick and tired of having things tossed at us without an advance word," the President de- cided that the time had come to act quickly.
 Court Fight Maneuver
 The weekend and good fellow ing is also important as tactical maneuver in the Supreme Court fight.
 The impressions and informa- tion Roosevelt gathers from his chats and conferences may deter mine his strategy in the inpend- ing senate battle on the issue. At the same time he viii put across the fact that he has ab- solutely no intention of throwing up the sponge and is determined on a showdown regardless of the outcome.
 The opposition, with censld- erable skill and quite a bit of secret help from Administration floor leaders, has raised much doubt among the Presidents followers concerning his firm ness on the court legislation. The weekend will give him plenty of chance to make his at- tltudc clearly known.
 The Chesapeake Bay event is not momentous because it is not a crucial life-and-death party con- fab.
 F rty DissensiOn
 There has been considerable pontificating and master -minding on how the get-together may de- termine the fate of the democratic party, may show whether there will be split or the President will succeed in wooing the dis sidents back to the fold.
 This Is a lot of day dreaming.
 TO BEGIN WITH, inner party dissension is not solved at pie mics. The differences that sep arate the President and his demo- cratic foes are too fundamental and deep to be patched up at a few days of opcn-air fraternizing.
 SECONDLY, he has no desire to make peace with them. Three months ago he might have. Today a strong personal feeling bars that. Privately the President has become very bitter toward the bolters.
 If they want to split off from the party that Is okay with him. In fact, the sooner they do so the better he will like it. It would clear the political picture and give him a freer hand in fighting back. He is firmly convinced that their defection will no mere break Up or injure the democratic party than the bolt of Al Smith, Jim Reed, ct al., last year.
 Test Case Welcomed
 Roosevelt and his political mas ter minds believe that Bailey of North Carolina, Wheeler of Mon- tana, Van Nuys of Indiana, Burke of Nebraska and the other op- positionists do not represent either party or popular opinion in their states or the country at large, and that if 1t comes 10 a test of strength they will take the count.
 The President now welcomes such a test. That explains his
 stiff-necked attitude toward suggestions that he drop the court fight, and his statement to intimates that if he Is licked in the Senate he will re- new the issue when Congress reconvenes in January and force 1t into next years congressional elections.
 Whether he is right or wrong in his attitude may be debatable. But that is the way the Presi- dent feels and the anti-Ad- nlinistrationites know it. Which is why most of them will have