Evening star., 1937-08-15

JuVenatlOn OF jim Farley. The city
Tammanies deeply distrust and gen.
orally dislike Franklin Roosevelt and
his academicians. That is evidenced
in New York, in Boston, in Kansas
City and in Chicago. Can he take the
Republican Cornbelt farmers, with
middle ground labor under the A. F.
OF L., and the college professors, along
with the small-town Progressives, and
make the new amalgam a winning
party even withthe Democratic name?
That is the serious question.
If any man on earth can do this,
Franklin Roosevelt can. He has
political acumen. He is light on his
feet, politically He knows how to
dramatic himself So far, even amid
all the signs Of disinteeration. he has
kept much Of his following among the
liberal group. He has held a con-
sistent, courageous, middle course.
But, in real politics. without the South
and the Tammanies of the land behind
MIN, is the middle group. even if he
can unite it, strong enough to make a
winning fight?
Question of Money.
Where will he get the money for
his new party if he sbandons Wall
Street entirely? Where will he get
the organization if the Tammanies of
the great urban centers desert him?
And if the old-line Democrats leave
him, where will he get the electoral
votes?
Which checks it up to the Repub-
licans 1t is obvious that, if they can
break into his Progressive following,
he is gone. The conservatives of both
parties will follow any reasonably in
telligent Republican-if for no better
reason than to be rid of Roosevelt. II
we are entering an era of good crops
the naturally Republican farmers of
the West and Middle West will return
to their old allegiance. Their court
houses and State houses and Iegisla-
lures are filled with Republicans. But
they will not follow a pronounced
conservative. They have kept the
progresSives in the Senate for 80 years
The Republican strategy is to assume
that the conservatives will take anv
one to beat Roosevelt and then 90
after the men who voted for George
Norris, the La Follettes, Capper, NC
Nary, Kenyon, Shipstead and Jim
Couzens, in Washington, the old group
which now controls the Republican
Senate leadership in Washington.
A program built upon Hoover's
speech in Colorado Springs in Nav,
1885, would be a middle of the roa d
platform. 1t would advocate a Fed
eral housing program to clear the
Sums OF the cities. farm program
that would include fight on soil ero-
sion and floods. farm marketing set
up, and possibly grain storage plan,
but never price-ixing.
Minimum Women's Wage.
The Republican platform would
follow landon in demanding a mini
mum wage for women and adoption of
the child labor amendment. which
both Hoover and Landon have in
dorsed.
The program would insist upon a
drastic reduction of the public debt a
sweeping extension of the civil service,
a demand for the local administration
OF Federal and State funds that paw
oid-age pensions and job insurance.
1t would promise permanent. elastic
program of public works. Such a pro-
gram would be in line with the
speeches OF both Hoover and Landon.
The trouble would come when the
Republicans tried to make their tariff
plank. There they would have to for
get and forgive and remember that
they are living in a new world. II
the Republicans in 1910 rewrite the
tariff plank of 1896, the Wings. who
passed into oblivion 80 years ago. are
going to see a new face in the limbo
OF forgotten things!
In the meantime the man in the
White House Is not where Cleveland
was when Bryan stole his party. For
Roosevelt is another man than Cleve-
land, smarter, more facile, less stub
born, better politician But only
time can tell whether he is as wise a
statesman.
(Copyright, 1877