Evening star., 1937-09-30
New Party Lineup
The Court Issue Rather Than Traditional Groups
Should Be Rallying Ground.

oppose Mr.. Roosevelt's court measure,
and those who, on broader grounds,
oppose Mr.. Roosevelt's course gen.
orally? These Democrats, it is tenable
to assume, would not accept the defeat
Of Mr.. Van Nuys lying down. speak
only from surmise, but it seems likely
that they would organize a separate
movement, new. independent or
Jeffersonian Democratic organization,
and would nominate Mr.. Van Nuys for
the Senate.
Alignment Changed.
If that happens. what will the In
diana Republicans do? One course
they can take is to say, in effect:
"Hooray! The Democrats are split in
two; we can now elect Republican"
The Republicans can say that and
do that. 1t is the conventional course,
the familiar course. the course that
under old conditions has been polit-
ically astute Under old conditions.
yes. But if the Republicans do that,
will their line Of thought be correct
for the present conditions?
The premise underlying that kind of
Republican strategy is that the country
is divided between Republicans and
Democrats. But is that premise cor
rect? Maybe To say whether that
premise is correct is to answer the
whole question involved in the current
ferment And to give an offhand
answer to that would be, as Josh
Billings used to say, % mutch."
Let us, for arguments sake, consider
another possibility. Let us assume the
true lineup today is not the old one
between Republicans and Democrats;
let us assume that, temporarily or for
q long period, the old terms. Demo-
crat" and Republican" are made
quate and misleading.
How, then, shall we express what the
new lineup is? Probably the public
would express it offhand as New Deal
ers and anti-New Dealers. But those
terms are unsatisfactory because some
of the New Deal is accepted as good by
nearly everybody We might describe
the new lineup as left versus
right that would be more accurate
than New Dealers versus anti-New
Dealers.
Court Not Party Issue.
But if we narrow it down TO the
issue that is actually present and
paramount, We would use still another
pair of terms If the issue is the
Presidents court measure, then the
accurate terms for the division would
be court measure supporters against
court measure opponents. Those terms
are too clumsy for popular use. But
they express the situation accurately.
Assuming these to be the correct
terms for the new lineup, turn back to
Indiana. If in that State there are
three nominations for Senator, they
would be distributed as follows: The
regular Democratic nominee would be
for the Presidents court measure. The
independent Democratic nominee. Mr..
Van Nuys, would be against the Presi-
dents court measure. The Republican
nominee would be against the Presi-
dents court measure.
In this situation the shoe Is on the
other foot. In this situation. looking
at the lineup in terms of the court
measure, there will be one candidate
in favor Of the court measure, two
candidates against. It Is not the
Democrats who are split, 1t Is the
opponents Of the court measure who
are split.
And that Is the thing which,
throughout the whole country. must
be prevented if there is to be, next
year. an intelligent lineup of voters
looking to a clean-cut decision on the
court measure. To have in each State
clear and simple opportunity for
every voter to take a stand against