Evening star., 1938-06-13

tending bill. That fight
on the reorganization bill was really
the only organized fight made by
Republican and Democratic voters
throughout the country acting in an
informal coalition. A year ago the
same sort of coalition prevented
the President from "reorganizing" the
Supreme Court with six new justices.
To put it another way, there is a
majority in both houses of Congress
today ready to vote against Mr.. Roose-
welt on a vital issue if a substantial
number of voters back home actually
organize themselves into an influential
force behind the congressional group
The administration knows this. Indeed
so disturbed did the Roosevelt leaders
become over the activities of the Ma
tional Committee to Uphold Consti-
tutionsl Government that they revived
the meetings of the Senate Lobby
Committee and did everything possible
to weaken the constitutionalists' efforts
by the Characteristic smear" process
which the New Deal warriors use in
political combat nowadays.
There was no Nation wide orga MIA
ton against the spending bills, no
Nationwide organization insisting that
relief be kept free from politics, and
no nationally aggressive group calling
for an end to one-man government.
Mr.. Roosevelt has had a substantial
majority to work with in both houses
on most everything because the citi-
zenry have not become sufficiently
aroused to fight for specific items or
to band themselves together on few
outstanding measures which Demo-
ic-Republican combination in
Congress could unite to defeat.
Little Band Ineffective.
There have been frequent meetings
on the part of Republican-Demo-
cratic coalition in the Senate, but
without powerful and militant public
sentiment this little band found itself
ineffective. Even the Republicans in
the group began to worry about the
attitude of some of their Republican
brethren back home of the organiza-
ton kind who felt that the fight should
be a straightout party fight.
Now there is no short cut to polit-
lcal power nowadays for any group
and as for the Republican party it
will gradually and very slowly draw
back to its fold many Republicans
who voted for Mr.. Roosevelt in 1882
and 1896, but by the time of the au-
tumn elections this year it is conceded
that the Republican strength nation
ally will not be sufficient to gain con-
troll Of the House of Representatives.
So the citizen who wants to see a
stop to wasteful spending and an end
to the manipulation of Government
funds for political purposes-two
major issues which can draw support
from Democrats as well as Repub-
licans-must either be content to wait
two or four or even six years for the
Republican party to be reconstructed
or else he must find some means of ex-
pressing himself along with other in
dependent voters, so as to exercise a
sort of check on Democrats, as we'll
as Republicans, in the Senate and
the House
Mr. Roosevelt has formed through
the National Emergency Council and
with Treasury funds the Federal bloc
an officeholders' organization con-
sisting now of virtually all the Fed
eral agencies-and the operations of
Government agencies extend to the
influencing of party nominations as
well as the final elections. If the cit
izens had an independent bloc they
could influence the votes of members
OF Congress at all times and not just
when there was single issue raised.
Thus all the work done by the Ma
tional Committee to Uphold Constitu-
tional Government to get voters to
telegraph members of Congress to de-
feat the executive reorganization bill
or the Supreme Court bill would have
been much more lasting if it could
have been applied to the formation
of what might be called the indie
pendent Voters League. The prin-
ciple is not new in American politics.
Such organizations as the American
Federation of Labor and the Anti
Saloon League have employed the sys-
tenn of bipartisan activity very effec-
lively in between national campaigns.
Such organizations do not conflict
with national party organizations, but
often buttresS them. Five million
voters could WELD the balance of
power in national elections.
American Liberty League Easy Target.
There was at one time in the forma-
ton of the Liberty League an idea Of
non-partisan enrolment of voters, but
the trouble with that organization was
that it emanated from wealthy men