Evening star., 1938-08-04

nounced himself r.,,,
as 100 per cent
Rooseveltian is defeated. it does not
mean necessarily that the admins
tration's policies have been disap-
proved. It may we'll mean that the
regular party organization is able to
win a primary election and thus chal-
lenge the pretensions of the little
group of brain trusters" who have
taken over temporarily the political
management of Mr. Roosevelt's affairs
in place of Mr.. Farley.
The squabbles inside the Democratic
party are important only as an index
of the revolt stirred up by the Roose-
welt regime, but by no means as
sign of what will happen in the coming
November election. Thus, when an
anti-New Dealer wins Democratic
nomination for the Senate or the
House, as the case may be, he wants
thereafter to do everything possible
to gather unto himself all the pro-
New Deal vote which was against him
in the primary. The tendency Of such
q candidate sometimes is to pussyfoot
or back water in the hope of winning
New Deal support Some candidates.
on the other hand. who want to gather
in Republican votes, will maintain an
attitude consistent with their anti
New Deal primary campaign. BY so
doing they will hardly lose the pro-
New Deal vote. which is bound to
be Democratic anyway.
Few Cases So Far.
These cases are relatively few, how
ever, because there have not been
many contests in which anti and pro-
New Deal issues have been fought out
in Northern States. In the Southern
States, where such a conflict has oc-
CURED, a nomination is equivalent to
an election and the contest is, for all
political purposes, over.
In the main, therefore, the situa-
tions to watch are those where the
Democrat favoring the New Deal or
New Tory policies has won his nomi-
nation rather easily and where the
anti-administration sentiment did not
have a chance to crystalize behind
stanch opposition candidate. Here
the independent, silent vote may flnd
expression behind Republican nomi-
nees, since this would furnish the only
opportunity for a straight-out trial of
administration and anti-administra-
ton sentiment.
The coming congressional campaign
will have in it many neW elements
which the amateur politicians here
abouts will have introduced. Thus the
amateurs have managed to antagonize
some of the most powerful elements,
potentially speaking, in any congress
sional fight. The lawyers, for the
most part, have been alienated, the
small business men have been alien
ated and now the New Tories have
started a drive which will ALLEVIATE the
doctors of the Nation.
There are approximately 100000
active physicians in the whole coun-
try and, if the latest antitrust prose-
cution or persecution is taken to heart
by them. they will probably seek re-
dress at the polls
Might Swing Elections.
Thus if every doctor or lawyer who
disapproves Of the New Tory tactics
were to make it his business to line
ur at least 20 votes in his own COM
munity between now and election day,
urging friends and neighbors to vote
against anybody who supports the
Roosevelt administration as a rubber
stamp representative. such a move
ment would probably be strong enough
to swing q national congressional elec-
ton.
It takes q small percentage of the
vote to shift victory from one candi-
date to the other in congressional
election, and. If all the disaffected
groups, like the lawyers and doctors
and small businessmen. as well as
the unemployed and partially en-
ployed, made up their minds to elimi-
nate the brain trusters" and the
experimenters from the national pic
ture. they could easily do it. A shift
of 100 seats in the House of Repre-
senta tives would be the most effective
way to put the brakes on the spend
LllTllG duIIlllllSII dGlOll llcic W1LCl 10
out to regulate everything from the
practice of law and medicine to the
number OF acres a farmers can plant.
Regimented and regulated America
still has the ballot as means of
expression, whereas, in the other regi-
mented andAregulated countries where
Fascisrn has taken hold, there is no
opportunity for such democratic proc
esses to function.
The independent vote is at the
moment sizing up the w. P. A. relief
scandals. the charges Of corruption
and dishonesty in Pennsylvania, the
machine politics and scandals Of Ten
nessee, the acknowledged evils in w.
p. A., voting in Kentucky and gen.
orally the whole messy picture Of a
so-called liberal" administration,
some Of whose principal spokesmen
are not averse to exploiting the people
for their own selfish interests. It
presents an issue which on many
occasions in the past the American
people have been alert to force into
the open and act upon accordingly.
(Copyrisht. 193sJ