Evening star., 1938-03-30
COalition.Minded.


scofIers have laughed at the suggestion
Of Senator Vandenberg of Michigan that
President Roosevelt and his New Dealers
will go down to defeat at the hands of
coalition. What they have failed to
understand is that coalition of voters
may take many forms-and the country
is becoming coalition minded. The evi-
dence of this coalition -mindedness is to
be found in Missouri, for example, where
outstanding Republicans are supporting
Senator Bennett Champ Clark for re-
leading part in the fight against Presi-
dent Roosevelts bill to pack the Supreme
Court last year. 1t is to be found in
Indiana, where many Republicans are
planning to vote for Senator Van Nuys,
another Democratic opponent of the
Presidents court bill. Nearer at hand.
in Maryland Senator Tydings will bene-
At by the votes of Republicans in the
election next November because of his
opposition to the reorganization bill.
This is coalition in practical form.
1t does not come about through voted
determination of Republicans in con-
vention, or anti-Roosevelt Democrats in
convention, to support the candidates
of the other party. But the coalition
move is none the less effective 1t is the
kind of thing against which the New
Deal administration is powerless to make
real headway.
If further evidence of the coalition
spirit now abroad is required it is only
necessary to turn to events in Congress
during the past twelve months. First,
q coalition of Democrats and Repub-
Ncans defeated the Presidents insistent
demand that he be given power to in
crease the membership of the Supreme
Court. Second, a coalition of Repub-
1icans and Democrats doomed to failure
the Presidents wages and hours bill in
the House during the special session of
Congress last December. Third, the vote
in the Senate Monday of this week on
the Presidents reorganization bill showed
an amazing number of Democrats lined
up with the Republicans in opposition to
this measure. A change of three votes
would have recommitted the measure.
And already there is wide talk of a
powerful coalition in the House to defeat
the measure there.
Over the question of taxes, already a
coalition has formed in the Senate to
throw overheard the unsound and puni-
tive taxes which the administration has
saddled upon the country. 1t is coali-
ton dedicated not to the Republican
party nor to the anti-Roosevelt Demo-
cratic group as such, but dedicated to
tax relief for American business. It is
nevertheless an effective political coali-
ton, and the New Dealers understand
that.
How far this spirit of coalition to de-
feat the New Dealers goes will mark the
measure Of success or failure of the
Roosevelt administration at the polls
both in the elections next November and
in the presidential election in 1910.
It is the contention Of Senator VAN
denberg that the country has already
become overwhelmingly coalition minded
and that 1t matters very little what form
coalition takes to make itself effective.
Probably what he means is that the
country is turning more and more
against the New Deal which has run
the country $4,000 100000 more into
debt in five years, has increased the tax
burden Of the people enormously and
today leaves the country as badly off as
before it began to reform" America. Not
only has the public debt been vastly in
creased, but the industry Of the country
has been more and more paralyzed by
fear of what the President and his ad-
Nsers plan to do. The workers are
waking up to their own plight under