Evening star., 1938-05-08
Problems Involved in
La Follette's Third PARTY
BY OVEN L. SCOTT.

Gov. Phil and Senator Bob La Fol-
lette, the Wisconsin brothers, are finding
greater initial success as the mystery
men Of 1888 politics than as the creators
OF any prospective full-blown third
political party.
The mere announcement that these
two Wisconsin Progressives are on the
move served, among politicians, to start
the biggest guessing contest in a guess
ing year.
Is this the real beginning of what can
become the American totalitarian-or
Fascist-movement? Or are the La Fol-
lettes intending to unite the Nations
left wingers as means of pressing
President Roosevelt leftward at time
when he is strongly inclined to rest?
Or, again, do the Wisconsin brothers
really intend at this time to start to
engineer the breakup of the old-line
parties in order to force political re-
adjustment and realignment?
~
The New Dealers like to think that
the second guess is best. To quiet their
own apprehensions they recall how La
Follettes for many years have made it
policy to barter their influence in ex-
change for Progressive planks in party
platforms and for a voice in nominating
presidential candidates who can meet
some Progressive standards. They point
to the obvious GOODNESS with which Phil
La Follette's third party talk has been
received among left wingers as evidence
of the difficulty of splitting the liberal
fringe from the Democratic party.
But this time the other guessers do
their guessing with more assurance than
do the New Dealers.
Gov. Phil, they emphasize, is intensely
ambitious and Wisconsin is a relatively
small State hedged in among Al other
States. At 40, Phil has been Governor
of his State three times He might keep
that job indefinitely or he might become
Senator, since Wisconsin has a habit of
voting for La Follettes, but neither job
promises broad future for a man of
intense energy and carefully nurtured
ideas.
Right now, broader political oppor-
tunitieS seem to be beckoning. The New
Deal has not proved the answer to the
problem of recovery. Mr.. Roosevelt is
being forced to walk tightrope to keep
balance in party torn by strife. The
country is restive, apparently looking
for some one with new ideas or with
way to make old ideas work. To Phil
this looks like the long-awaited oppor-
tunity.
His brother Bob apparently agrees.
The senior Wisconsin Senator is among
the ablest members of the Senate He
is intensely practical and quite hard
headed, with an understanding of what
makes the wheels go round. He likes
his job in the Senate and is not actively
ambitious for bigger things. Senator La
Follette's health keeps him from being
as aggressively active as his brother.
Both Phil and Bob started to lose their
admiration for President Roosevelt
when Mr.. Roosevelt, without doing any,
thing much about it, let the recession of
last fall develop right under his nose
into today's serious depression. They
became openly hostile when convinced
that the President deliberately was
maneuvering this country into position
that would make almost inescapable it's
involvement on the side of the British
in any general European war.
1t is against that background that to-
days guessing is done.
Mr.. Roosevelt apparently still hopes
to find room inside the Democratic
party for the La Toilette brothers. He
has tried in the past to entice them into
the fold. But apparently-if it can be
Worked-the La Follettes would prefer
to find room for Mr.. Roosevelt outside
the Democratic party in a wholly new
political set-up.
The character of that possible set-up
adds to the mystery surrounding the
plans of Gov. Phil and Senator Bob.
The Governor, in his initial utter
ances, offers the country what, on close
analysis, sounds rather strangely like a
formula for the American version of the
totalitarian state which is proving popu-
lar in some parts of the world Any
attempt to translate that formula into
practical terms raises highly interesting
problems.
Gov. Phil says that he wants to tackle
the country's railroad problem by cut
ting straight through the maze Of exist
ing debt, using Government power to
reflnance and rebuild this part of the
transportation system. Phil, above all
else, insists upon action. But Mr.
Roosevelt had the same idea back in
1888. The trouble is that, in dealing
with debt, he ran head on into the Fed
eral Constitution.
Here might be one delaying factor
unless something could be done by the
La Follettes about property rights.
X X X
Again, Gov La Toilette thinks that
Government should do whatever is nee
essary In order to generate home build
ing on vast scale. He believes that in
this field lies the cure for todays de-
preston.
But so does President Roosevelt. Mr..
Roosevelt at one stage even approved
the idea of using w. P. A. labor to dig
cellars for homes for private citizens
and to put in streets and sewage and
lighting systems and to do other things
that would cut costs and encourage
building. But he ran into organized
labor opposition and into Congress.
That raises other questions:
What would Gov. La Toilette do If a
home building boom started, as it did
early in 1887, and organized labor i'm
mediately began to kite its wages under
the rising demand, while organized busi-
ness Immediately kited its material
prices? These factors killed last years
budding boom. Would Gov. Phil have
Government step in to control wages
and prices, in spite Of union and busi-
ness pressure? The very strong infer
ence is that he would.
Then the Wisconsin Governor lists as
the first of his basic principles the fol-
lowing:
"The ownership and control of money