Evening star., 1938-07-09


waii' w iepi ieSeii' David Lawrence.
tional Government. The choice is to
be made for them under new theory
of Government namely, that the
President does the picking and the
voters are supposed to ratify his
choice.
Maybe Senator Barkley has more
experience in Washington than Gov.
Chandler, and maybe Gov Chandler
knows what the people of Kentucky
need better than Senator Barkley does.
But this was supposed to be question
on which the people Of the State Of
Kentucky were to decide.
President Roosevelt's outspoken ad-
vice to the voters of Kentucky that
they should nominate Mr.. Barkley,
when a Democratic nomination is
likely to be equivalent to an election,
merely means that Mr.. Roosevelt out
of gratitude to the senior Senator from
Kentucky does what he can to help
re-elect him. Mr.. Barkley has done
whatever the President told him to do.
He has been a rubber stamp" Senator
and rubber stamp" leader. If the
Presidents idea of an obedient Senator
is carried out, there will be no need
for Senators at all in Washington.
Certainly, the country could save the
salaries it pays annually and just let
the White House select the dummy"
Senators very much as the corpora
tions in the old days used to select
dummy" directors"
Mr.. Roosevelt is to be commended
for his forthrightness. He is not max
ing any secret of his preferences. He
is not hiding behind the cloak OF
ambiguity which for so many weeks
obscured his course, especially when
he kept insisting that he wasn't par
ticipating in the party primaries.
Now, ever since his flreside chat, ne
has agreed to speak out, not in his
capacity as President of the United
States, but as head of the Democratic
party" This he believes entities him
to hand-pick the members of the
United States Senate. In Europe the
idea of a hand-picked legislature has
been found necessary by the head OF
the state" in order to carry out dicta-
torial policies. Mr.. Roosevelt frankly
confesses that he wants Senators to
vote with him on measures in Con-
gress just as he has wanted Supreme
Court judges ito go along with his
policies.
"The New Technique"
Mr.. Roosevelt's attempt to reor-
ganize the entire Government along
personal lines is, of course, the new
technique in administration through1
out the world. He, to be sure, insists
his purposes are benevolent, and
doubtless they are, but the American
system of government basically de-
perds on a series of checks and bal
ances. The legislative branch was
designed to be check against the
executive, while the judicial branch
was ordained to be subservient to
neither and a check against both.
Under the Roosevelt conception,
legislators must be acceptable to the
Chief Executive. The fathers of the
American system of government felt
that no one man was indispensable
and no one man was infallible, and
that it would be better not to con-
centrate all power, economic and
political and special, in the hands
of one man. The usual answer made
to these inferences today is that the
people can undo such concept If
they desire, and that when they vote
with Mr.. Roosevelt they show they
do not want the original American
system. What perhaps is more accu-
rate Is that the balance of power is
held by minority Of voters who
receive financial favors from the Fed
eral Government, and the other groups
who are adversely affected insist on
comparative splitting their ranks into
two parties, irrespective of issues or
the qualifications of the candidates.
This gives the minority, plus the
straight-ticket vote, a chance to keep
themselves in charge of the public
purse and the powers of government.
Significance Of Tour.
The Presidents tour is more Signif1-
cant of a change in the American
system of government than was his
proposal to pack the Supreme Court
of the United States. For that was
an attack-temporar frustrated
on the judicial branch of the Govern
ment. The new tactics involves an
invasion of the rights of the States
Federal coercion and Federal inter-
vention in elections by the States OF
their own representatives in the ma
tional Congress has never been tried
on such widespread front and with
such intensive personal political can
vass as is now being attempted by
Mr.. Roosevelt in his confessedly double
role Of President of the United States
and head Of the Democratic party.
Maybe Mr.. Roosevelt is a master
politician and boss extraordinary
OF his party. But it was Abraham
Lincoln who said some pertinent
things about the inevitable sense of
awareneSs which the American people
somehow seem to possess and which
makes them able in due time to pene-
trate for themselves the processes OF
deception in American politics. Boss
ism from the White House cannot
succeed for any substantial period
any more than bossism in Tammany
or anywhere else. The people ulti-
mately repudiate one-man govern
ment.
Copyright, 193S)