The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1938-06-02

Washington.-With Congress APP
parently on the verge of adjourn
ment, and hot campaign ahead for
all of the representatives and a
third Of the Senators, political Wash
ington is paying much more atten-
ton now to the outlook for the fall
elections than it is to such matters
as the wages and hours bill or the
Presidents efforts to put over his
Reorganization plan.
The big question which next falls
elections will decide is whether the
trend of sentiment among the voters
of the nation is always from the
dominant Democratic party, and, if
such trend to the Republican par
ty is not clearly shown, whether the
trend inside of the Democratic par
ty is away from the present Ad-
ministration and the New Deal, or
otherwise.
Straws In the Wind
So at both ends of Pennsylvania
Avenue, the Executive end which
centers at the White House, and
the Legislative end on Capitol Hill,
the soothsayers and star-gazers are
tossing straws into the air to de-
terrnine which way the political
wind is blowing.
The first straw tossed blew, as
every observer agreed, directly to-
ward the White House. That was
the clean-cut New Deal victory of
Senator Pepper in Florida. So far
as the trend inside the Democratic
party is concerned, that was accept
ed by many Democrats as sufficient
evidence that Democratic voters are
still overwhelmingly New Dealers.
But then came the Pennsylvania
primaries, and the indications from
that straw were by no means so
clear-cut. Only one of the Demo-
cratic candidates who had the bless
ing of the Administration was NOM
mated.
Governor Earle's victory, running
for the Senatorial nomination, was
conceded in advance by almost ev-
erybody, not so much because he
had been consistent supporter of
Mr.. Roosevelt from the beginning
but because the candidates who op-
posed him in the primaries were
men in whom the voters of their
own party had little confidence.
Pennsylvania Results
The victory in Pennsylvania Of
the Anti-New Deal Democratic can
didate for Governor, Charles A.
Jones, secretary-treasurer of the
United Mine Workers of America,
was not only staw revealing a
Democratic current in a different
direction from the way the wind
blew in Florida, but it was "a def
rite and severe setback to the po-
litilal ambitions of John L. Lewis,
chairman of the c. I. o.
! Lewis had put all the strength Of
his labor organization behind Mr..
Kennedy. Mr.. Jones' victory over
the combined efforts of Mr.. Lewis
and OF Chairman Farley of the Del
ocratic National Committee is re-
garded here as a pretty definite in
dication that the trend in the great
industrial states of the north is at
least toward conservatism, if not
distinctly toward Republicanism.
Mr.. Lewis had also put his in
f1uence in the Republican primaries
behind the veterans former Govern
or Clifford Rinchot, who made a
very poor showing indeed against
Judge Arthur H. James for the Re-
publican nomination for Governor.
That, and the size of the Republic
can primary vote, over $4,000 more
than the Democrats polled for all
their candidates, have started Wash
ington to talking seriously of the
possible recapture of Pennsylvania
by their party next November, and
have definitely strengthened the
conviction that the Republicans are
certain to gain a large number Of
Congressional seats.
Even New Deal enthusiasts are
now conceding that there will be at
least 35 more Republican members
in the lower house fthe next Con-
gress than in the present one. That
may safely be regarded as the mini
mum shift. Estimates of expert
enced political observers run all the
way from 35 more Republicans to
10. The average of several polls
of expert opinion is 60.
That would not give Republican
majority, and even staunch Repub-
licans express doubt whether ma
jority would be desirable, with a
Senate still overwhelmingly Dem
cratic and a Democratic Admins
tration in the White House. Such
a condition has obtained in the past,