Evening star., 1938-02-25

the rooms aren't Smoke-fllled and
maybe the physical personalities no
longer resemble the Penroses and the
Quays or the Hannas, but the bosses
are there just the same. deciding what
nominees the people may have per-
mission to vote for and what Offices
shall be apportioned to the various
custodians of political power.
Thus, in the State of Pennsylvania,
1t has been assumed that the primary
system was for the people to utilize,
but now the bosses gather around the
President and he is to decide Just
what the State ticket shall be and who
shall be the senatorial nominee
Over in Kentucky Mr.. Roosevelt has
intervened, too, and in New Yor;s
State he has already selected a candi-
date for Governor whom the office
holders. relief workers and recipients
of Federal bounties and favors are
expected to support.
This is 1888 political realism with
a vengeance. The old fashioned poll
ticians see nothing wrong with it.
Staunch Republicans as well as re-
dictionary Democrats will defend it as
better method of keeping party har-
mony than primary fights, with their
factional damage. But the Progress
sives-the people who eschew any
party label that stands for the rule of
the few against the rule of the many
are still believers in the idea that
nominations should be made by the
rank and file of the party and not by
q small group of politicians who pull
the strings
Pinchot in the Picture.
The people of Pennsylvania will
have an opportunity to repudiate this
effort to tell them whom they may
nominate, for it looks as if Clifford
Pinchot, veteran Progressive, will be
the Republican nominee for Cover
moran indication, indeed, that the
Republicans are ready in the Keystone
State to accept progressive leadership.
What makes the White House con-
ference so depressing is the fact that
an administration which calls itself
liberal" and leaders who claim to
represent the highest purpose of a
democracy have so little confidence
IN the capacity of the people to do
their own choosing of candidates that
they are anxious to put forth hand
picked slate behind which the Fed
eral steamnoller can be applied.
1t is bad enough for group of poll
ticians to attempt to control the nomi-
mating machinery of political party
in the State or the Nation, but it is
much worse when that same small
group has in its hands a broad power
over Government funds and the dis
tribution of political Offices.
Regimented Political Entity.
Pennsylvania affords an example of
a thoroughly regimented political en-
tity. The State Democratic organiza-
tion has merely copied there the high
ly distasteful methods of the old Re-
publican party; indeed, some of the
old Republican henchmen are now key
men in the local Democratic organiza-
tions. showing that the people are
being misled by the same bunch of
professionals that exploited them un-
der Republican rule
If the New Deal had not made such
pretensions of virtue and if it had not
posed as the peoples government"
the spectacle OF White House con-
ference to decide what nominees shall
90 on the party ticket in various States
would not be so hard to swallow. The
decision Of the Roosevelt administra-
tion, however to engage in all the
primary fights and select favorites, as
now seems probable, judging by what
Is happening with respect to the
gubernatorial nominations in Pennsyl-
vania and New York, respectively, is
clear proof that politics has raised
Its selfish banner over the New Deal.
transforming it, for all practical pur-
poses, into the same old deal Of YES
teryear.
(Copyrirht 1891