Evening star., 1938-11-10
BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.

BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.
EMPORIA, Kans., Nov. 10 (NA
MAJ The one dead sure thing that
shines out of this election is that
Franklin Roosevelt has failed to weld
the wrangling minorities of his Dem
ocratic victory of '36 into a liberal
party. At the climax of the cam
paign just closed, he had to turn to
the Black reaction of Jim Curley of
Massachusetts, and of Frank Hague
of New Jersey for support, and even
that failed.
The six minorities that made his
majority two years ago crumbled
under his hand. Only the city Tam
manies were true to Mr.. Roosevelt
personally.
The silk-stocking Northern Demo-
Gratis, who took Mr.. Roosevelt holding
their noses, in his last victory, left
him this year. The Northern colored
voters divided their support Tues
day. The farmers, who carried the
Middle West for him against Alf
Landon, walked out en- masse from
the Alleghenies to the Pacific at
this election. The Liberals and Pro-
gressives. who for years have con-
trolled States like Michigan, Wis
consln, Minnesota, the DakotaS, Ore
gon, Washington, Kansas, Iowa,
Wyoming, marched in sad disillu-
sionment out of the Democratic
party this week.
Old South Faithful,
Only the old South was faithful
to the party, while the city Tam
manies stood personally by Mr..
Roosevelt
Having lost for his party 9
Governors and Senators and
about 80 congressman, what is he
going to say to the revolving North
ern Democrats like Clark, Wheeler
or Walsh or Logan or Thomas when
the President tries to crack the
whip and rally his party to his own
brand of liberalism? We can hear
those Northern Democrats answer
in wrath:
Look at the black map of Re-
pubhcanism stretching from Maine
to Oregon north of the Ohio where
We were crushed under your leader
ship. The only region which you
carried was the South. If you want
followers for your peculiar policies
go to that part of the country which
stood steadfast by you. Go to Cotton
Ed Smith and George and Connally.
Go to Pat Harrison and the man
Bilbo. They are the only kind of
Democratic liberals who can win at
the polls. Bring them en- masse
behind you and then come to us
of the North whom you have put
in jeopardy for 1910. You tried to
bend us to your will by your purge.
Now take your own castor oil and
like it,"
Liberalism is not dead even if
President Roosevelt as leader may
be done. The liberals have two
alternatives: They can follow Mr..
Roosevelt into fizzling, noisy, futile
third party in 1910 and get licked
as we were trounced who followed
Theodore Roosevelt in the Bull
Moose revolt. Or the liberals can 90
back into their own parties. There
they can fight the old fight, the
winning fight that has slowly moved
their country forward since the turn
Of the century.
Liberal G. o. P. Leaders.
Let the Republican liberals 20
back to the Republican party. There
they will face the black reaction
OF Pennsylvania, the dubious con-
servatism of Ohio, the devious party
leaders of Indiana, the baff1ed and
bewildered Republican party of Wis
consin. But they will also Join
liberal Republican leaders fighting
for the progressive cause in Cali
fornla, in Kansas, in Michigan, in
New Jersey, in New York, in Ne
braska, in the Mountain States. all
through New England and in the
Pacific Northwest.
The Democratic Progressives can
go back into their party. There
they also will face black Democratic
reaction. 1t will grapple with the
liberals in the South and the Tam
manies in Boston, New York, Chi
cago, Cleveland and San Francisco.
But the fighting for the Progress
slves cause is still good in the Demo-
cratic party, as it is in the Repub-
hcan party. Returning in each
party to Congress, the Liberals from
the two parties can combine as they
have combined for 40 years. Demo-
Gratis like Wagner, Barkley, Wheeler.
Thomas and Bone will not hesi-
tate to unite in the Senate, for in
stance, with Republicans like Nor
ris, Capper the newly elected Kan
sas Senator, Reed; Taft, if he will
come; johnson, La Toilette and
their kind.
Caucus Can Not Hold Tenn.
The party caucus never has held
these forward-marching party in
surgents. 1t will not hold them in
the future. They can combine in
Washington and move as rapidly
onward as the country will 60. The
trouble with the President is he was
forever croWding the mourners.
The election this week was not a
rebuke to liberalism. 1t was not a
rebuke to the Presidents advocacy
OF old age pensions, his demand for
the control of Wall Street. his fight
for the Wage and Hour Bill or the
National Labor Board Law. It was
no reputation of the principle of
social security or of the justice of
the control of public utilities. But
1t was a rebuke to lending and
spending. 1t was a rebuke to the
blatant effort to force a national
Tammany, using the votes of regi-
mented, class-conscious proletariat
to win elections.
Those things-the sit-down strike,
1ntransigent political labor and the
liberal alliance with Hague and the