Evening star., 1938-10-02

American busi- 4. 1. -
ness, have been ohAr'e' "'ene'''"'
enacted by the New Deal" There
followed list Of 81 pieces OF legis-
lation. nearly all Of which had been
supported by a considerable number
Of Republican Senators, and some OF
which had been introduced by Repub-
lican members of the National Legis-
lature.
There spoke q voice OF the Liberty
League branch OF the Republican
coalition, as part of the theme song
that the New Deal is the enemy Of
business. When attention was called
to this denunciation Of measures that
have the support OF and whose merit
is appreciated by 4 great majority Of
the American people, the less con-
servative elements Of the minority
aggregation were naturally bewildered.
Makes No Distinction.
In its listing OF interfering" acts,
the pamphlet makes no distinction
between those that have been the
subject of political controversy and
those whose worth toward the public
welfare is universally admitted. This.
OF course, is simply continuation of
the basic Republican doctrine that
nothing that President Roosevelt ad-
vocates can be right and that there
Is a dark, subtle and invidious in
tent even behind those that suggest
a righteous purpose.
Cenatpr pork1ev the mo i0ritv
leader in his branch of Congress,
having called attention to the extra
ordinary list, Chairman Hamilton Of
the Republican national organization
denied that his party demanded repeal
of all 81 measures, though nobody
had made that particular charge.
However, If the self-constituted
champion OF business objects to
acts of interference with business. it
might be a logical deduction.
Then, Chairman Hamilton branched
OF to claim credit for stock market
regulation for the Republicans. Ac-
cording to him the very basis of
stock market regulation was laid in
resolution sponsored by Senator
w dlSOtt VI NOAliCSllS0C dllu sup
ported by Senate with a Republican
majority In this statement Mr. Ham,
ilton seems to be as unsure of him.
self as he is about Republican policies
in general for the record shows that
it was Senator Hastings of Delaware
and not Walcott Of Connecticut, who
introduced the resolution.
Resolution = Boomerang.
My recollection is that this oc-
cured during the Hoover panic. The
President Of that day became obsessed
with the notion that whenever he
issued one of his around the corner"
prophecies of market upturn, the
bears in Wall Street promptly smashed
the market to lower levels. The idea
was to catch certain important Demo-
Gratis. among them John Rascob, then
the Democratic chairman, engaged
in this nefarious work.
So the Hasting resolution was intro
duced for an investigation. that pres
emily developed that Mr.. Rascob was
not in the market at all, and that
the worst of the bears were Repub-
licans, and the whole business natur-
ally was dropped by the Republican
leaders, but was carried on despite
them That is the basis for the claim
of Republican authorship of this act
that was included in the Republican
campaign books roster OF 'interfer-
ing" acts.
We also learn from Chairman
Hamilton that bank deposit insurance
was the brain child Of Senator Van
denberg AS far back as 1908 con-
Democratic national platform con-
tanned this language: I'VE pledge
ourselves to legislation under which
the national banks shall be required
to establish guaranty fund for the
prompt payment of the depositors Of
any insolvent national bank under an
equitable system which should be
available to all State banking institu-
tions willing to use it,"
Bryan and Hughes.
Moreover. the newspapers Of that
day recount William Jennings Bryan's
making that the great issue OF his
campaign. and the Indignation with
which the G. o. P. received 1t. 1t
seems to me that the keynote speech
against "heresy'" was nade by Charles
Evans Hughes, then Governor OF New
York.
If Mr.. Hamilton was really willing
to grant a boon not only to the puz-
zled members Of his own party but
to those other American citizens who
would like to get some clear notion
of the issues of the campaign, he
might differentiate the New Deal
measures of which his party approves
and those which it condemns. Just
now, judging from the campaign book,
it wishes to convey to the Hoover
wing of the party that it would like
to do away with all Of them; to the
farmers that it would like to do away
with all of them except those that
benefit the farmer to the laboring
people everything except the labor
legislation; and so on.
If the listing of 81 New Deal enact
ments as interfering with business"
didn't mean condemnation of those
acts, it would be interesting to get
Republican idea OF what il did mean,
or why it was included in the pamphlet
devoted exclusively to criticism of the
Roosevelt policies and purporting to
show that the Democratic party did
not carry out its campaign promises
What Do Republicans Want?
I admit that the Republican propa-
gandists have no easy task, and prob
ably there is nobody in their whole
organization who has authority to
or is willing to tell their spokesmen,
oficial or unofficial, what to plug for
and what to knock. But after all
a party, even a minority party, is sup
posed to stand for something. Just
now these propagandists are reverting
to the dictator business. Throughout
the Democratic nripo O riac thov fllad