Evening star., 1939-01-23
bi-Party System
Not Threatened,
Hamilton Says
Republican Chairman
Doubts Emergence
Of Third Group

VI IuIO 0IVUP
Doubt over the emergence Of q
successful national third party was
expressed before a Town Hall audi
ence last night at the Shoreham
Hotel by John Hamilton, Republican
National Committee chairman, who
predicted that the two-party sys-
tenn In American politics will go
forward for a good many years"
Reviewing the American political
history of the past IS years, Mi.
Hamilton said that with the excep-
ton of the 1912 election In which
emergence of Theodore Roosevelt's
Bull Moose party resulted in q
Democratic victory, third parties
have played minor roles in the ma
tional politics of this country. Their
effectiveness has been chiefly that
of instruments of propaganda in
behalf of specific issues or causes,
he declared.
what happened in November
only confirms that the traditional
pattern of American politics has not
substantially changed" Mr.. Hamil-
ton continued. The result of the
1888 elections, he said, showed that
the Republican party has returned
to an approximate equal footing
with the Democratic party on the
stage Of national politics. This, he
said, is in accordance with the ira
ditional pattern of American poll
tics and that thus our traditional
bipartisan system remains Sub
stantially intact"
No Turn to Third Farty.
dissatisfaction with the Demo-
cratic regime throughout the coun-
try, for one reason or another, obvl-
ously was the reason for the voting
shifts that occurred between 1886
and 1885," he continued. Were
we diverting away from the tradi-
tional pattern, the discontented vot-
ers could have been expected to
turn toward third or new parties"
THUS in Minnesota, the Farmer
Labor party was dislodged from an
eight-year dominance of State poll
tics and in Wisconsin, for the first
time in decades the popular name
of La Toilette lost its magic appeal"
Mr.. Hamilton declared.
The fact that at present the elec-
ton machinery throughout the Ma
ton is "geared" to the two-party
system was cited by Mr.. Hamilton
as one of the difficulties in creating
new parties with national appeal.
He also pointed out that in many
States a new party finds 1t difficult
to even get its name on ballot.
Only Feasible System.
Dominance by two major parties
seems to be the only feasible politi-
cal system under our form of gov
eminent and for a country as large
as this one" he said.
Development OF three fairly evenly
balanced political parties would lead
to widespread confusion and the
clash of sectional interest would
initiate against the national well
fare, Mr.. Hamilton said.
Leaders of each of the major
parties cannot concentrate all their
energies or attention on serving the
interests of any one class or section
of the country" he said. "They
must take a national viewpoint and
in doing so they must seek to har-
monize or, if you prefer, compro-
mise, divergent viewpoints among
their Nationwide followings."
Must Appeal to All Groups.
Mr.. Hamilton pointed out that
political parties founded chiefly to
promote the cause of the farmer,
labor or capital, or any other single
group, will never achieve success.
On the contrary, he said, they must
undertake to appeal to all of these
groups and therefore must attempt
to reconcile and adjust their con-
f1icting interests.
Citing the middle-class popula-
ton as holding the balance Of polit-
ical power, Mr.. Hamilton said that
this group will not permit extreme
action on behalf of either capital or
the proletariat" for any length of
time. Such temporary tolerance, he
said, will result in a growing dis
satisfaction which through some
concrete event such as an economic
crisis or repeated failure to fulfill
promised achievements" will finally
set this group against the party in
power.
Such situation is in process of
developing today" Mr.. Hamilton
continued. THE Democratic party
came back into power nationally in
1882 because 1t more nearly re-
sponded to the wishes of the middle
class than did the Republicans.
During the last two years, however,
1t has increasingly failed to reflect
the viewpoint of the American mid
dle-class, fact evidenced by the
samplings of public opinion made
in the Gallup polls and by results
OF last November's elections. Mean
while the Republican party has re-
oriented its viewpoint more closely
IN harmony With m1ddle-clasS Senti-
ment."
Ties Rest More Lightly.
I'm recent years party ties and
Affiliations have rested more lightly
on voters than a quarter or half q
century ago" Mr.. Hamilton con-
cluded. 1.-The pendulum today
swings faster and makes a greater
arc than formerly. Thus two years
no longer is too short a period for
the consummation of another ira
ditional cycle in American politics"
Following Mr.. Hamilton's address,
the gamut Of present day political
issues was run in q discussion be-
tween members of a question panel
including Senator Rush Holt Of