The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1939-08-17


politics, the results of the session Of
Congress just over seem to indicate,
among other things, the end of the
third-term movement initiated by the
White House intimates, fostered by
the Presidents own attitude and bally-
hooed by the estimable Ickes. In the
opinion of some, they mean more than
that. By these it is held that when
much less than a year from now-we
look back it will be realized that the
end of this session really marked the
end of the New Deal itself
%**
Undoubtedly, there will be some
flashes in the pan and perhaps a
phony revival. Certainly, there will be
plenty of breast beating, face saving,
dramatic gestures, radio ranting and
propaganda flowing from the so-called
National Emergency Council, now rec
ognized as the White House publicity
machine and nothing else. Also, there
will be one more session of Congress
before the elections. Nevertheless,
most detached observers are fairly
well convinced that the hand is played
out, the game over and the Roosevelt
regime on its way out.
*%*
To think anything else is to shut
ones eyes to the realities. A bare re-
ctal of facts leaves no loophole for
any other deduction. What happened
can be summed up in a single sentence
at this session Mr.. Roosevelt's lead
ership was definitely rejected and his
major policies emphatically disapprov-
ed by a Congress both branches of
which were overwhelmingly domi-
mated by his own party. The things
which he most wanted done and most
strongly appealed for deliberately
were not done; the things to which he
personally and openly objected were
done.
Those statements are so fully sus-
tanned by the facts that even the editor
Of the Louisville Courier-J ournal,
whose fixed idea seems to be that when
the facts do not favor the New Deal
they are presented because of personal
feeling against the President, hardly
can dissent from them. In a seven
month session he scored but one vic
tory. By the most desperate fighting
and the narrowest of majorities he re-
gained his control over the currency,
but only after he had declared he had
no intention of using it. On every other
issue ne was defeated-and defeated
in such a way and by such votes as to
leave his followers dismayed, democrat
lied and discouraged.
Look at the record. On taxes, for eX-
ample, Mr.. Roosevelt was forced to
accept repeal of his undivided surplus
tax gadget and to agree to a tax bill
which he disliked, yielding only after
Senator Pat Harrison bluntly told him
it was going to pass whether he want
ed it or not. On relief, the appropria-
ton for which he asked was deeply
cut and the relief bill itself overhauled
and revamped, despite both protests
and threats from the White House and
predictions Of disaster from his labor
leader allies.
On labor, while through delay he
was able to keep the Wagner Labor
Act from amendments which would
have cured its most obvious defects.
the House, defying Administration
leaders and disregarding Presidential
pressure, passed resolution for an in
vestigation of the National Labor Re
lations Board, so comprehensive that
it will cover the whole field of labor
employer relations and is sure to lead
TO drastic recommendations for the re-
vision of the act next session.
On politics, after extraordinary Ell
forts directly encouraged by the Pres
ident himself-frst to smother it in
committee and later to extract its
teeth, the Hatch bill, taking Fedora!
officeholders out of politics, was
passed by vote so overwhelming as
to make it reasonably clear veto
could be overidden. After ten days
during which Administration strate-
gists vainly searched for reason to
disapprove that would not be openly
political, the President signed it. Nc
one questions that with the Hatch bill
in operation his biggest practical po'
litical asset-the influence OF the JoD-
holder machine-largely vanishes.
And finally there is the most igno
minious defeat of all-the defeat Of
the great hree-billion- dollar spending
lending bill for which he directly ap
pealed, and in which was bound up the
whole New Deal program for l94O
Led by Senator Byrd, the Senate
~ hon on