Evening star., 1939-04-16

spring RepuDncan has sat down in q
small broadcasting booth opposite a
Democrat and they have argued out
over national hookup the burning is
sues Of the day. Relief, the Constitu-
tion, States rights, social security, the
Wagner Act, these and other contro-
versies of the time the two politicians
have debated.
The Republican is Senator Robert A.
Taft of Ohio, a typical A-grade speci-
men Of his party and for the present at
least the leading contender for the
presidential nomination in 1910. The
Democrat is T. v. Smith of Illinois, and
he is typical not so much of the Demo-
cratic party as of T. v. Smith.
A professor of philosophy in Congress
is something new in politics. T. ".
Smiths whole approach to the great ma
tional game is new and different. He
has broken most of the rules of the
game, which is one reason, in his opin-
ion, for the political success he has had
thus far
Last fall he was elected Representative
at large from Illinois. A Chicagoan, he
had the fierce opposition of the Kelly
Nash machine. Nevertheless, his plu-
rality was larger than that of Senator
Scott w. Lucas. The huge Republican
vote in the Chicago mayoralty election
the other day has made the Democrats
in Illinois realize the urgent need for
ending all conflicts within the party.
Shuns Orthodox Political Ideas.
When Mr.. Smith started out to run for
the Illinois State Senate four years ago
instead of joining organizations he re-
signed from most Of those he had be-
longed to. People don't want candi-
date who is tied to one group or an
other, he says. That is a measure of
his departure from orthodoxy.
Altogether, he is curious hybrid.
Born and brought up on the last from
tier of Texas, he is Middle Westerner
by adoption with strong feeling for
the Lincoln country in Illinois pro-
fessor of philosophy at the University of
Chicago and editor of the learned Inter-
national Journal of Ethics, he is also a
radio orator who has held mass au-
diences with his skill. No label seems
to fit this ambitious member of Con-
gress, who still has something of the dry
Texas twang in his speech.
It was because of his skill on the ra-
dio, of course, that he was selected to
present the Democratic point of view
in the current series over the air. Since
1923 he has been broadcasting more or
less regularly, both as a professor and
politician, and sometimes as both. He
is generally acknowledged to be a mas
ter of the political broadcast, so much
so that Republican leaders doubted the
wisdom of Senator Tafts decision in
agreeing to match skill and ideas with
him.
Mr.. Smith himself says that Senator
Taft has done very well, surprisingly
we'll, he adds. In this matter of radio
technique Mr.. Smith makes no pre-
tense Of modesty. He knows he's good
and he doesn't hesitate to say so.
Avoids Oratory on Radio.
The first rule of the political orator
on the radio, in the view of this expert,
is to refrain scrupulously from anything
like oratory. The most important thing
to remember. he stresses, is that you are
not talking to a crowd of people at all.
1t is the mistake beginners usually make.
They get the notion of million or two
million people listening in and they
begin to crate. Actually you are talk
ing, says Mr.. Smith, to only one or two
or three people, at the most small
group, in living room. They resent
some one who comes in there as an
orator and declaims and shouts.
AS connoisseur, Mr.. Smith criticizes
President Roosevelt's radio voice. 1t Is,
he says, far too orotund, too solemn.
Roosevelt's radio addresses are too
often, in Mr.. Smiths opinion, pitched on
note of crisis. The President goes over