Evening star., 1939-05-17

tion to the op-
position party in
1912. Today. the David Lawrence.
Democratic party is either going to
be split on tax revision and the
issue carried into the presidential
campaign, with probability that
the opposite party will win, or else
the Democrats are going to be
astute enough to avoid the mistakes
of insurgency and keep their party
reconciled.
But it does look more like split
than a harmonious relationship.
The reason is that the New Dealers,
after a remarkable period of under
standing of the public pulse, now
disbelieve that the 1888 congress
sional elections really meant any
thing national and want to let the
1910 election contest decide.
Tax revision is not what the New
Deal folks think it is as political
issue. They assume that it is merely
the cry of a few rich men or pluto
cratic interests for reduction in
taxes. If this were so 1t would be
an easy matter to turn on the
streams of denunciation and inVec-
tive and trust to the electorate to
echo their charges. But tax revision
has become identified with economic
recovery Little business, big busl-
ness. workers in the middle class,
farmers and others in the electorate
who can read have been told again
and again these last three years
that business recovery cannot be
achieved until the tax load on gen.
eral business is reduced.
Revision Taken Seriously.
BY every available evidence, in
cluding the frequent showings OF the
Gallup poll. the American electorate
has begun to take seriously the de-
mand for a revision Of taxes. The
administrators only answer, name
". that taxes cannot be cut unless
revenues from other sources increase
or else the budget itself is cut, would
be very persuasive If offered on
BACKGROUND of retrenchment by the
administration itself or if recognl-
ton had been continuously given to
the ills of business in some sort or
comprehensive program.
But. rightly or wrongly, the ad-
ministration is being pictured before
the country as the sadistic enemy OF
business and the New Deals inner
circle is being represented as truly
anxious to bring on state of affairs
in which more rather than less gov
ernmental regulation will become
necessary.
One does not need for moment
to accept as valid the imputations of
destructiveness or of the punitive
spirit said by their critics to be char
acteristic of New Dealers to see that
there Is inside Congress a definite
cleavage as between independent
Democrats and administration Dem
ocrats. The differences between them
are neither accidental nor casual.
They are deeply rooted in a point OF
view. Most of the administration
Democrats are following without
complaint the leadership of the
President. while the independents
are insisting that the Presidents
leadership is not in conformity with
public opinion today or in the best
interests of the party.
Not Easy to Draw Issue.
Mr.. Roosevelt feels that in the
past he has been pretty good
Judge of public opinion and that
he has not been wrong about the
liberal impulses of the American
people, and that they will not want
him to change his course if to do
so means to give up the reforms
he has been putting into effect.
On fiscal policy, however, and es-
pecially on taxation, it is not easy
to draw liberal-conservative issue,
for nobody likes taxes, and when
the public debt rises to forbidding
heights 1t is no longer possible from
a political point of view to offer q
convincing defense.
Time always works against the
administration in power, and with
the prospect that eight years will
have passed without a balanced
budget and that during those eight
years the United States had not
been rid of unemployment, the
average American will be asked to
indicate whether it isn't time to
try change of administration.
Disappointment Is Rife.
The pendulum has always swung
the other way in the past, when
the depression has prevailed during
an election year. In 1896 rela-
tive amount of recovery had been
achieved and the country had an
= optimistic mood about the future.
Today disappointment over the
failure of the unemployed to find
Jobs, the increase each year OF more
young men who join the ranks Of
the unemployed, the constant out
cries of businessmen against the
taxes they are paying and which
they say are deterring economic re-
covery-all contribute to a negative
mood on the part of voters. This Is
why Senator Pat Harrison, chair
man of the Senate Finance Com
mittee, feels that differing with
the President he is making des-
perate attempt to save the Demo-
cratic party from defeat.
The insurgency of the Western
Republicans in 1911 and early 1912
was not needed the the leaders
of the regular faction of the Re-
publican party. It begins to look