Evening star., 1939-02-26
lntro-Porty QuorreI
ImperiIs Democrats
By ODen L. Scott

Velt, With his New Dealers, and Vice
President Garner, with his old-Iine
Democrats rapidly is dominating WASH
ington developments.
At this stage in the battle, Mr.. Gar
ner definitely holds the edge.
Mr.. Roosevelt is stopped cold in Con-
| gress. Thrd-term talk definitely is
| checked. To keep the limelight, the
| President finds it necessary to take on
Europe's dictators in battle of words
and threats--alWays at fairly safe dis
! tance.
White House tax plans are awry, farm
| plans are upset, relief plans are in a
muddle President Roosevelt finds that
| he must treat with Mr. Garner and the
| conservatives of his party if he is to get
may want.
| AS result of this situation, leading
| Democrats, for the first time since re-
| gaining power, are openly discussing the
prospect of defeat in 194o
All the party fighting really hinges on
| the questions of who is to control the
| party machinery after 194O-the New
Dealers or the Garner-led conservatives
| The old-line Democrats regard the Pres
idents New Deal Democrats as young
whipper-snappers who have "squatted"
on the party and who now should be
purged, just as they sought to purge the
old d-timers.
Right here is where the party troubles
center
Hr 50
his effort to keep New Deal forces in
| control OF the party, what personal
course will he follow? Will he remain
silent during the 1910 campaign? Will
he set about building third, and liberal,
party? In either case could he divert
enough votes from the Democratic party
to spell its defeat? Even conservative
Democrats are ready to admit that the
President, because of his large personal
following, could produce 1910 Repub-
lican victory merely by remaining silent.
But again:
II Mr.. Roosevelt is successful in re-
tanning New Deal control of the party,
what of the conservative Democrats?
Will they go along, or will there be
Presidents candidSte at the polls?
Could the coolness Of the conservatives
divert enough votes from the Demo-
cratic party to spell defeat? Here the
answer is held to depend largely on the
degree of recovery that occurs between
nov and November, 1910
President Roosevelt has built his
regime on a combination of farmer and
labor support-a combination that can
be maintained only with the greatest
difficulty and through the exercise of
unusual political skill. In the future, as
in the recent past, the Democrats must
find a tlght-rope formula for balancing
votes from the conservative farm belt
States with the votes of workers from
industrial States
The farmer part of this fatmer-labor
combination definitely pulled away in the
1888 congressional elections. Farmers
were alienated by labor disturbances and
by the failure of Government programs
to sustain farm commodity prices A
battle between the conservative Demo-
Gratis, largely agrarian in viewpoint. and
the newer New Deal Democrats with
more radical viewpoint. would hardly
! serve to repair the coalition on which
Mr.. Roosevelt built his power
The position of the Democrats also is
complicated by two other factors.
One of these other factors is the con-
tlnued absence of recovery The other
Is the apparent dearth of candidates on
whom the party factions may agree.
The President already is aware of the
prospect that. barring war or a much
greater measure of recovery than is on
the immediate horizon. the man who
must campaign to succeed him in the
White House is going to face powerful
Republican argument. This argument
will be that Democrats have failed to
produce recovery and that the Nation
certainly has nothing to lose by trying
brand of Republican policies that have
produced recovery at times in the past.
Aware of this economic argument. Mr..
Roosevelt at this time is trying to nurse
along the budding recovery movement
.iA''0 oee1i .Su loot ioiA nc 10 piOiIlSlllS u
be good to businessmen in the hope that
businessmen, in turn, can be good to him
and the country by spending money that
will mean more individual activity and
more employment. The Presidents own
advisers on economic matters, however,
doubt whether recovery is to be gained
by that method. Neither do they think
that recovery would come from the Re-
publican prescription of debating Gov
ernment activities.
The trouble from the Democratic point
OF view is that eight years of its party
leadership will appear not to have solved
either the farm problem or the unem-
ployment problem.
Personalities in the political picture
have the Democratic leaders even more
stumped
There now is every chance that Mr..
Roosevelt intends to step aside at the end
of his second term. That fact lets down
the Bars for a scramble of aspirants
Conservatives, led by Mr.. Garner, are
cool to any New Dealers. They did a
quite thorough job of sabotaging Robert
Jackson, the present Solicitor General,
when Mr.. Roosevelt wanted to bring him
into the open in last years elections.
Henry Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture,
is being treated to some mitigating by
I, i