Evening star., 1939-06-28

dlnenQment to
end the Presi- Charles G. Ross.
dents power further to devalue the
dollar. Both the amendments, by
virtue of the fantastic coalition
support produced by this bargain,
were adopted. If the views ex-
pressed by the Senate prevail
the Treasury will have to in
crease the pay to the domestic
silver producers by about 13 cents
an ounce, or an estimated total of
around S7,500,000 a year. and the
President after next Friday mid
night, the end of the fiscal year,
will no longer have the 9-cent de-
valuation margain which he now
has.
Through this vote to freeze the
dollar at its present level, in de-
flance of the Treasury's strong
recommendation that the 9-cent
leeWay be retained as a weapon CAL
culated to prevent an international
currency depreciation war, or, If
such war arises. to protect the
interests of the United States
through this anti-administration
action the Republican Seantors
scored what one of them called a
terrific victory" 1t was that kind
of victory, he thought, even though
the Republicans had to pay the
price of voting for new subsidy
to the silver producers on top of the
subsidy which has long been-and
rightly-a target of Republican
criticism.
Stalwarts in List.
With two exceptions (Tobey Of
New Hampshire and Townsend of
Delaware), every Republican who
voted or was paired, members of
the so-called economy bloc" and
all, lined up with the silverites. In
the list were such Republican stall
warts as Austin of Vermont, Bridges
OF New Hampshire, who is being
extolled as the party's white hope
in a letter-writing campaign; Davis
Of Pennsylvania, Hale of Maine,
Vandenberg of Michigan. who is
widely believed to be today's lead
ing candidate for the Republican
nomination for President; White of
Maine, Lodge of Massachusetts.
Now the trade which put these
men on the silver bandwagon (and
which, on the other side, saw such
a perfervid New Dealer as Schwel-
lenbach Of Washington letting his
solicitude for silver dine him up
with Austin, Bridges ct al against
the administration may have been,
as the Senator above quoted told
the reporters, "the most obvious
trade you could imagine" 1t may
have brought about. in a manner
of speaking, terrific victory" To
Senator Vandenberg. obviously
pluming himself on his part in the
deal, the adoption of the proposal
to wipe out the Presidents devalua-
ton power may have seemed "a
triumph of justice and equity" The &.
fact remains that the bargain by
which the Republican shouters for
economy and return to sanity"
in government sold out to the sill
verlteS was as shameless a piece of
trading as ever marked the log
rolling tactics of the seekers after
tariff favors in the old Fordney-
McCumber and Smoot- -Hawley DAYS.
Coalition Outsmarts Itself.
The trick was clever, no doubt,
but it reflects no credit on the states
manship of those who engineered it.
An opposition party bravely led is
constant need in our system of
government, but an opposition party
will get nowhere with the people in
the long run by resort to parliament
tary gangsterism. That is what the
methods of the amazing Senate
coalition, on the part both of the sill
verites and the great majority of
the Republican Senators, amounted
to. I have no doubt that some of the
coalitionists will come to see the
matter in that light after the flush
Of their enthusiasm over the great
victory" has worn off.
There is such thing as being too
clever, too smart, in politics. Mr..
Roosevelt was that when he tried
to reorganize the Supreme Court.
He outsmarted himself. So also did
Mr.. Vandenberg and his Republican
allies in the silver and-devaluation
fight outsmart themselves. In so
doing they performed a disservice
not only to the Republican party,
but to the cause of representative
government. There are few things
more likely to produce dissatisfac-
ton with the present systemic
give encouragement to those who
would strengthen the administrative
power at the expense of the legis-
lative-than such a perversion of
the legislative process as was seen
In the Senate last Monday.