Evening star., 1940-08-25
Capital SideIights
By Will p. Kennedy.

What is a party label these days?"
many of the active workers in both
major political parties on Capitol Hill
are asking. With a former Tammany
Hall Democrat carrying the Republican
nomination for President. with former
Republican as vice presidential nominee
OF the Democrats. with the Republicans
claiming a foothold in the solid South
and the Democrats appealing for liberal
Republican support, and with party plat
forms and campaign pronouncements
practically echoing each other - the
party voters are in quandary. Ever since
the Civil War, party bolts have been
growing in frequency and importance;
and this year seems to be the biggest
tumble of all Because of split in the
Democratic party over slavery, Lincoln
was elected in 1860 and since then there
have been important splits in 6 of the Is
presidential elections. Led by Horace
Greeley the Liberal Republicans bolted
in 1872, and the Democratic party
adopted the new party, candidate and
platform. The bolt of Republican Mug
wumps gave Cleveland the election in
1884 Party lines were obliterated in the
1896 election. and 10 Republican States
declared for free silver" when the Pop
ulstS were on rampage, when Bryan
made his Gross of Gold" speech, when
a national Silver party and a national
Democratic party were organized. A
progressive Republican bolt in 1912. with
La Toilette and Theodore Roosevelt vie
ing for leadership, gave Wilson the elec-
ton, carrying 40 States. La Follettes
third party movement in 1924, supported
by the Socialist and Farmer Labor
parties and the American Federation of
Labor, proved too sectional. In the Al
Smith campaign of 1923 the erstwhile
soldly Democratic South threatened a
new antl-Cathollc, anti-Tammany, bone
dry party. and produced enough Hoover
Gratis" to swing the election-the first
Republican nominee since reconstruction
to break into the solid South. Prominent
Republicans and Democrats bolted in
1882 and l936-as they are doing today
following the conservative revolt against
the New Deal in 1887 and the failure of
VIZ ANoOoSNCIO pui III lIlc 1900 SltC-
ton. Now the third term issue COM
plicates the situation-very considerably.
This conscription controversy, with &C
ton on the Burke -Wadsworth bill ex-
pected early this weeks as old as the
Nation itself The American Colonies
and States inherited from England a
fundamental principle that all able
bodied men should take up arms to sup
press insurrection or repel invasion-but
voluntary action was traditional. In
the Revolution a few Colonies raised
troops by draft. and New York did it in
the War of 1872. In the Civil War both
the North and South employed general
conscription. The Federal draft law,
1868, was to spur voluntary enlistment,
and men were drafted only when a dis
trict failed to fill its quota with volun-
teers. This placed stigma on draftees
and led to bounties to volunteers. The
Federal Government employed the
bounty system which naturally led to
wholesale fraud and corruption and cre-
ated distinction between rich and poor.
A quarter of century ago, when the
German Army was entrenched on French
soil and seemed menace to American
security, conscription was employed in
this country on wider basis than ever
before, in the Selective Service Act of
May 18, 1917. Representative James. w.
Wadsworth of New York. joint sponsor
of the present bill was then chairman of
the Senate Military Affairs Committee
and had an important part in making
this law. The bill now under discussion
provides for selective service system
closely resembling that of World War
days. The proposed American peace
time conscription system differs from the
European method, which requires all
able-bodied young men to undergo a
period of military service upon reaching
certain age
Three hundred small seaplane bases
now dot 81 States as part of a Nation
wide development program inaugurated !
more than year ago by the Civil Aero
nautics Authority.