Evening star., 1940-05-24


:$ ~ ernment of the
sort that is be-
Charles G. Ross ing talked about;
1t would be totalitarian govern
ment, like England's now.
But we haven't got our backs to
the wall. We are not even in war.
What we are now undertaking to
do is simply to spend money in
sufficient sums and with sufficient
expertness to insure our national
safety If we do get into war. This
is tremendously important effort;
it is something that needs to be car
ried through with all dispatch; but
it constitutes no crisis remotely war
ranting the hysterical cry that we
abandon our traditional two-party
system of government.
Casts Doubts on Democracy.
The preparedness program, over
shadowing though it is at the mo-
ment and may be for a long time
to come, is still but one of the con-
Germs of the national Government.
There are plenty Of other grave con-
Germs, and out of them grow issues
that provide proper fighting material
for the parties. To say that all
these other issues should be put
aside-which is to say, concretely,
that the opposition party should be
denied its right to do all 1t can
at the polls to enforce its own view
of these issues-is to say that democ-
racy is unable to function even under
a faint threat of bad weather; it is
to urge a step toward the very
form of government that Is causing
us, by its hateful aggressions. to
pour out our billions for the defense
of our democracy.
There could be no greater irony
than for the United States at this
time to adopt the methods of the
dictators.
Conceivably, the time may come.
as it has tragically come to Eng
land, when we shall have to do
this. 1t Is not here now, and to
suggest that it is here is to do
neither the cause of preparedness
nor the cause of representative gov
eminent any service. We fought
the last war without going under
a coalition; we can surely now,
when at peace, do whatever Is nee
essary to be done without going
under coalition.
Expert Board Advisable.
This is not to say that the ad-
ministration would not be well ad-
vised to set up a co-ordinating board
of industrial leaders and experts
to supervise the defense program.
The members of such board
should be-to insure public conf
dence and maximum efficiency
chosen with utter disregard to poll
tics. What we face is not only
military problem; 1t is to a very
large extent a purely industrial
problem. There can be no ques-
ton of the willingness of Repub-
ican industrialists as well as Dem
ocratic to cooperate with the Pres
ident and the experts of the Army
and Navy in the great non-partisan
effort represented by the program
which is now going through Con-
gress with the votes of Democrats
and Republicans alike AS to ma
tional defense. politics is adj
journed.
, To this extent there is coalition
coalition that we like to think
is inevitable whenever the country
, is faced with the threat of danger
from the outside. The President
could dramatic this unity we have
achieved in special field, he could
make this unity count for efficiency
and speed in the execution of the
defense program, by summoning to
his aid the best qualified men in
the country regardless Of their at
titude toward his domestic policies.
Alert Opposition Necessary.
But non-partisan board, operat-
ing outside the cabinet, with respect
to an issue on which there is ma
titional unity, is a different thing
! altogether from coalition Govern
ment. A coalition Government un-
der present conditions would give US
cabinet with confusion of voices
on all save the one issue of pre-
paredness. Within the inner council
hostile to many of its purposes. The
whole conception of the cabinet as
the official family of the President,
4 selected by him because Of their
essential agreement with his views,
would be violated. AS for the out
siders drawn into the coalition, their
influence with the country in oppo-
sition to the President would be
weakened or destroyed. The point
need not be labored: We need unified
responsibility at the head OF the
Government; we need an alert OPP
position unhampered by ties with
the Government.
Former Gov. Landon mace a good
point in his statement of Wednes-
day, when he said that "it is to be
noted that even in the midst Of
actual war the Labor and Liberal
parties in England refused to enter
the cabinet until there had been
substantial agreement on policies"
Coalition government in our, sys-
tenn is justifiable only under the
pressure Of some transcendent issue
on which there Is substantial agree
ment between the parties snd be-
side which the normal issues of the
day shrivel into insignificance. To
say that the present necessity of
building up our armament has put
us in this stage is to utter the
rankest nonsense.