Evening star., 1940-03-11

tage is one that confirms in more
respects than one the charges which
the two Fascist dictators have often
levelled against democracy.
Here, in the most powerful de-
mocracy in the world, the very bick-
erings of party and factional politics,
which both Mussolini and Hitler
have especially singled out for criti-
cism as sapping the structure of the
state, are growing rather than di-
minishing in intensity.
Between 100000 and 9000,000
persons are unemployed. business
moves uncertainty along under arti-
fetal stimulants either of domestic
pump printing or war orders and
yet the fundamental questions that
disturb the national economy 60 un-
touched except for superficial sur
Vey now and then. Each political
party finds itself catering to the big
group votes and individual members
of Congress bow in fear of group re-
taliation.
The Labor Question.
Take the labor question as an eX-
ample. A law is passed nearly five
years ago involving sweeping
change in employer -employe rela-
tions. 1t is urged that the law be
given a chance to function. 1t is
given such a chance. 1t is urged
that the law and not the administra-
tors are at fault. Congress with
characteristic carelessness delegates
broad powers, insists they will not
be abused, and then when the power
is misused is afraid to take the
powers back. The labor factions
which are the beneficiaries line up
votes back home. Committee chair
men in Congress respectively take
their rigid positions. Each charges
the other with bad motives and, in
the end, the very chaotic condition.
which shows democracy at its worst
and gives FaSciSm its excuse, is pro-
duced because the pressure groups
are totalitarians at heart. The idea
of objective craftsmanship, of legis-
lative broad-mindedness is gone.
Pressure groups actually control the
New Deal committees of Congress
body and soul. The old days of spe-
cial privilege are initiated almost to
the method and the technique.
Meanwhile serious friction grows,
employer and employe relations are
kept disturbed and the incapacity
of democracy to correct its own er-
rors is again demonstrated. Most
of the trouble, of course, is that too
many members of Congress care less
for their convictions than for risk
to their political careers. Little do
they realize the risk is more imag-
mary than real, but they often lack
the courage to make the test.
The matter of scheming to keep
their jobs is best illustrated, how
ever, in the struggle over legislation
for so-called purity" in politics.
Senators. brazenly attempt to fight
such proposals and to use parlia-
mentary tricks to defeat them
largely because they know it may
hurt their own campaigns for re-
election. So accustomed have they
become to using public funds and
public offices for personal purposes
that before the very eyes of the
whole country they venture now to
oppose any further restriction.
No Hatch Act Prosecutions.
In way these men on Capitol
Hill cannot be blamed altogether
The deterioration in public morality
in these last few years has been
considerable. The New Deal came
into power on the crest of a wave
of liberalism which to many people
meant idealism. 1t meant purity in
governmental action, fair deal for
the underprivileged and at most a