The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-11-26

advances, even
though he has announced that he is
too busy to run for reelection to
the Senate.
Add to this the recent utterances
of Senator Burton K. Wheeler of
Montana and Senator Gerald P. Nye
of North Dakota, concerning third
party possibilities in 1914, and what
do you have? Nye favors third
party If the two major parties lean
towards alliance with other powers
that would in the leastwise jeopar-
die American sovereignty. Wheeler
is for third party that would pre-
vent this countrys interests from be-
ing Subordinated to the interests of
any European and Asiatic power
! Which is the same thing said the
| other way around. Reynolds says
| that anything less than an America
First" foreign policy from the major
parties will foster third party.
ISOLATIONISM AN UNKNOWN
QUANTITY
Now you can dismiss all this as a
lot of impotent but highly favored
mouth wash from trio of pre-
Pearl Harbor isolationist soreheads
whose views have been proved wrong
and whose thinking has been dis
credited. Or, you can give it little
more serious consideration without
getting out on the end of any rotten
limb of political representation. No
one can do any real political expert
ing on this thing bee: use no one
knows how strong the isolationist
sentiment, the -NaZi and the an
ti-Communist sentiment really are.
How much of the America First
sentiment is there still left in your
! bailiwick? Some of the Washington
political reporters who have been
out in the provinces say it's still
strong and getting stronger, partic-
ularly in the Chicago midwest area.
Others minimize it.
Is the election going to be fought
on purely domestic issues, or on
deeper dish questions of foreign pol
icy, the postwar world, etcetera?
Present indications seem to point
more towards a domestic revolt
discomfort over rationing, soreness
of labor over the administrators
/ failure to hold down living costs as
much as desired, and over curbs on
wage increases, anger of the farm
groups over the success the admin
istration has had in holding down
farm prices as much as it has, plus
q general feeling of being tired Of
the New Deal, in spite of the fact
that there is less unemployment,
and everyone seems to have more
money than he ever had before.
THIRD PARTY PROSPECTS
| But in all this welter of domestic
dissatisfaction and desire for
change, third party movement in
1e4i any chance of success? :. tori
cally, American third parties have
never gotten to first base them
selves, but they have made sacrifice
hits which have split one major
party and enabled the other major
party not only to steal second but
to steal third and home to win the
election ball game.
Is 1914 a year in which third
party could cash in on confusion
and do itself any good? That's
tough one. The right kind OF de-
magogue might capitalize on trying
! to unite the white collared workers,
the non union workers, the people
living on pensions and fixed salaries
the Is million or more voters who
have no spokesman to get them any
Is per cent pay increases under the
Little Steel formula or any portal
to-portal or featherbedded overtime
pay increases. They are the real
forgotten people of this war. In uni
FLED, they might be force strong
enough to throw an election. But
that's big eff.
Would it appeal to the Democrats
who don't like the New Deal but
couldn't bring themselves to vote
Republican? Or would it appeal
more to Republicans who couldn't
bring themselves to accepting a
candidate and platform pledged
to postwar international coopera-
ton?
Answer these last two questions
correctly and-if there is anything
more to this third party talk than
empty political palaver - maybe
you'll have the answer to how the
election is going.