Evening star., 1946-03-21

it is oSSible Lowell Mellett.
that the politicians may not be able
to give satisfactory answers.
The Secretary of Commerce him
self jhas a pretty good record of
party regularity since he became
a Democrat in 1928, although the
record has been made chiefly as an
administrative official, not on the
voting line in Congress. Being the
kind Of person he is, however, it is
reasonable to believe that he would
have ytood by his party platform
and his party's President all those
years had he been a member of
Congress
It's his idea that group of party
lead>rs, including the President, the
Vice President, the Speaker of the
House and the majority leader
aided .perhaps by party caucus,
should have the authority to read
out of the party" any member of
Congress who fails or refuses to sup
port the administration program or
major issues. A similar group would
exercise the same authority in the
opposition or minority party.
Might Obtain Results.
This might work. That is to say
1t might obtain the result Secretary
Wallace has in mind, the establish
ment of responsible political parties
in the United States in place of the
confused and irresponsible align
mentS we now have.
True, under his plan 1t still would
be possible for the voters in any
Congressional district to disregard
the action of the national political
leaders; they could still nominate
and elect Democrats who persistenly
vote with the Republicans and vice
versa. But the disposition to do SO
would be greatly lessened. Grad
ually, if not rapidly, one party
would tend to become the consis-
tently liberal party and the other
the consistently conservative party
The La Follettes, of Wisconsin and
Indiana, the Aikens and Tobeys of
New England, for example, would
soon cease to be Republicans. The
Bilbos, Rankins, O'Daniels, Byrds
Howard Smiths and their like in the
South, would cease to be Democrats.
1t is the situation within the
Democratic party, of course, that
troubles Secretary Wallace. And it
Is this situation that makes Demo-
cratic politicians dubious of his
plan. They are accustomed to
regard the Solid South as necessary
to success at election time. The
fact that Roosevelt four times run
ming had enough electoral votes to
win without the votes of the Solid
South doesn't seem to convince them
that 1t can be done.
Question of Majority.
On the other hand, the politicians
can say there would be no Demo-
cratic majority in Congress now if
the Southern Democrats were elm
mated from their lineup. That is
definitely true. But it is also true
that the party would still have a
majority in Congress if liberal
Democrats from the South replaced
conservative Democrats.
The question is: Could the present
group of Southern conservatives
renominate and re-elect themselves
as Democrats, despite an attempted
veto by the national party leaders;
or could they even elect themselves
as Republicans, If they accepted
the proposed custer? 1t isn't an
easy question to answer.
Through the poll tax and other
restrictions on voting they hold a
fairly tight control over all the
processes of election. After being
"ousted" they might come trooping
back to Congress to continue their
bipartisan career-although not,
perhaps, in their present chairman
ships and other posts of Importance.
There remains an even more i'm