Evening star., 1946-01-21

But 1t Is an almost wholly pnony
performance which has been going
on for long time now and Is pos
sible only because Of the extreme
gullibility of the people. Take, for
example, the periodic outbursts OF
Robert E. Hannegan, chairman OF
the Democratic National Commit
tee. Every month or so Mr.. Hanne-
gan in speech or statement writ
ten by his publicity director, pro-
claims his profound liberalism"
and whoops that the Republican
party never, never can be liberal"
Of course, this hard-boiled Mis-
souri, machine politicians profess
sions of liberalism" are absurd, and
he Is just as sincere as the we'll
known china egg. What Mr.. Hanne-
gan is doing is trying to make him
self solid with the organized labor
vote-especially the CIO-and its
supporting press, of both of which
he is extremely, though foolishly,
afraid.
CIO Brand.
For 13 years his party has been
linked with this element and in
three campaigns has accepted its
argument that victory could not
have been achieved without it. Ap-
parently Mr. Hannegan isn't smart
enough to know that there was al
ways good deal of bluff In the
claim or to realize that in the last
few years-and especially the last
few months-the CLOS value as an
asset has greatly diminished.
But an almost similar situation
exists on the Republican side. A
group of Western Senators and
House members more or less regu-
larly arise and forecast the destruc-
tion Of their party unless it goes
liberal" Neither Mr.. Hannegan nor
the Republican liberals" ever give
any concrete idea as to what they
mean by liberal" But it Is not
very difficult to make out.
Actually what they mean is advo-
cacy of the CIO leadership and
policies not only on labor legisla-
ton but on taxes, unemployment,
public works, governmental spend
ing and all other measures of ma
tional Importance on. all of which
the C1O undertakes to guide us.
Absurdly enough, that has be-
come the sole test of a liberal" in
this country. The name has been
appropriated by the CIO bosses.
Those who link themselves with
them are proclaimed liberal" BY
the yociferous CIO-supporting radio
and Journalistic commentators, in
cluding those in the Communistic
Daily Worker. All others are de-
nounced as "reactionary."
VoIubIe Minority.
These are the plain facts about
these liberal literary and oratori-
cal proclamations. Most of those
who sponsor them do so either for
political or publicity purposes. In
both parties they represent a small,
though extremely voluble minority.
1t is a game of false pretense, the
success of which, now that Mr..
Roosevelt has gone, is almost
wholly due to the skill with which
they use the regular publicity chan
nels of press and radio for their
propaganda.
1t is a situation that ought to be
far more widely understood. That
would cure it. The liberals" are, of
course, unable to control either
party convention. But they have a
sufficient voting and vocal strength
to make either party afraid to 90
frankly conservative. Thus, the
country is deprived of the clean-cut
choi5e to which it is entitled be-
tween conservatives and liberals.
The result is that in 1948 both can
didates and platforms again will
represent compromises. And both
parties will 60 into the campaign
with conservatives and liberals un-
der the same banners.
Warning by Democrat.
On the very day of Mr.. Han
negan's most recent eulogy of
the Democratic party as liberal" :"
a Democratic Representative from
Maryland, H. STREET. Baldwin, de-
clared that in Washington he has
seen absorbed into the Democratic
party Communists travelling under
the guise of democracy"
I'VE of the Democratic party" he
continued, have got to put aside
some Of the things these people are
trying to bring into our party"
"A labor union like the CIO with
its PAC is accepted" he continued,