Evening star., 1946-11-04
BorkIey Talk on COP
Seen Grove BIundeE

SCSI1 SlOyC 0I0I1dCF
Bipartisan Cooperation Held
Imperiled by Speech
By David Laurence
The biggest blunder of the political
campaign has just been made by the
majority leader of the Senate, Alben
Barley Of Kentucky. Far exceeding In
its injury to the Democratic cause any-
thing that Henry Wallace did, Mr. Bark
ley has done more to jeopardize biparti-
san cooperation for peace than any
speaker of the whole campaign on either
side. -
Mrs. Roosavelt's ineptitude and bad
taste in making a partisan political
speech while she is serving as a member
OF the United States delegation to the
United Nations is inexcusable, but 1t Is
far less important than the deliberate
statement of the man who actually Is
the chosen leader of the Democratic
Party in the Senate.
The speech doesn't sound like Mr..
Barkley at all. He has tact and common
sense and is an able leader, and 1t may
be that in the harassment and despera-
ton of the closing days of the campaign
he accepted carelessly ghost-written
speech prepared by the Democratic Mas
tional Committee. One would like 10
believe that Mr.. Barley didn't give
careful thought to the implications OF
his utterance which 60 far beyond the
present campaign.
He said in his radio address that II
the Republicans win, the Nation can
then SAY goodbye to any real hope Of
further progress along the hard road to
international friendship and peace" =
Cause of Unity Will Suffer.
This is an amazing declaration TO
make at time when Senator Vanden-
berg of Michigan, the real leader of the
Republican Party on foreign policy, has
done such an excellent job in assisting
Secretary of State Byrnes in nego.
tiations with other countries at Paris
and elsewhere.
The most important test vote in the
present Congress - whether the Re-
publican Party is for or against inter-
national co-operation-was taken on the
United Nations Charter. The Republic.
cans voted overwhelmingly for the char
ter and subsequently, too, for American
participation in the World Court. -
Certainly the cause of bipartisan CO.
operation in the Senate will suffer If the
leader of the Democratic Party harbofs
any such deep-seated distrust as he
now has expressed. What Mr.. Barkley
has said will be resented from coast to
coast by all those voters who do not
agree that only Democrats are patriots
and only Democrats are interested In
world peace. .
It will make votes for the Republican
Party out of sheer resentment. Plainly
the sacrifices made on the battlefield
and on the seas in World War II do
not entitle either Mrs. Roosevelt or
Senator Barkley to feel that the Gov
ernment of the United States is owned
in perpetuity by the Democratic Party
and that no Republicans need be trusted
with public power hereafter because they
would presumably wreck their own
country and particularly its peace policy.
There has been and is danger of
breaking down the bipartisan peace
| policy but the biggest threat has come
from the Pepper-Wallace isolationist
wing of the Democratic Party which has
been stabbing in the back the makers
Of the Truman-Byrnes- -Vandenberg for
eign policy. 1t is true that there Is a
handful of isolationists In the Repubh-
can Party and 1t is true that there are
pro-Russian appeasers in the Demo-
cratic Party. These groups are natural
allies, but together they cannot gain
. majority Of the Senate or q two-thirds
vote on any major issues If there is
. bipartisan coalition such as has
operated In recent months.
Speech Won't Be Forgotten.
Speeches like those of Senator Bark
ley and Mrs. Roosevelt, however, have
really endangered continuance of BIZ
partisan cooperation. They have re-
kindled the flames of partisanship and
made more difficult the task of Senator
vandenberg, the next Republican leader
in the Senate.
IL Will not be possible when the elec.
ton is over to forget the speeches Of
Senator Barkley and Mrs. Roosevelt and
call them campaign oratory." The
wounds left by the charges of distrust
and the manifestations of suspicion will
make it harder for the President and
Secretary Of State to deal with the
Senate.
The Republicans now will rightly feel
that the motive behind the administra-
tion's leaders in their sponsoring of
foreign policy proposals is primarily
political and part of move to tell the
country in 1948 that Republicans are
not patriotic Americans and cannot be
trusted to act for the best interests of
the United States in foreign policy If
they are elected.
This is one way to bring confusion in
the next two years and give aid and
comfort to those nations which thrive
on American dissension. Senator Bark.
ley has done a disservice to his party
and to the country and after election
can repair the damage only by frank
apology to the Republican Party and
the Republican voters OF the Nation.
Reproduction Rishts Reserved
Shorter Hours on the Form
From the Christian Science Monitor.