Evening star., 1947-11-01
The Political Mil
McGroth as Party Head
Finds Job on His Hands

Confronted With Taft's Declaration
of Bipartisan Stand on Prices
By Gould Lincoln
Senator J. Howard McGrath of Rhode
Island, who as the newly elected chairman of
the Democratic National Committee will direct
the campaign for the reelection of President
Truman, has Immediately job on his hands.
He is confronted with a fiat declaration by
his Republican colleague, Senator Taft of Ohio
COP leader in the Upper House, that there is
to be no bipartisan approach to dealing with
initiation and high prices, Notwithstanding
the olive branch tentatively held out by Mr..
McGrath at the recent meeting of the Demo-
cratic National Committee In other words,
when the Congress meets in special session
November II the fur will begin to fly immedi-
ately.
Further, the new Democratic chairman is
expected to hold in line the extraordinary
coalition of voters which made possible the
successive elections of the late President
Franklin D. Roosevelt. He must. if he can,
retain support for the Democratic national
ticket of labor, of the colored voters, of the
big city machines of the radical elements, and
of the solid South" He cannot hope for
success at the polls unless he is reasonably
successful with all these various and varied
groups.
Some of these voters look upon President
Truman with suspicion-despite his almost
UNMARRIED demand for continuation of "Roose-
velt policies Mr.. Truman has been denounced
by some labor leaders because he was not
successful in making his veto of the Taft
Hartley labor bill stick. They charge he
did not exert all his influence. There are
Negro leaders who do not believe that Mr..
Truman is wholeheartedly in favor of some
of the legislation they demand-for example,
Federal antilynchlng law and Federal FEPC
law,
Trouble With Radicals.
1t does not appear, at the present writing,
that the radicals who went down the line for
President Roosevelt are inclined to be so loyal
to Mr.. Truman. President Truman has moved
strongly against the Communists, for example.
both here and abroad. Take the American
Labor Party in New York-far to the left and
often called Communist dominated. Without
its support Mr.. Truman could not possibly
carry the great State of New York With it's
support he may be no better off-for the Lib
eral Party, which broke away from the ALP, is
not inclined to support any candidate favored by
the ALP. There is also the possibility that the
radicals will get behind third party headed
by former Vice President Henry A. Wallace.
With the American voters complaining about
high prices and high taXes-and at the same
time called on to support the administrations
plans for many more billions in dollars and
goods to war-torn Europe and Asia-the at
mosphere for Democratic victory next year
is not yet at hand 1t is exceedingly difficult
for an administration in control of the Gov
ernment to place the blame for existing con-
dtions on the party which is out of power.
Needing" to Continue.
The needing of the President and the DEM
ocratic administration which began when the
Republicans took control of Congress this year
will be continued more briskly than ever. For
mer President Hoover experienced the same
kind of thing from the Democrats when they
took over control of the House in his midterm.
1t was in vain that in the 1882 campaign Mr..
Hoover and his Republican supporters shouted
that they could have met the depression if
the Democratic House had been willing to go
along.
From the statements made by Senator Taft,
Speaker Martin and other Republican leaders
in Congress, it seems clear that the President
will have hard shedding getting through his
proposed domestic legislation program. Fur
ther, the Republicans are intent on forcing
reduction of Federal income taxes. They will
either achieve their aim or force Mr.. Truman
TO veto announcer TAX reductlon Dill almost on
the eve of a national campaign. The Republic
cans, too, will demand further reduction Of
governmental expenditures, and if these re-
ductions are opposed by the President, will
charge him with extravaganza at time when
the country is burdened with high taxes.
| While there is greater hope of bipartisan
| support for the foreign-aid program of the
| administration, there is sure to be close scru-
tiny of every item of appropriation for this
program. Senator Harry Byrd, Democrat, of
| Virginia, chairman of the Joint Committee on
| Reduction of Nonessential Federal Expendi-
lures, has just come forward with state
| ment estimating American aid to foreign
| countries since the war ended at from $19,-
100000 to $4,000, 900, ,00O exclusive of what
may be contemplated under the Marshall
plan. This is likely to give pause to even
those who wish most earnestly to aid Europe.