Evening star., 1949-11-23
6. 0.P.$1 Box Supper
Could Appeal 10 Big
Slice Of Electorate
May Spread Idea Party,
Being Poor Itself, Will
Represent the Poor

OStuS WI atSSug VNu
Represent the Poor
By Dapid Laurence
Strange news comes out of the
National Capital these days. The
Republicans announce that they
will hold box supper at 81 box
at their next big political gather
ing here. but the Democrats in
sist on keeping the price up to
500 a plate.
Isn't this something for a new
OPA or the Justice Department
to look into? Aren't the Repub-
licans cutting prices in order to
monopolize a market in the elec-
torate which the Democrats have
always believed was theirs for
eternity?
Certainly If the Republicans 60
after the low-income groups, they
will be competing ruthlessly and
do irreparable damage to the po-
litical strategy of the Democrats.
For was it not in the very recent
campaign of 1948 that President
Truman went up and down the
country telling everybody he was
for the common man" while the
Republican Dewey presumably was
just trying to put the rich back
into power?
There must be some code or
laws of political monopoly which
are thus contravened, and the
transgression will not be overcome
by a few satirical chuckles such
as Mr.. Truman bestowed on the
problem when some political
callers the other day drew his at
tention to the 81 supper idea.
May Have Something.
After all, a political party that
is held up to derision because it
has to lower its prices to attract
people to its political suppers may
have something when 1t spreads
the thought that, being poor it
self, it represents the poor at the
same time. Certainly, the COM
mon man" looks upon $10o plate
for a banquet, even under a Fair
Deal" regime, as just a bit ex-
penSive.
From one end of the country to
the other there must inevitably
come discussion as to why the
Democrats can crowd so many
into their banquet halls with s10o-
a-plate contributions, while the
Republicans are so poverty
stricken that their national treas
urer, resigning recently, said the
Republican campaign funds had
dwindled well nigh to the vanish
ing point.
Where are the big Republican
contributors Of yesterday? Are
they betting on the winning horse
are they contributing to the
party in power which can bestow
real favors? One of the troubles
the big financial interests had
in the old days of Democratic
liberalism was that it wasn't OF
much help for them to give to
the Democratic Party. The Demo-
Gratis of true liberalism never
yielded to the Establishments OF
financial patronage. They dis
tributed, of course. few. political
Offices to the deserving Demo-
Gratis" but they kept their hands
out of the Federal Treasury as
something really sacred. 1t was
Grover Cleveland. a Democratic
President, who said public Office
is a public trust" It was a Demo-
cratic President, Woodrow Wilson,
who refused campaign contribu-
tions from special interests.
Any Dollars Welcome.
Today anybody's dollars are
welcome in the Democratic Party.
In a recently published biography.
John L. Lewis is quoted as having
said his unions paid in campaign
contribution $500 900 "cash on the
barrel" for passage Of the Wagner
Labor Relations Act. He adds
that the price was fixed by FDR at
exactly that sum.
They had a five per center" in
quiry in Washington not long ago,
but they tackled only per cent
of the problem. They never in
quired into what benefits Of gov
ernmental action are bestowed on
contributing unions or on the COM
panies whose officers and direc-
tors make the big contributions or
what happens to those Federal
officeholders who fail to put up
the 500 a plate when there's a
political dinner.
The Democrats today are sitting
pretty-they have control of bill
lions of dollars of expenditures,
where the wicked Republicans"
had only millions of Federal
money to spend on rivers and har-
UUlS dIO 1CCldA4dU1OAAs DoS w
some streak Of obstinacy, the Re-
publicans, even as late as the
Hoover Administration. refused to
interpret the general welfare"
clause of the Constitution to mean
that Federal bounties could be
handed out directly to the citizens.
The Republicans contented them
selves with such indirect bounties
as high tariffs, which they argued
were for the benefit Of the en-
ployment Of the common man
and labor unions agreed to that
concept.
The Republicans say they are
not q me too" party. So appar-
emily a decison to forsake the
rich and become the champions of
the poor could be significant and
wholesome. Anyway, the other
day q Senate committee report
showed there were more than
100000 families and individuals
in America with less than 81 ,000-a-
wear cash income. Here certainly
l. . 1of ~ votns for Sorne marty