Evening Star Newspaper, September 8, 1936, Page 9

West Is Slow in Reaction to Landon Coast States Likely to Cut Roosevelt Mar- gins, However. David Lawrence begins today a series of flve dispatches summariz- ing conclusions reached after his ‘ visit to 13 States in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast regions. Mr. Lawrence plans to visit the New England States next and then the Central West, covering 40 out ©f the 48 States before election day. BY DAVID LAWRENCE., HICAGO, September 8.— ‘There’s a tide running against | the New Deal. It is no in-| significant tide. It repre- sents the return of Republicans to the Republican party from their 1932 re- sentment against Hoover and it repre- sents the defection of & number ‘of J e ffersonian 2 Democrats who do not like the New Deal. It will mean reduced majorites every- Where for Mr. Roosevelt. But whether the tide is suffi- cieat to give Gov. Landon these 13 Btates in the electoral college of 1936 or merely reflects a trend that will reach a climax with a Re- | publican Congress in 1938 is the real question. My own feeling is that Lhej tide is not strong enough as yet ln‘ these Western States to lose for Mr. | Roosevelt the electoral votes of this region, though I realize that I visited | the Rocky Mountain and Pacific | Coast sections much earlier than I‘ have ever before in presidential cam- Paign years. It is characteristic of the Far West | and the Rocky Mountain States that they do not get the waves of opinion held in the East until months and months after controversies have | reached their heights in the East. Perhaps the difference in time and the distance may account somewhat for it, but even economic waves do not touch the Pacific Coast as quickly as they do the Middle West or the East. | Significantly enough, I did not flnd: & single Western State in which the | Republicans privately conceded that they were beaten. They would always | admit that if the election were hl'ld; today they might lose out, but they had | definite convictions about the possible outcome in November. G. 0. P. Hopeful of Breaks. Upon analysis I found that the Re- publican leaders, talking off the record, | were depending either “on Lemke-v Coughlin votes or Townsend votes or | the split up in the Democratic party | due to State fights. But they had also i an abiding confidence that a tide; would begin to roll by October which | would swing their States into the Re- publican column by narrow margins. On the Democratic side I found | considerably more uneasiness than I expected. Thus one Democratic chief- | tain in a Western State told me early | jn July that he expected Roosevelt to | carry that State by 15,000 as against a 1932 majority of about 40,000, but | David Lawrence | i | when I returned to the same State in August my same informant told me he | thought the State would be rather | “close” and by that he meant 2,000 orE 8,000 either way. { What had happened in the interim? ‘The lines were beginning to crystalize in local primary contests and this re- vealed the reaction of voters that was | not possible to determine before. I found a considerable interest in the informal polls almost every- where, such as those taken by the American Institute of Public Opinion and the Literary Digest, but some- how these polls do not explain the ! trends and the reasons for the shifts | in the sample ballots. This can be | ascertalned only by talking to me{ well-informed men on both sides who | are themselves canvassing voters all the time through their organizations. | A reporter who can gain the con- | fidence of these leaders and who is consclentious in reporting objectively | what he finds will discover in the | present trends much that the polls | cannot in the very nature of things | reveal. For often the contest in l,’ State is between groups of voters or | between different sections of the | same State. Politics Not Hot in West. I derived the general impression that politics is not quite as hot in | the Far West as in the Middle West | or East, that the anti-Roosevelt sen- timent of the Rocky Mountains and | Pacific Coast Tegions is by no means | as intense as in the East and that Landon’s campaign has hardly begun to register one way or the other in these Western States, with the pos- | sible exception of Colorado. So far as issues are concerned, the argument about a change in the form of government has penstrated only to the business classes and not as definitely even among those groups in the Far West as in the Middle West or West. Landon’s speech at Middlesex, Pa., therefore, meant very little to the Far West. Had he given a bill of particulars and discussed the~fundamental eva- sions of the Constitution through such laws as the N. R. A, which was declared invalid by a vote of all nine justices of the Supreme Court, there might have been a better un- derstanding of his theme. The speech at Chautauqua about the teachers’ oaths again touched only a few interested groups who know the implications of the contro- versy. Read Debt Address. The best address Landon has made so far was his spexch at Buffalo on Government finances and | debt, which was widely read and made a good impression. On the other hand, Landon’s radio delivery is not as effective as that of Mr. Roosevelt. The President’s fireside talk Sunday night was an excellent example of effective campaigning and it will help Mr. Roosevelt in the West. ‘The campaign is yet ahead of us. The lines are somewhat set in some of the Western States but the real battleground appears to be the Middle West and the East. For while there are some States that will go for Landon out of the 13 that I visited, the ‘majority of them will not, ac- cording to present indications, "I plan to check with well-informed o persons again in October before making a final summary. ¢ (Copyright, 1836,) THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. News Behind the News U. S. Generals Expect Spanish Rebels to Win. Naval Race Is Forecast. BY PAUL MALLON, " HE army generals, who look on the Spanish civil war solely as another technical military problem, are figuring the rebels will win. They have thought for some days now it would be only # question of time until the government forces would collapse. ‘Their theory has been that victory would be won by the side able to mass the largest force of regularly trained troops, not those rawest recruits you have seen fumbling with guns for the movie newsreels. allegiance of the enlisted personnel of the Spanish Army. The officers were mostly rebel sympathizers, but there was a grave question how long they men. Recent rebel victories in the north settled that question. [ rebels cannot roll up and defeat ¥ X 8 the government forces, one by one, in a “nut-cracker” movement. ~ Note—State Department diplo- sion of instability at Madrid. For fully a week authorities have been In the early days of the revolution there was some doubt about the would continue to rely on their 0, No reason now is seen why the b in the north and pinch off Madrid matic reports confirm the impres- studying the possibilities of governmental collapse, DR President Roosevelt has been working harder lately than since those early New Deal days of the banking crisis. For two days before he left on his trip he was in almost continuous conferences in preparation of his semi- annual budget statement. The train ride afforded no opportunity for rest and involved longer and harder hours than ‘the usual campaign trips, in which the candidates are generally protected as much as passible from the strain. Then, the night he returned he chose to make a radio speech. Those who have followed the President’s method closely have noted that he has developed a personal system which has enabled him to protect himself increasingly from the ‘wear and tear of office, For one thing, he has an ability to concentrate on one subject at a time and a greater ability to lay the subject aside when he is through with it. In this way his mind has become a very orderly filing cabinet. 7 Furthermore, train riding and traveling do not tire him as much as the ‘average person. The motto of the White House correspondents has been “join the Roosevelt entourage and see the world,” but mone of the newsmén is able to stand the trip as well as he does. X kX % More than the mere saving of old ships was involved in that decision by Great Britain, the United States and Japan on destroyers and sub- marines. It was really the first technical step toward accelerated naval building, all around, if indeed it does not signal the start of a direct race. Old ships are not much good for combat purposes. Offhand, it may seem to be rather foolish to keep them in service, and to man them. None of the governments involved chose to explain why it is not, but all the admirals know. For one thing, if you are planning to have more and more ships in & year or two, you must have an enlarged trained personnel to man them. Old ships are second best to new ones for that purpose. Another good reason is that these ships can be used for political trading purposes. The admirals can eventually trade them in to Congress for modern replacements, or they could be used as excellent bartering material if there ever is another naval disarmament conjerence. Foresight does not, however, explain the peculiar advantage which Japan took from the old ship deal. What happened was this: The London naval treaty gave the United States and Britain 150,- 000 tons of destroyers and Japan 105,000, as of December 31, 1938. It gave all three powers equal ton- nage in submarines (52,700) as of the same date. All tonnage be- yond those figures was to be scrapped. However, Britain did not want to scrap her old'destroyers and in- voked the escalator clause of the treaty. She wanted to keep 40,000 tons of over-age destroyers, and she s0 announced. The United States answered she would do likewise, But Japan elected to hold on to her old subs as well as her destroyers, keeping 15,000 tons of over-age subs and 11,000 of old destroyers. The effect was to give her superiority in submarines, In other words, she changed the treaty ratio. What all this complicated diplomatic maneuvering merely means is that no one is going to scrap anything he has any use for. x % % % No one believes anything will come of Russia’s latest sharp warning to Japan regarding border incidents on the Manchukuo frontier. It was merely a bookkeeping nmotice to keep the record straight as far as Russo-Japanese relations are concerned. The inside fact is the reds are not ready for trouble. With Hitler annoying them at the front door, they are in no position to do anything about the back, unless perchance Mr. Hitler some time soon finds his hands filled with the problems in Western Europe, in which case Moscow might try to bear down on Tokio. This is the key to the Russo-Japanese situation. (Copyright, 1936.) CONTROL OF WATER PARLEY’S PROBLEM Upstream Engineering Conference to Be Held in Capital Sep-' tember 22-23. Controlling the rain drops to con- | trol the floods is the chief problem | confronting delegates to the Upstream | Engineering Conference here Septem- | ber 22 and 23, it was announced to- Auto Sounds Fire Alarm. NEW YORK (#).—John Woods got prompt service when his automobile caught fire. The car collided with another, caromed onto a fire box with an impact that sounded the alarm before the flames broke out. | | | parties formally dedicated to a new Party Purging by Democrats Possible Congress Majority May Oust Roosevelt Ad- visers if He Wins. BY MARK SULLIVAN. 'ORMAN THOMAS, candidate of the Socialist party, in a recent speech at Wilmington, Del., as reported by the Associated Press, sald America in-the next few years “will be well started on the road” to either socialism or fascism. To that state ment one might § assent provided it 2 be put in a dif- 2 ferent wa i would say that at socialism, and those pushing’ America toward fascism, are more alive and ener- @ getic than the forces which tend — park 8, to hold America to its traditional pattern of society and government. But I do not exclude the possibility of America remaining as it is, with some modification. Let us look at the situajion in terms of the political parties in this cam- paign. We can dismiss the formal Soclalist party and the formal Com- munist party. Neither of these will get more than & few hundred thou- sand votes. I doubt if Thomas expects more and I doubt if Candidate Brow- der of the Communist party expects more. If a new form of society comes to America—either socialism or its opposite, fascism—within a few years, it will not come through any of the | order. It will come through trans- formation of one or both of the two old parties. The only possible outcomes of the election next November are Demo- | cratic victory or Republican victory. | It is common for opponents of Mr. Roosevelt to say that Democratic vic- tory would mean some variety of so- | cialism. This is far from necessarily | true. Mr. Roosevelt is not, consciously, a Socialist. He is not, consciously, a Communist. Certainly he is not a Fascist. He has not, consciously, aimed toward dictatorship. True, some of the steps taken during his admin- istration have led toward a changed | soclal order. And it might well be' that another Roosevelt administra- | tion would take America tnnher{ toward a new order. But this is not necessarily true. Key Lies in Advisers. Within Mr. Roosevelt's circle, the | principal influences making toward a | new social order are his radical ad- visers. Mr. Roosevelt by temperament | prefers these advisers to the conserva- | tive heads of the Democratic party. | If Mr. Roosevelt is re-elected and if | his radical advisers continue to have | as much power as they have had, then certainly America would be carried toward a new order. But Democratic victory in the coming election carries another pos- | sibility. If Mr. Roosevelt is elected, so will a strongly Democratic Con- gress be elected. And the Democratic | party as & whole longs to become | Democratic again, longs to get rid of | the influence of the radical advisers | around Mr. Roosevelt. It is with that | expectation that many Democratic | leaders are “going along” with the| program of re-electing Mr. Roosevelt. Speaking without any sauthority, I imagine if we could search the minds of Senators like Mr. Glass of Virginia, C., we would find them watching for the day of Mr. Roosevelt'’s re-election, and expecting, on the day after, to begin the purging of the New Deal. ‘This expectation is held not only by Democratic leaders who have already expressed dissent from the New Deal buy by many who have so far sup- ported it. It would not be too much to say that a large majority of the Democrats in the next Congress will be eager to get rid of the New Deal and the radicals, and to make the Democratic party vhat it would normally be under, far example, such & President as ex-Gov. Smith or James M. Cox, had they been elected. If the Republicans win the coming election, what will folow? The ex- treme Communists charge Gov. Lan- don would take the country to fascism. Candidate Browder of the Communist party urges Communists to defeat Gov. Landn as their im- perative task, Nonsensical Chaige. But charging Landen with facism is just nonsense. Cardidate Thomas of the Socialist party who does not approve Landon, nevertheless ab- solves him of fagism “It is,” says Thomas, with an incidental jeer, “absurdly and dangerausly misleading to call this modest, conservative— rather bewildered Kansan a Fascist.” It is Candidate lemke of the Union party, and his backers, Father Coughlin and Rev. Gerald Smith, in Thomas’ view, “more rearly approach the Fascist pattern.” Thomas declares the real wish of Landon is “to go back somewhere in American history—to Coolidge, Mc- Kinley, or maybe al the way to| Jefferson.” Thomas thinks that to go back is impossible. And, in & literal sense, is is impossible. I dcubt if Landon wants to go back, in asy literal sense. I suspect that in his campaign speeches Landon will show that he proposes to preserve the American system, but that he contemplates modifications which wil make it more satisfactory to a larger number of Ppeople than it has beer during recent years, In all his arguments, Thomas starts with a premise which I think de- batable. Practically sll radicals of | every variety, Socialists, Communists, Fascists, and many mider reformers, start with the same premise, the premise is that for a particular reason the existing American jorm of society cannot survive. They say that col- lectivism of one variety or another, is inescapable. “The machine age” says Mr. Thomas, “makes collectivism inevitable.” True, the machine sge must have an influence. But the place where all this commotion about society started was In Russia. And Rusia, in 1917, at | the time communism was imposed | upon it, had felt the machine age hardly at all. It was nct the machine age that took Russia int communism, | and America does not need to aban- don its form of sociely merely be- | cause of the machine ige. (Copyright, 1136.) EARLE BANS GUARD'S USE AGAINST LABOR | By the Associated Press. PITTSBURGH, Septenber 8.—Gov. | George H. Earle gave his “solemn pledge” yesterday that Pennsylvania’s National Guard will na be used “as & weapon against labor | Before a throng of miress, mill men | and other workers he d:clared: “Our National Guard is not a com- pany police system an¢ will not be used as such. “At the same time 1 serve notice 'MASTER OF GRANGE on employers and workers alike that | violations of the law and disturbances | of the public peace wil not be per- | mitted, and the guilty persons, no | matter who they may be, will be brought to justice. i “The National Guard is pledged to | protect the rights of all citizens, and it will be used for no sther purpose | while I remain Governo.” | | the Alps, day. A thousand engineers are ex- pected to attend. , “The objects of upstream engineer= ing,” President Roosevelt said when he approved the proposed conference, “are, through forestry and land man- agement, to keep water out of our streams, to control its action in the stream, and generally to retard-the journey of the rain drop to the sea.” At the dinner climaxing the crowd- ed two-day program the conference will hear talks by Maj. Gen. Edward M. Markham, chief of Army Engi- neers; Prof. Aldo Leopold of the Uni- versity of Wisconsin and Inspector General Magnein of the French Ad- ministration of Waters and Forests. Magnein has worked extensively in where control of “little waters” has been practiced since Ro- man times. ———— French merchants, fearing infla- tion, are placing large orders. OLD GOLD AND SILVER will bring you $3.50 New York $3.25 Atlantic City Baltimore $1.25 Every Saturday - Sunday $1.50 Daily— Good for 3 deys September 18, 19 $18.40 Niagara Falls 16-Day Excursion ATLANTIC CITY Showmen's Variety Jubilee tember 8 t0 13 . Americon Beouty Parede, September 12 PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD ROACH DEATH TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1936. “We, the People” Better Father Coughlin on' Warpath Than Free Speech Repressed. BY JAY FRANKLIN. OR the Vatican authorities or for Bishop Gallagher to silence Father would constitute a dangerous interference by & religious organisation with American politics. Let's look 4t the record. Father Coughlin began attacking President Hoover on the radio about the time General Motors, Ford and the other Detroit bigwigs and “best minds” degan cutting down production and turning their workers out on the streets to be cared for by charity, including, of course, the Catholic charities. When Roosevelt came in, Pather Coughlin supported him vigorously. Later on he decided that Roosevelt was playing ball with the “money changers,” and proceeded to organize the National Union for Social Justice to play clap hands with Lemke and the Union party, and to lam- baste both P. D. R. and the New Deal. I do not happen to agree with Pather Coughlin’s opinions or ap- prove the shift of allegience, but if his ecclesiastical superiors leave him free to support only one side of the political questions which confront America, to help only one party and one candidate—Presi- dent Roosevelt—that means that the Vatican is interfering in our domestic affairs and that it is using its everlasting spiritual mission for immediate political ends in this country. When Bishop Gallagher went to Rome there were reports that the aged prelate had been called on the carpet to explain the actions of his subordinate. P On his return he found the morning papers featuring a story in the Vatican newspaper, Osservatore Romane, which deplored Coughlin's abusive references to the President of the United States and criticized the bishop's reported statement that everything was hotsy-totsy so far as the leader of the N. U. 8. J. was concerned. This, it seems, is about as far as it is politic for the church authorities to go, if they are to avoid making a martyr of the Detroit priest, as well as meddling in our politics. Let Coughlin talk, let him hammer the ether and shatter the micro- phones from Syosset to San Simeon. Let his denounce F. D. R. and the New Deal to his tonsils’ content. This is a free country and speech is free, within the laws of obscenity and libel, so long as & man is prepared to take the consequences. The consequences of some of the rabid tub-thumping which has re- cently characterized some of the opponents of the present adminis- tration are already evident. I think they are driving the voters in a mass to desert the standards of Coughlin, Landon and Lemke and to turn to Roosevelt and his ¥ew Deal's well-tempered reforms of our social and economic K\ abuses, < But even if it were the other way, it would be best not to silence Father Charles Edward Coughlin. Far better to let free institutions prevail, even to their own hurt, than to tamper with them every time they cause pain to the political and economic bemeficiaries of the “American way.” For the penalty of repression is alwavs the same, whether it is wrought by those whom we dislike as “Communists” and “Fascists” or whether it is done In the name of liberty by those who call themselves Democrats. (Copyright. 1934.) | said, “to restrict production at home and permit farmers of other nations to supply us with the deficiency. | “The drought should teach America inome new lessons in Agriculture. The | moisture shortage in 1930, 1934 and | this year prove that there are certain conditions the farmer cannot cope | with. Instead of appropriating mil- Lines lions of dollars for seed and feed > loans, and instead of relief and chari- Wy €8¢ Awnciated Frase ty, it is time to approach the problem WILMINGTON, Del., September 8. with patriotism and statesmanship.” —Louis J. Taber of Columbus, Ohio, Taber also was critical of the Na- master of the National Grange, told tion's conservation policy of the past the New Castle County Grange yes- century. terday that the American farmer “The dust storms in the West, the must be guaranteed the American floods at Springtime and the drought market. d heat in the corn belt,” he said. He spoke at the annual field da tell the story of a hundred yvears of celebration of the Grange near Wil- an unsound national policy toward mington. conservation. It is time to repair “It does not make sense” the damage.” HITS FARM IMPORTS Taber Calls for Approach to Prob- lem on “Statesmanlike” Taber [ "THE opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are pre- sented in The Star’s eflort to give all sides of questions of interest to its readers, although such opinions may be con- tradictory among themselves and directly opposed to The Star’s. London Sees Troops Off to ‘Front’ Martial Spirit Prevails Over ‘Fight to Finish’ With Arabs. BY WILLIAM H. STONEMAN, Lonnon. England, September 8, —A martial atmosphere, rem- iniscent of Boer War days, has seized pacific England on the eve of a projected “fight to the finish” with the insurrectionist Arabs of Pal- estine. Lieut. Gen. John @Greet Dill, former | director of military operations and | intelligence and himself a veteran of | the Boer War, was to leave England | today to take charge of the 17,000 | troops who will stage the cleanup. | Next Friday, and Tuesday and Wed- | nesday of next week, 12 battalions of | the 1st Division of the regular army, | numbering 10,000 men, will embark for the Holy Land to join the 11 bat- talions already there. Last night and today authorities at Aldershot worked at fever pitch re- calling troops from leave, arranging | troop trains and issuing equipment for 2,000 reservists who were called up to reinforce regiments departing “for the front.” These include battalions from ! several of the army’s most famous regi- | ments—the Coldstream Guards, Scots- guards, Buffs, Cameronians and Royal Irish Fusileers. The British press, working with a harmony previously seen only in the dictatorial presses of Russia. Ger- many and Italy, has risen to the oc- casion by printing without comment a long justification of the Palestinian campaign issued last night by the colonial office. The official communique justified the nard-hitting action against the Arabs on the ground that Great Britain is | obliged, as a mandatory power, to pros tect the interests of both sections of the Palestinian population. “It is the government's earnest dee sire,” it states, “to carry out a policy of impartial justice to both Arabe and Jews, and to work for peace and the progress of the country so specially dear to both races. | 1‘ has been the constant aim of British policy to secure and maintain relations of friendship and confidence with the Moslem peoples. For this reason apart from all others, the gov- | ernment would have wished to avoid by all possible means the course of ac- tion which is now forced upon it.” Once the present housecleaning is finished, it indicates that the royal commission which was appointed on May 18 will go to Palestine to investi- gate the complaints of both Arabs and Jews. In its effort to back the government in time of crisis, the press is con- veniently silent on the present situa- tion’s background and the fact, gene erally recognized by neutral students of Palestine, that the present display of martial decision might have been avoided by a greater display of official decision in the past. (Copyright. 1936.) Revenues of the Philippine governe ment are higher than last year. ' CALLOUSES Don't experiment ! 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