Evening Star Newspaper, October 14, 1936, Page 13

NewDeal Curb By Protest Vote Seen Size May Be Great Enough to Elect Gov. Landon. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. N ROUTE TO INDIANA, Octo- ber 14—I have now covered 30 States out of the 40 planned. The 8 eliminated are in the admittedly Democratic solid South. Of the 10 yet to be vis- ited, 3 are border States close to the South and likely to go Dem- ocratic, too. So the trend In seven States— Indiana, Michi- gan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Dela- ware—will, when surveyed on my trip in the next 10 days, influence the final forcast which I expect to write for October 31—the Saturday before election. the Saturday before election. I have said that the election looked fifty-fifty to me. I based it on the way the vaters were dividing in the Etates already visited, but the seven States yet to be surveyed comprise 164 votes in the Electoral College, and, despite what one may find in the West, the outcome in those seven States east of the Mississippi is every- thing to the electoral result. Thus, assuming that Landon carries eertain close States west of the Mis- sissippi, I have worked out one set of electoral tables which show that he could lose Tllinois, or Indiana, or Michigan or Ohio, respectively, and be elected. On another calculation, he could lose certain Western States that are at present doubtful but lean- ing in his direction, and yet be elected. Whatever combination is used mathe- matically and with knowledge of po- litical trends, the large electoral vote States play a decisive part. That's why I leave them always for study in the last three weeks of October. G. 0. P. Hopeful. T might add here that outside of the border States I have not been in a single State which the local Repub- lican leaders would privately concede as lost, even though in many in- stances an uphill fight was frankly admitted. Anybody who thinks the election is %“in the bag” need only observe that gince the nominating conventions last June and notwithstanding Nation- wide radio hook-ups, President Roose- velt has traveled more miles than his opponent. Likewise the States visited are for the most part in the doubtful or close category and might David Lawrence. g0 either way by a small margin of votes. There are three ways that this elec- tion may turn out—not just two. I am speaking now as to effect on busi- ness and future trends in American politics, First, Mr. Roosevelt might win by & large electoral vote but a small mar- gin of popular votes, This would ac- centuate the protest idea and influ- ence Democratic Congressmen to be independent of White House control. Second, Landon might win by a close margin of popular votes and yet a comfortable majority of electoral votes. Third, Mr. Roosevelt or Mr. Landon might win by a big margin of popular votes. Result to Be Close. I am prepared even at this stage of the campaign to discount the third possibility as highly improbable. This is a close election with respect to popular :votes and I would not be surprised if out of the 45,000,000 votes expected to be cast, the margin of the winner is not in excess of 3,000,~ 000. Everywhere I have gone in the ‘West, and I see signs of it in the East, too, the popular vote majorities which Mr. Roosevelt had four years ago arc going to be reduced from 30 to 60 per cent. This means a line-up of Re- publicans and Democrats more like normal years, but with such increased registration as to make the total fig- ures much larger even though the margins reckoned in percentages will be narrower than usual. In some States we will witness the phenomenon of Landon getting & minority of the votes and yet cap- turing the electoral vote because the Lemke vote will subtract just enough from the Roosevelt column to give Landon a plurality. Not the least important is the size ©of the protest vote against the Roose- velt Administration, even if the Pres- ident is re-elected. It will probably bring in its wake increased Repub- lican membership in Congress, many Republican Governors and State of- ficers. A Woman's Strategy. In this connection I was much in- terested the other day in a letter re- ceived trom a woman in Arizona. It was as follows: “I hesitated a long while before writing you. My husband didn't think I should, which rather convinced me I ought to. Anyway, here is my way a{ looking at the forthcoming elec- on, “I listen to the radio and hear all the speeches. When the Democratic speakers get through I think they are right. When the Republican speak- ers get through I think they are right. “Now four years ago I voted for Mr. Hoover. I think he got a pretty raw deal. This year I have decided to vote for Mr. Roosevelt. But I be- lieve just enough of what I have heard on the radio about the issues #0 that I am going to vote for all other Republicans, so that they can watch him.” She has just the opposite idea from those who are urging that Landon couldn't do anything if elected, be- eause while he might have a Re- publican House he wouldn't have a Republican Senate. The fact is that under our system of Government it was intended for the Congress to act as & check on the executive. Sen- ator Carter Glass, Democrat, blames Congress for giving Mr. Roosevelt such extensive powers and so much money to spend. I believe that if the election result is close as to pop- ular vote, Mr. Roosevelt will not con- trol the Democratic Senate, but that we shall see a substantial insurgency on the Democratic side. Senators study election returns minutely, and if they see the Roosevelt tide reced- ing they will get on the band wagon for 1938 by discovering what are the reasons for the 1936 protest vote. Likewise, American business' will feel less disturbed if the election re- [ THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, Behind the News Silence Marks Senate Campaign Investigation, But Revelations May Follow Election. BY PAUL MALLON. HERE has never been an investigation like the Senate campaign invastigation. In fact, you cannot find out for sure whether there I 1s one. The committee has presumably been ferreting out campaign facts for three months, but has never held a hearing. Its star detective, Louls Glavis (he knew everything about everybody when he was investi< gating the world for Mr. Ickes), is known to have gone into Michigan, Pennsyivania and Maine, but without public consequences. Only one committee report has been published. It was issued on the eve of the Maine election and disclosed that the Rockjellers and Du Ponts had contributed to the Republican cause in Maine. The committee door is shut. It bears a placard reading: “Visiting hours from 1 to 3 p.m. .. . If you have a message put it under the door.” ‘The committee is supposed to have held an executive session once, and those who went in un- der the door were identified as Chairman Lonergan of Connecti- cut, Senators Schwellenbach, Min- ton, Frazier and Austin. Origi- nally Vice President Garner ap- pointed Senator La Follette to the committee, more or less facetiously as a Republican, but he retired. The Republican who was selected to succeed him is Prazier, who has just announced for Lemke, ‘This leaves one Republican on the committee, Austin of Vermont. But there has been no party strife among committeemen; only sensational quiet. The official explanation, which slipped out one day when the door was inadvertantly left open, is that Chairman Lonergan is accumulating oodles and oodles of information, but will hold it back until after the election is over and forgotten. Then it Will be submitted to the Senate 8s a post-mortem. This reverses Senate procedure, unbroken in all the history of such outstanding investigations as Senator Stetwer’s, which produced Al Smith and Hoover on the stand; Senator Jim Reed’s, which ezcluded Vare and Frank Smith from the Senate, etc., ete. P Out the window has come a “believe it or not” that the real reason the committee is quiet is that it has not discovered anything worth telling. This is the purest campaign on record, it is said. While considerable money is being spent, it is going, as far as the committee can prove, into open promotional channels. This is at least relatively true. Main efforts of the committee have been devoted to running down erroneous rumors. For instance, Senator Gufiey submitted 27 afidavits of employe coercion, but Snator Austin announced only one referred to this current campaign. The William Hard charges, for the first five days, had not been received, the committee spokesman insisted day by day. There is probably & carpet up against the door on the inside, or, more likely, there is no one behind the door. * K kX The major issue in one precinct of the farm belt is said to center around the question of why Presi- dent Roosevelt does not get up before 9 a.m. A crowd of 4,000 or 5,000 farmers turned out to see him at Osceols, Iowa, on his trip, but he was not up. It was hard for the farmers to appreciate that, because many of them had done half a day’s work before coming down to the train, some driving as far as 40 and 50 miles. One explanation is that there are only about two Democrats in Osceola County, but the real explanation discloses the secret of Mr. Roosevelt'’s unrivaled campaigning energy. He never arises until about 9:30. He awakens much earlier, but has breakfast in bed, reading the papers. It is White House custom for his secretaries to gather around afterward and plan the presidential day. He follows the same practice on trips, which accounts for the fact that he keeps fresh while those around him wear down. * ok ok *x The sound autopsy on Father Coughlin's money views, performed without personal feeling by Msgr. John A. Ryan of Catholic University, represents generally the viewpoint of most churchmen. Msgr. Ryan is a distinguished teacher whose words carry more dispassionate authority than some which have been leveled against Father Coughlin. Most political authorities agree that Father Coughlin has been cut down inch by inch, and forecast & future for him as & Singer midget. * K K X Supreme Court attaches have seen a cireular, sent out apparently by an insurance brokerage house in New York, offering to insure business men against changes in the Supreme Court during the next ears, fourty (Copyright. 1936.) veals s sizable protest vote than it it goes overwhelmingly for Mr. Roose- velt on a popular vote. For the popu- lar vote and not the electoral vote will indicate what kind of a Congress we are going to get in 1938 and whether various New Deal experi- ments considered unsound from sn economic viewpoint by business lead- ers are really on the way out. Curiously enough the seven pivotal States I am to visit in the next 10 days—Indiana, Tilinois, _Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware—are the big industrial States. In them the A. A. A. checks have played less of a part than in the West. In them, too, much of the W. P. A. money and direct relief has been spent for city populations. In them also the President has made definite bids for the labor vote by his policies in the last three years. Now, as to characteristics of the electorate already manifest: The people who feel they are able to dif- ferentiate between sound and un- sound policies, between the effects of class warfare and a national unity, between the raising of living costs through Government influence on prices and continuous subsidies to special groups are pitted against the people who vote their emotions, namely, their gratitude over bank holiday action or relief checks or the swelling of cash drawers through re- lief expenditures. Look in Different Directions. One point of view looks back In gratefulness over what has happened and doesn’t worry about the future. The other viewpoint looks ahead and is afraid of inflation, devastating taxes, a diminishing purchasing power for the wage envelope, for life insurance proceeds and for savings bank depasits. Of one thing I am certain. The protest vote is going to be surprisingly large. Whether it will be sufficient to elect Landon by & narrow margin I expect in the next 10 days to dis- cover for myself by visiting the seven pivotal States with the 164 electoral votes., (Copyright, 1936, WHITEHEAD 4utomatic Gax Water Heater OUR FRIENDS may ride you about TH! opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are presented in The Star’s eflott to give all sides of questions of interest to its readers, although such opinions may be contradictory among themselves and directly opposed to The Star’s. "On the America Needs a Brain Record Trust Working for the People, Not Political Parties. BY DOROTHY THOMPSON. HE British Royal Commission on the Private Manufacture of Arms, which was appointed last June to inquire into al- leged munitions scandals and recom- mend legislation, has just reported. As I write this, the entire report has not yet been published, but a summary given out by 8ir John Eldon Bankes, the commission’s chairman, reveals that the commis- sion reports against the na- tionalization of the arms indus- try but recom- mends taking it over in case of war, conscripting capital under those circum- stances, extending a degree of govern- mental control over the industry even in peace time, and converting muni- tions concerns into public utility com- panies. It also recommends govern- ment supervision of all contracts, and a stricter control of exports. The report of another British royal commission brings into the headlines again one of the most interesting of British institutions, one of the most | effective instruments devised by any country for intelligent, democratic government. ‘The MacMillan Commission, ap- pointed in 1929 to inquire into finance and industry, reported, after two years, in a 300-page manuscript, which did much to clarify British economic | thinking. On the MacMillan Com- mission, men of such divergent views as Mr. Ernest Bevin, the head of the most powerful British trade union; Lord Bradbury and Cecil Lubbock of the Bank of England, J. M. Keynes, | the leading British reflationist; the almost equally radical Prof. Gregory | of the University of London and the | liberal, Reginald McKenna. Sets Critical Standards. A great deal of what is being said in this country for and against Presi- dent Roosevelt's monetary and budget policy simply could not be uttered if such a body as the MacMillan Com- | mission had ever issued a similar re- | port with comparable publicity. For‘ such reports set standards of criticism. The MacMillan report analyzed the working of the gold standard through- out British history. It took up the whole history of the money system and evaluated the extent to which its existing policy was meeting defined objectives. It made definitions and proposed goals with which no con- siderable body of opinion could be in | opposition. And then it made con- crete and alternative proposals, ju cially weighed the advantages and dis- advantages to be found in each. The report was issued in 1931, after two years of study, and it advocated re- taining the g standard, under all the conditions then existing, but it indicated that devaluation, Dorothy Th /M ALWAYS GETTING STUCK ON BARGAINS, your love of bargains. But they’ll have to take it all back when you give them Chase & Sanborn Dated Coffee. They’ll love its richer flavor and marvel at its low price. Only the choicest coffees are blended to make Dated Coffee. Every bag of it is rushed fresh to your grocer, with the delivery date plainly marked on every pound. And ne bag stays on his shelf more than 10 days. See Your Plumber or the GAS CO. Monel Metal Store Cor. 11th and Eye Sts. NW Copyright, 1036, by Standard Brands Inay conditions, might be advisable, and it proposed dissociating the question of the gold reserve from the note issue and holding the gold reserves solely to meet temporary. deficiencies in the balance of international payments. Similarly, the May Committee, ap- pointed to investigate the unemploy- ment insurance and rellef fund poli- cies, made a report after months which led to considerable reorganization. Several coal commissiofis, and notably the one under Lord Sankey, produced far-reaching changes in the coal in- dustry. America Needs Advisers. What disinterested citizen, following the present campaign, does not long {or an opinion on vital issues in which he can have some confidence? De- mocracy desperately needs advisers. We need clinics of advisers, and in- stead we get purely partisan opinion, or opinions not subjected to inteliigent debate. What is the truth about the President’s monetary policy? If we be- lieve Col. Knox, or read Parker Willis in the American Mercury, we shud- der before the abyss of inflation and bankruptcy. And then we learn that Russell Leffingwell of J. P. Morgan Co. does not agree with Willis. What are the best methods of soil conservation? On the whole conserva- tion question, we yearn for an expres- slon of expert, non-partisan, disinter- ested opinion. We know what the or- ganized groups of the country think, whether they direct a party or a lobby. But most of us are honest citizens, desperately anxious to do the right thing, genuinely willing to subject our immediate personal interests to the larger welfare, providing that there is & court of opinion to which we can with confidence appeal. We want coun- sel. We want, actually, some brain trusts. But we don't want a New Deal brain trust, or a Republican brain trust. We want one that represents a consensus of the best obtainable opin- ions, regardless of party. We do not want to choose between Ralph Robey and Rexford Tugwell, be- cause, to tell the truth, we don't have much confidence in either of them. We want definitions, objectives, cri- teria, standards, alternatives. U. S. Wants to Vote Policy. Most of us don't belong to pressure groups of any kind. And we are sick and tired of having our policies made by them. We read with relief and pleasure that Gov. Landon's ecriti- cisms of the administration’s social security bill were based upon a report written for the Twentieth Century Fund. But we wish that his economic ideas had similar disinterested and in- telligent backing. The idea of the disinterested com- mission flourishes in England for many reasons. In the first place Eng- land.is a small country, and has al- most the atmosphere of a family. Political tolerance goes much deeper there than it does here. If a man is an Englishman another Englishman is prejudiced in his favor—even if he is a Communist. And this is even truer if they are both Scotchmen. (Coprright, 1936.) WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1936. We, the People Looking Backward to ’32 Platforms One Sees Mingling of Party Pledges. BY JAY FRANKLIN, HIS is the most homesick election in American history. Looking backwsrds seems to be the great political pastime of the day. The Republicans gaze longingly down the corridors of time to that stately conservative—Thomas Jeflerson—and to the ancient G. O, P, doctrine of State rights. The Democrats hark back a little further, to the Tories and “Royalists” of the American Revolution, though pausing for a moment in silent homage before that eminent Democrat, Abraham Lincoln. And now, that new Republican, Alfred E. Smith, has also caught the bug and is practically hypnotized by 1932 w.ad the Democratic platform of that distant year. rie feels that it was & good platform, but that is was never tried out, and that a bunch of brain trusters substituted for it the platform of the Socialist party. Much can be said on both sides of this interesting question and—worse luck!—has been said. Let's simply assume that Al is right and take a look at the record. As early as January, 1932, it was obvious that the party which won the election would triumph by grace of the “protest vote.” Ours being s Democratic country, it followed that the victors would be bound to follow the “protest platforms” of the year. Even an outsider could see that he who paid the piper could call the tune, and several months before P. D. R. was nominated at Chicago, I wrote & book entitled, “What We Are About to Receive.” Among other things, this book said: “The historian of the future and the editor of the present . .. are invited to consider carefully the platform of the Socialist party in 1932, Its candidates will not be elected. Its votes may not even be counted, and if they are, will only confuse and distort the issue ... but what it recommends in 1932 will probadly be the law of the land.” Al cannot say I didn't give him fair warning. Here are some of the 1932 recommendations of the Socialist party: Five billion for immediate unemployment relief; $5,000,000,000 for & Joint program of Federal, State and municipal public works; Government aid for farms and small home owners; steeply increased income and inheritance taxes; a curb on the Supreme Court’s assumed power to overrule Congress; employment, health and accident insurance; recognition of Russia; withdrawal of our armed forces from Nicaragua, Haiti and China. It looks as though Al were right, even though he was four years later than most observers were in discovering what would happen. But wait & minute! Let's take a look at the Republican platform of 1932! With respect to agriculture, in which Al shows such a sudden and horrified interest, the G. O. P. pledged itself to support “any plan which will help to balance production against demand and thereby raise agricultural prices,” and urged as vital “the control of the acreage of land under cultivation, as an aid to the eflorts of the farmer to balance production.” “Control of acreage?” Oh—oh— 8o that's where A. A. A. began! The Republicans also demanded American entry into the World Court; they proposed to correct the abuses of wholesale speculation in securities (S. E. C.); they pledged an international conference on monetary ques- tions, including the position of silver (Roosevelt's silver purchase policy);: they urged home loan discount banks for the home owner (H. O. L. C.): the supervision, regulation and control of interstate public utilities (New Deal Holding Co. act); s shorter working day and shorter working week for labor (N. R. A.); the restoration of railway credit, and the conservation of oll resources (Ickes). Above all the Republicans indorsed a “party Government,” under which, when once & general line of policy had been established, Repub- lican congressmen should be bound to support it in detail. (Rubber-stamp Congress?) 80 it looks as though the New Deal had substituted the Repub- lican as well as the Socialist plat- form for the Chicago document so dear to Mr. Smith. As a matter of fact, that is pretty much what happened, except that “substituted” is the wrong word. An administration which rode into power on a wave of protest votes from Progressive Republicans, So- cialists and liberal Democrats was forced to combine the best features of all three party platforms or else break faith with the electorate, Al knows this. Everybody knows this. And if the country had objected to it, the congressional elections of 1934 gave the people a chance to register their disapproval of “pledge breakers.” So Alfred Emanuel Smith’s nostalgic glance at the record is all cross- eyed. He sees only that part of the record which feeds his grudge against ‘the New Deal, not the mountainous tidal waves of public opinion that shipwrecked every man and every organization which tried to go against the popular surge of liberal progress. (Copyright. 1936.) This Changing World Nations Unable to Prove Whether Nazis Play Game of Bluff. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. " HE national card games of Gere many are tarrock and skat. In neither of these games is thers the element of bluff indispem= sable in poker or even bridge. And what applies to cards applies fre- quently to international politics. We are all inclined to think that the government of the third Reich was bluffing and were somewhat disape pointed when we discovered that it went through with everything | it said it would do. i Even so. Anglo- Saxon statesmen and their follow- ers in the Latin countries safid that the bluff of Hitler was pose sible because nobody called their hand. Hitler's violent protest against the offensive speech of the French Com- munist leader, Thorez, is still labeled as a bluff. But thinking diplomats are afraid that it is merely a preliminary move for something more drastic which the Fuehrer and his general staff have in mind. Of course, the French government cannot be vheld responsible for state- ments made by private citizens. Thorez, it is true, is the leader of the Communist party and a close per- sonal friend of Leon Blum. But he holds no official position in the French Mr. Brown | government, neither does he permit any member of the cabinet to inter- fere with his thoughts or oratorical outbursts. To ask the French gove ernment for explanations for what a man like Thorez is saying would be | the same as if Hitler asked the State Department to explain or apologize for what Earl Browder might say. * x * x Seldom has there been a closer cé- operation between the British and the | Prench governments than it is today. The conversations between Premier Blum and Foreign Secretary Delbos with Baldwin and Eden are so inter- esting that the French secret service discovered certain “leaks” which pet- colated back to Berlin and Rome. To avoid further indiscretion a direct private line from the Quai d'Orsay and Downing Street has now been established. In the House of Commons, the vet- eran political leader and war-time Premier David Lloyd George has now a following of only three; his daugh- ter, his son and Maj. Goronwy Owen. Since the leader's return from Gere many there seems to be a revolt even in the microscopic political entity. One of the members disagrees with Lloyd George's findings about Ger- many and Hitler and threatens to leave the clan. ——— Louvain Gets Back Big Bell. Louvain Cathedral, Belgium, has had its old bell returned. The relic was taken during the war. ME, TOO, UNTIL | DISCOVERED DATED COFFEE IN THE BAG. ITS INEXPENSIVE YET IT TASTES LIKE A MILLION DOLLARS That's why Dated Coffee tastes so delicious that people think it must be high priced. Butit'sactually economical « . We save money by packing it in an inexpensive paper bag—and give you the benefit of the saving. You can safely go the limit on this kind of bargain! Order a pound of fine- - quality Chase & Sanborn Dated Coffee in the bag from your grocer tomorrow. Enjoy its fresh, rich flavor, and save money at the same time.