Evening Star Newspaper, October 26, 1936, Page 9

NorthCarolina Has Faith in Roosevelt Prosperous Again, State Is Grateful, But May Curb Spending. Today's dispatch discusses the attitude of the people of North Carolina, the thirty-seventh State to be visited by David Lawrence in his personal survey of the po- litical situation in 40 States. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. ALEIGH, N. C, October 26.— Why investigate political sen- timent in North Carolina this year? It's electoral vote isn’t in doubt—the Roosevelt majority will not be as large as in 1932, but still an overwhelming lead. I came to North Carolina to get the answer to & ques- tion that I have been curious about ever since i I started on this persona] survey of 40 States from coast to coast. I § wanted to know ¥ something of the underlying rea- sons that make a State of the so-called conser- vative South ac- cept the New Deal at the polls by a preponder= ant vote. I met with a group of representative men of the State, virtually all of them planning to cast their ballot next week for the re-election of Mr. Roose- velt. I sought to learn what the vote in North Carolina would mean. Would it be a mandate to Mr. Roose- velt, in the event of his re-election, to continue the New Deal along the same lines as of the last three and a half years? Did it mean that the voters of North Carolina were giving Mr. Roosevelt a blank check for him to fll out after election? Did it imply in any way dissent from some of the New Deal policies of the last three years and if so, how strong was the protest? Prosperity Returns to State. I was assured that the dominant note in North Carolina sentiment is one of gratitude to the President. Cotton mills are humming. Tobacco growers are happy. Farm income is way up. Prices are good. Homes and farms have been saved from foreclosure and altogether there is a sublime faith in the humanita- rianism, liberalism and capacity of Mr. Roosevelt to continue to assure the prosperity that seems, here at| least, to be attributed to the hand | of the Government in general and Mr. Roosevelt in particular. I confessed to the group I met & certain puzzlement. In North Caro- | lina all seemed on the surface at Jeast to me serene. There was no| quiver of apprehension about the Constitution or a possible change in | David Lawrence, News Behind the News Roosevelt Seen Avoiding Embarrassing Questions by Canceling Press Conferences. BY PAUL MALLON. ° he has nothing to say. ‘The partisan, neutral and even Communist newsmen and women shoot questions at him for 15 minutes to half PRES{DENT ROOBEVELT meets the press twice each week, even if an hour about every concelvable question of government. questions are barred. Consequently, more than routine No significance may be attached to the fact that Mr, Roosevelt has called off his last two press conferences. He never did that before. but never two in succession. On occasions he has called off one conference, And not in the midst of a campaign, when publicity for his viewpoint is a vital necessity to his cause. Publicity men ordinarily advise their statesmen to avoid the press only when they wish to avoid certain questions, usually one particular question, There are many times when a re- fusal to answer or a negative re- sponse will arouse extensive public speculation. The only thing to do is to duck, and wait. Naturally, there has been ante- room speculation about what ques- tion Mr. Roosevelt may have wanted to avold, or delay tem- porarily, last week, but not very wide speculation. The verdict was practically ungnimous, There was only one bothersome question at the time. It was the one with which Republicans from Gov. Landon on _down have been annoying the White House since Jimmy Roosevelt offered some cloudy observations about N. R. A. purposes and constitutional amendments to a Massachusetts political crawd. In fact, it is more than an excellent guess that certain partisan and neutral newsmen intended to explanations at either of the two deprived them of the opportunity. * * press Mr. Roosevelt for clarifying press conferences called off. He . New Jersey—Survey shows Landon should win by about 100,000, but surveys are not as conclusive in New Jersey as elsewhere. 2dding machine sometimes counts thousal Sure-thing bettors generally avoid New Jersey. by survey ‘The Hague ds of voters who are missed Kansas—The signs point to a Landon victory here by a small majority. The Republican claim of & 95,000 majority is probably too high. The best authority on the State says 25,000. One canvass indicates only about 3,000 California—Republican activity has increased lately and the Demo- crats are still sitting on their hands, but the clockers say Mr. Roosevelt by about 450,000, * % * % The public did not appreciate the greatest service which the late Senator Couzens performed in its behalf. He fathered few bills. His legislative activity consisted largely of exposing defects in tax bills, and for this he was known. But the one thing for which he stood above all others was “open covenants, openly arrived at.” He declined to be a party to senatorial committee sccrecy. He insisted among his senatorial comrades on the right to say how he voted, what he did end what he thought in ezecutive committes sessions. His hatred of political acteristic in public life. secrecy was his dominant char= People will know a mite less of public affairs, now that the rebel is dead. The 10 States to which the first 102 new farm benefit payments were sent two weeks before election were not pulled out of a hat. Three of the ten were Republican States—Maine, Kansas and Dela- ware. Three were sure Roosevelt States—Mississippl, Louisiana and Tennessee. Four were sharply con- tested battlegrounds—Pennsylvania, Illinois, Jowa and North Dakota. The A. A. A. crowd obviously wanted to balance the States so as to avoid political criticism, but the laugh behind it was that nearly three-fourths of the first checks went into doubtful Pennsylvania. of the first $8,836 dispensed. In fact, the Pennsylvania farmers got $7,738 A. A. A-ers explain the amount is not large, but is “a sample” of what is to come. (Copyright, 1936.) lina history who once fought for States’ rights. One thing has been drilled into the minds of the political rank and file | in this State and that's party regu- the form of Government. There was | no alarm about insurance policies | being eaten up with high prices in | an inflationary era, indeed no real| concern about inflation beyond the | Telatively small group that interests | ftself in the statistics of fiscal affairs. | Yet in North Carolina they are | debt conscious. They feel better | here about their own State finances, having achieved not merely a bal- anced budget, but a surplus of $5,000,- 000 in the treasury. A $10,000,000 income from sales taxes has been & godsend in helping the State take over a large part of county expenses. There has been, moreover, a reduc- tion in property taxes. North Car- olinians have felt the sensation, in- cidentally, of having their State bonds g0 down as low as 70 in 1932 and rise in 1933 above par when the budget was balanced. So they ought to know something about the importance of having income and outgo balance in the Federal Treasury, too. Wait and See Prolonged. I realize that fiscal matters are hard for the average man to follow, except when they hurt credit or send prices skyrocketing, but since neither of these things has happened as vet, there is a happy-go-lucky disposition to cross those bridges when they ap- pear on the scene. So I inquired whether the South, and particularly a State like North Carolina, which is certainly far from backward and more in the category of the up-and-doing States, would swallow the New Deal 100 per cent after election, as it seemed to be doing by its attitude before election. I encountered sharp differences of | opinion on this point. I was told, for instance, that the protest against the New Deal would this year be re- flected by a sizable Republican vote and by a diminished Roosevelt ma- jority. I was given to understand also that the South would scrutinize with care any proposals to revive the N. R. A. and put into the hands of the Federal Government again the power to regulate wages and hours. But there were some who insisted that the South would not be found ultra-conservative or stubborn about meeting any changes in law, or Con- stitution that might have to be made to secure national objectives. But even on a matter as abstract as this I could not find any concrete appre- hension about the extremes to which New Deal policies might go. Party Regularity a Code. Indeed, so far as North Carolina is concerned, unless one digs beneath the surface and gets folks off to one sidé to penetrate their thinking, one is likely to acquire the impression that Dr. Tugwell, Henry Wallace and Harold Ickes on the subject of Dem- ocratic faith are the true descendants of the eminent men in North Caro- SPECIAL—FOR THIS WEEK ONLY We invite you to attend our free demonstration and investigate our “Common Sense” control of . Rupture—Hernia —without use of injurious springs, elastic belts, adhesive plasters or tape, straps or buckles. No pressure on benes of hip or back. Nothing to retard circulation of injure merve centers, This invitation is to all persons suffering from or interested If pleased, order today, pay next week or next month, 9 AM. to 5 P.M. Other hours by appointment. larity. Whether one agrees with the New Deal or not, it is essential in North Carolina that the Democratic party be followed almost blindly, lest damage ensue. Thus in 1928 a num- ber of Democrats deserted the party when Al Smith was the nominee, but they were promptly ostracized. Today even the business men who may se- cretly harbor a fondness for Gov. Lan« don and may even vote that way, would hardly shout it from the house tops. They want to retain their in- fluence within the Democratic party on account of guestions that arise in the State Legislature, questions of business regulation and taxation that might easily find them the victims of LUSK MAKES STUDY Will Look Into Tax Billing and Collections in Other Cities. ’ Personal study of the tax billing and tax collection systems of several cities will be made this week by Rufus S. Lusk, secretary of the Washington Taxpayers' Association, who is chair- man of a subcommittee of theeCom= missioners’ Tax Delinquency Commit- tee. He will leave Washington tonight for a trip, during which he will'in- spect billing and collection machinery of Louisville, Cincinnati and Pitts- burgh. He hopes to gather ideas on which to base suggestions for im- provement of the District’s tax ma- chinery. studied indifference or refusal were | they to abandon their allegiance to | the dominant party in North Caro- lina. Rumblings Beneath Surface. Some day all this may be changed and men may fight for their party and principles openly and with full recognition of the risks involved. In fact, ‘even today, North Carolina shows rumblings underneath that do not augur well for the future of the New Deal party. The abrogation of D. C, MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1936. trHE opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are presented in The Star’s eflort 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 Fascist Dictators Have Sh Record own Nationalism Is Anti- dote for Marxist Class Struggle. BY DOROTHY THOMPSON. HERE was never a better mo- I ment in history for an intelli- gent and liberal conservatism with principles and a policy to assume the leadership in almost any western country. The breakdown of Marxianism, which has been the rallying idea for most of the forces which were work= oo 0. 2 ing to bring about fundamen- tal changes in social structures, is, I think, irre- parable. And this in spite of the fact that much of the Marxian critique of the capitalist system is unanswerable. The failure of capitalism fully to utilize potential productive capac- ities; its failure to maintain economic stability; its failure to keep the economic appara- tus continually functioning; its failure to prevent the growth of a large pop- ulation living at submarginal stand- ards—these are all facts, and for years | now, they have overshadowed the other unquestionable advantages of capitalism: The fact that it has been accompanied by a greater amount of political liberty, civil rights, oppor- tunities for the especially fit, ang has produced more wealth than the world could once have dreamed of. But .the Marxian answer to the problem is based upon premises which have been demonstrated to have little Dorothy Thompson. legally held the power. But unless democracy itself has been definitely threatened by an anti-democratic dic- tatorial attack, as it is in Spain, it has been impossible to organize the class struggle to the point where the workers will stand together and fight, either with force or with ballots. Can Cripple Capital. ‘They have been sufficiently strong and united to bring about immense social disorder, to hamper and even cripple the working of capitalism. But they have not expropriated it. ‘The argument of the Marxists that their collapse is due to the superior financial power of capitalism and its ability to use that power to purchase the instruments of force simply will not hold water. There have repeat- edly been times when capitalism was flat on its back and when the instruments of political power were definitely, already, in the hands of the representatives of the working classes. That was true at one time in Germany; it is true at this moment in France. Why do they not use that power to carry their philosophy to its logical conclusion? Struggle Not a Reality. _'The reason is that the class struggle is not & reality. The class idea is not the strongest force dominating the minds and emotions of even the most exploited. There are psychological forces enor- mously stronger than class interests. And of all these, the strongest, it would appear, is nationalism. For is not the whole history of the last 25 years one universal assertion of the fact of nationalism? International political reality. The Marxians propose | the expropriation of capital, either | by force or by law, and hope to achieve this by the organization of the non-owning classes, into a class- conscious party. They have argued that the non-owning classes are (hr‘ overwhelming majority in any coun- try; that they will naturally attract to themselves the classes whose own- | ership is ephemeral and unreal—the | debtor-class in any economy, notably | the poorer farmers—plus the salaried intellectuals whose discontent is sup- | ported by intellectual awareness. A | struggle will be organized by this| numerically superior class, and with the instruments of democratic repre- sentation, and the power to cripple capitalism by the strike, they will capture political power. Doesn’t Work in Practice. The principle appears to be per- fectly logical, but the fact is that it simply has not worked, even given the most favorable possible circum- stances. Those favorable circumstances are: Economic depression with conse- | quent widespread social misery, and civil liberties which guarantee a | forum for the expression of social dis- content, and afford an opportunity to | educate and to organize. In a large part of the western world. economic depression has been almost | continuous since the war; ir some! sections it has been acutely agg-avated by a lost war. England had 10 solid years of de- | pression before she began to rmerge‘ from it; Germany and most of Central Europe have had far more downs than ups. Most western countries were, from 1919 to 1933, political democracies, in which Socialist and | Communist class parties were legal. | In Europe Marxian agitation was | prodigious; its literature is immense; | and at moments class partits have i class solidarity could not prevent the war; it could not prevent the peace that was made; it could not hold together great economic complexes like the old Austro-Hungarian empire, which from a Marxian point of view was an infinitely preferable field for operation than half a dozen small states. And since the war, in the revolutionary epoch through which we have been living, is it not an out- standing fact, that whenever the class idea has confronted a clear national idea, whenever class interests have confronted national interests, the class idea and the class interests have capitulated? Dictators Forgot Class Strife. ‘The ease with which Mussolini, well- trained Socialist that he was, swung the emotions of his nation away from the class struggle toward the idea of the revival of the Roman heritage; the ease with which Hitler swung the aggressive instincts of the Ger- man masses away from hostility to- ward the bourgeoisie and against what | he dextrously created as an “alien element”—these are startling phenom- ena from which one is forced to learn. Perhaps the most amazing demon- stration of the virility of the national idea is Russia. Today the idea of Rus- | sian nationalism is far stronger than the idea of international working- class solidarity. This fact is daily demonstrated. As a result that coun- try is in a serious diplomatic dilemma, and is totally incapable of a clearly integrated policy. Her national pride rests in her prestige as the world's first workers' Soviet. Her children are brought up to believe in the moral and technical superiority of the working-class state. They are trained in the idea of the world class struggle which will finally consolidate the earth according to the Soviet pattern. But Russia’'s national terests are all against the weaken- "We are always glad to See you Governm ent Folks We, the People Do Millionaires Desire Roosevelt’s Re-election but Aid New Deal by Supporting Landon? BY JAY FRANKLIN, ANY curdled radicals will regard this particular column as cockeyed because it begins with the assumption that multimillionaires know pretty well what public reaction to expect from their own activities and utterances. Can it be that the “five families” secretly desire the re-election of Roosevelt and hence are helping the New Deal candidate by publicly sup- porting Gov. Landon? The question is asked with fear and trembling, for it challenges the usual theory that millionaires just accidently piled up the sort of fortune which ought to be reckomed in light years rather than dollars. Certainly, in this day and age, no billionaire can fall to realize that “economic royalists” are highly unpopular with the mass of American voters. Yet we see all of the du Ponts assembled in the Liberty League's “Belshazzar Feast” to catapult Al Smith into action against Roose- i velt. We see the Morgans, du Ponts and Rockefellers showily contributing rather small sums to the Republican campaign fund in the State of Maine. We see Gov, Landon hobnobbing with and in- dorsed by Henry Ford, and then we see Alf himself dash to Los Angeles for the purpose of in- dorsing the civil rights of Mr. Wil- liam Randolph Hearst. One must either conclude that the men who make and keep millions of dollars know nothing about the way millions of Americans think and feel, or concede that they are fully aware that their public support of Gov. Landon will be a great help to President Roosevelt. * x * % Let's look at it from another angle: Who has been most helped by the New Deal? Business and banking generally. The statistics of produc- tion and profits are unanswerable. And business cannot prosper without the five families benefiting thereby. Who stands to gain most from the establishment of a powerful central government at Washington? Big business and banking. The present constitutional set-up makes business a profitable source of legal and political blackmail. Too many people have to be spared, too many Legislatures conciliated, too many attorneys have to take a crack at the papers. The old division of powers game is about played out. It may have been a good racket for the Hopsons and Insulls a decade ago, but today it adds enormously to the overhead and complicates business operations. Only the bosses, the mouthpieces and the public accountants can gain, in the long run, from all these subdivided sovereignties. * kX % The New Deal represents our most powerful national impulse in 75 years. In an age of dictatorships and unified political action abroad, the old Federal system—"the American way"—weighs too much and may be- come dangerous as well as expensive to these tremendous business organi- zations which operate within our borders. The time is coming when we must simplify our structure and rationalize our institution. if we are to maintain our position in the world. So far, at least, big business ought to go along with and urge on the New Deal. Call it fascism or the “profit motive,” if you will, but that is what big business wants. There is a price to be paid, of course, and some of the second lieutenants of industry are shocked by the idea of paying a price for anything in the way of political reform. Some of their power must pass under Federal control. They must assume some new and broader social and economic responsibilities to their workers and to the public. They must swear off their chronic desire to paralyze National Government in the interest of quick profits, they must evacuate the legal “no man’s land,” and they must ally them- selves with the strongest political institution of their country—the National Government. This hurts but it cannot possibly hurt them as much as the red ink of Hoover or the hot money of Coolidge. Whatever the rank and file may think about it, the leaders of American business ought to kmow on which side their bread is buttered. So this column repeats its question: Can it be that the multimillion- aires secretly desire the re-election of President Roosevelt and hence are helping the New Deal candidate by their open support of his Republican opponent? The answer will be given after November 3. (Copyright. 1936.) Changing World U.S.Needs Delay Plane Orders for British Military Force. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. HE news that the British gove ernment intends to purchase I some 1,500 fighting planes in the United States cheered up those who still believe that there is some money to be made out of the next war. Of course, Great Britain and France, with their substantial gold reserves, are in a position to buy 8 limited quantity of war material in this country. T he others cannot. Regarding the specific purchase of airplanes, it is doubtful wheth- er the British government can obtain at the present moment delivery of more than 200 or 300 machines. The American airplane factories are not on a war basis. Before they can deliver airplanes to foreign coune tries they must first take care of the huge orders placed with them by the United States Army and Navy. They also must deliver a number of large machines to the Pan-American Alre ways for the China route and a sub- stantial number of machines for the American airlines. In addition to this, certain foreign countries, Yugo- slavia, for instance, placed relatively important orders some eight months ago. After all these orders have been completed they can begin to deliver the large number of scouts and bomb= ers the British air force needs. And that will take some time. * x * % The British have decided to speed up their aerial defense because they have become convinced that a war is inevitable some time next year. Their factories are working at top speed, but that is not sufficient. Even taking for granted that all their plants have been put on a war basis and are working 24 hours a day in three eight-hour shifts, the British Empire cannot be ready to match the Italian, the German and the Russian air forces within less than 18 months. This is the reason why the procures ment department of the fighting forces are endeavoring to place orders abroad. Sweden and Holland have received important orders. But these countries, too, have to give precedence to the needs of their national defense. The war departments in Holland and Sweden learned their lesson during the last war. They were caught une Constantine Brown. | prepared when the conflict broke out. | Now they are taking the necessary precautions for the defense of their neutrality, and that means, principale ly, an increase in their military avia- | tion. ing of the democracies at this moment ! two things cannot be integrated, by internal social strife. Therefore, | either in political reality, or even in every gesture she makes is inhibited. | a syllogism. Leon Tretzky, who re- At one moment she blusters about mains logical and intellectually honest, Spain, and in the next she withdraws. | foresaw and foretold the doom of the Stalin cannot possibly be the leader | Popular Fronts months ago. And 1 of the Russian nation and the leader K am quite sure that Trotzky's prophesies of the Communist International. The ! will be fulfilled. Already, in France, A | “French Come one is speaking of the Front'—to include Socialists, munists and Fascists! This history has, I think, a direct bearing on events at home, (Copyright, 1936, ADVERTISED m Woman's Home Companion Better Homes and Gardens Ladies'Home Journal American Weekly Good Housekeeping Pictorial Review Make Better Coffee Adopt the smart modern way to gquard coffee flavor... as coffee is being made ... prepare it in Silex. Your coffee is tempting, refreshing, appetizing. Silex is transparently clean. The Pyrex brand glass is guaranteed against heat breakage. Silex is simple to use and easy | for the future. the two-thirds rule at the Philadel- phia convention has not been ac- cepted with any degree of enthusiasm since it means the squelching of the power of the South to veto a choice for presidential nomination as here- tofore, I feel confident that North Caro- lina may be voting for Mr. Roosevelt out of a sense of gratitude, but it is certainly not giving him a blank check It will reserve the right through its spokesmen to ques- tion the wisdom of New Deal philos= ophy when it borders on centraliza- tion or when excessive expenditures threaten the credit of the Govern- ment or the integrity of the dollar’s purchasing power. There is a strong undercurrent of protest which will demand retrench- ment in the Federal budget. Outwardly, North Carolina is going along with the President because of a faith that somehow he will man- age to steer the country through its future crises as suceessfully as in this section he is believed to have done in past crises. So the viewpoint is one o0f retrospection without much worry about the future. And if the New Deal departs from fundamental conservation too abruptly or too wide- 1y, there will be a protest amounting to a revolt on specific measures. Not all the electoral votes, therefore, that are to be cast for Mr. Roosevelt on November 3, constitute a blank check mandate. North Carolina expects to have something to say about how the check will be filled out if Mr. Roose- velt is ré-elected. (Copyrisht, 1936, in the control and care of rupture. Ask for Wm. H. Baker at Parkside Hotel Eye Street at 14th, Washinglon, D. G NEW LOW ONE-WAY FARES Going to Cincinnati, Louisville or St. Louis, you’ll find B & O’s friendly service reflected in a variety of invit- ing features. 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