Evening Star Newspaper, November 3, 1936, Page 9

- Major Errors Pointed Out to Parties Old Guard Hampered Landon—Roosevelt Talk Leaves Scars. BY DAVID LAWRENGE, OW that the campaign is over, the era of post-mortems will begin in earnest. What mis- takes did the Republicans make? Wherein did the New Deal strategists err? Irrespective of electoral votes, always endeavor to benefit by the errors of the past But they do not begin to concede such er- rors till after the election returns are counted. First, then, the Republican mis- takes, started Cleveland vention “Old Guard” leaders insisted on inserting a tariff plank that cost Gov. Landon many votes. The importance of this rlank was that the Republicans were seeking the votes of Democrats, and in any fusion campaign it is a long- established principle to try to make the platform or program conform to the wishes of the various elements ! whose support is sought. The past campaign was a fusion eampaign in every sense, but it was not so regarded by the Republican high command. Except for an oc- casional appeal to Democrats who were deserting the New Deal and ex- pressions of appreciation to Al Smith and others who came over to the Landon side, the Republican party went through the whole campaign from convention to election on the mssumption that this was a Republi- can party affair. G. O. P. Diffused Fire. Another cardinal fault that will be the outcome political in managers at David Lawrence, found by many critics relates to the | failure to concentrate on a single {ssue. ‘The Republican campaign dif- | Yused its fire. It banged away at a lot of issues, but did not keep to one central theme. Such a theme was the excessive spending far beyond the needs of recovery. Hardly any of the Landon speeches, for example, stressed the point that if recovery is here, as the New Deal claims, why it is neces- | sary to spend in the fiscal year 1937 more money than in the fiscal year 19362 Landon's principal error, apart from his attitude in reciprocity, which, of course, was an embarrassment that the Old Guard, Republicans foisted on him, was in his Des Moines speech. He promised a subsidy to the farmers and did not make it clear how he was going to do it within a balanced budget. Had the Republican nominee pre- sented an itemized budget of the major items of expenditures, there would un- doubtedly be more weight attached to his program. In fact, a temporary subsidy to agriculture might have been { forgiven by his Eastern supporters had it been possible to show that the budget would nevertheless be balanced. Hamilton Did Good Jab. From an organization viewpoint, Re- publican national headquarters made its mistakes—all headquarters do—but on the whole the campaign was much better managed than a mmority party | beaten so badly in 1932 had a right to expect this year. John Hamilton did a remarkable job with a defeatist situation that stared him in the face from the very outset. Next, the New Deal campaign mis- takes. They relate to the future con- tests more than in the past. Commit- ments made by Mr. Roosevelt during the campaign in his speeches will rise to plague him as both conservatives and radicals attempt to hold him to the pledges, actual and implied, in his utterances. The President never should have made the campaign trips that he did. His radio voice was good enough to reach the Nation without the traveling and stumping. The ordeal was risky because the speeches opened up oppor- tunities for the attack. The Madison Square Garden speech was particularly unfortunate in that it made after-elec- tion reconciliation of majority and minority elements much more diffi- cuit than if the talk of “master” had been omitted. Mr. Roosevelt’s friends will excuse it on the ground that he 4s numan and is bound to show his indignation and resentment against at- tack and that even Presidents cannot be expected to repress their feelings. Talk Leaves Scars. When a campaign is over, the task of reconciliation is important and means much in the smooth working of legislative machinery. The New York speech will leave scars. But the biggest mistake that the President made was in his discussion of the social security pay roll tax. [Either he was completely misinformed as to what employers were doing or he was advised by his lieutenants to attack employers on general principles, But when Mr. Roosevelt said employers were omitting to tell employes about the tax to be levied on employers to help pay for social security, he was not aware that in 9 out of 10 instances the employers were making an argu- ment out of that very fact. In other words, the employers’ ar- gument is that the tax they have to pay is a burden which will have to be on to consumers and the latter are mostly working men. The residue gf the campaign is the social security controversy. It will not end with the counting of the ballots. It will only begin when the campaign aftermath is brushed aside and laboring men really find out how extensively the pay roll tax affects them. Had Wise Course Available. 2 The wise thing for the New Deal to have done—and it would have up- set the opposition ‘strategists—was to t that the pay roll tax was im- on workers as well as employ- but to insist that the principle more important than the form ‘which the revenues would be raised. might well have been placed the experimental nature of the and assurances could have been that this feature would be open to revision if business did npot im- prove sufficiently to absorb the tax. The New Deal will be compelled to revise the act in some way. This has been privately conceded for some time among some of the New Dealers. ‘less embarrassment after election. THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, TUESDAY, XN News Behind the News Politicians Watch New York State Returns Tonight for Clue as to Winner. BY PAUL MALLON. OLITICIANS will keep their eyes fixed election night on the returns from New York. There is the weather-vane. If the President wins it, you may go to bed. The result should be conclusive by midnight. But if Landon should happen to win the State, you will prob- ably never get to bed. The election will be wide open until the last vote is announced. What makes New York so important is not its electoral votes, but the fact that no expert has been able to work out a practical winning combination for Landon without those 47 votes. Roosevelt can win with- out New York, but Landon cannot. S (e Announcements regarding the S B national outcome, therefore, are YOU ANYIHMG. 59 2UCh likely to be made on the basis of the early Empire State returns. Once, in a very similar situation, the same New York key to an elec- tion situation did not work. Then, as now, California was considered such & certainty that it did not seem to be worth while counting votes there. When Hughes, in 1916, won New York, announcements of his victory were made. But, next day, Wilson Wwon California by about 4,000, and the announcements were reversed, * ok kX A last-minute check of the vital States has left even the experts at opposing headquarters writhing on the floor. Consider Illinois, for example. The official calculators at both headquarters use the Digest poll as a basis of their best calcula(wm. They figure that the soundest estimate can be made by analyzing the percentage of gain for Landon over the Hoover vote and the percentuge of loss for Roosevelt from his 1932 vote. Thus, they eliminate some of the Digest error in polling more 1932 Republicans than Democrats. On this basis, they calculate the probable Tllinois result as: Landon, 1,651.139; Roosevelt, 1,695,074, or a majority of about 43,000 for Roosevelt out of 3,300,000 votes. As any one can see, this is reducing straw analysis to its proper level. But, when such a system indicates anything less than a 50,000 majority, it indicates nothing. So when most of the analysts now put Iliinois in the category of “probably Roosevelt,” they do so out of respect for the Chicago Kelly-Nash machine rather than from the figures, which indicate only that the State is highly doubtful. The same system also gives the following results: Massachusetts—Landon, 807,707; Roosevelt, 634.518. Pennsylvania—Landon, 1,617.790; Roosevelt, 1,234,526, New York—Roosevelt, 2,352,442; Landon, 1,129,821, Ohio—Landon, 1,325,893; Roosevelt, 1,171,526, Indiana—Roosevelt, 760,332; Landon, 750,319. Michigan—Landon, 825,721; Roosevelt, 761,866, Towa—Roosevelt, 494,562; Landon, 474,111 Kansas—Landon, 393,185; Roosevelt, 389.844. Minnesota—Roosevelt, 485,452; Landon, 397.807. The trouble is that these figures probably underestimate the Roosevelt fotal 2 or 3 per cent, because the Digest does not reach much below the telephone-subscriber, auto-owner class. Another serious defect is the fact that straw polling does not work out as accurately in populous centers as in the country districts. It is physically impossible to poll a city, especially if a political machine is operating in it. Cross sections of sentiment just do not run with divisions as clear-cut as in rural communities. Consequently, these analyses should be taken only for what they are worth—an interesting indication. * x * x Chairman Farley is said to have run into more trouble than the Republicans in raising money during the lasi two weeks. The unofficial and voluntary levy on Federal employes is supposed to have been boosted from 2 to 3 per cent in some instances. Most amusing of the latter-day campaign stories is the one about the newsman whose girl friend works for the Government. She received a letter inviting a contribution, without mentioning any figure. He called upon an assistant treasurer here and asked what contribution should be made. The assistant treasurer told him “3 per cent.” “That's all I wanted to know,” said the young man, bowing himself out. ‘The assistant still thinks he was talking to & customer. The Government will resume business Wednesday. It has been in adjournment for about six weeks. Everybody in the depart- ments has been out campaigning for Reosevelt. = The exodous from the Agricul- ture Department was so great that the President appointed the Weather Bureau chief as acting Secretary of Agriculture a couple of weeks ago. Every one above of weeks ago. Every one above the weather man was out campaigning. Likewise, the Acting Secretary of the Interior is the comparatively lowly chief of the Geological Survey. The presidential order appointing him expires today, when the Secretary and all the higher-ups are expected to return from the stump. It is a matter of general inside knowledge that strong pressure was put upon some reluctant A. A. A. officials to get them to make speeches. H. R. Tolley, A. A. A. administrator, actually apologized in his first one. He explained to a Western audience that it was the first time he ever had done such a thing. Another high agriculture official insisted on taking leave without pay THANKS 'HE opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are presented in The Star’s effort to give all sides of questions of interest to its readers, although such opinions may be contradictory among before doing any campaigning. New Deal has some important politi- }cnl problems ahead. It has made {alliances in some States that will be | disturbing. Temporary coalitions to | gain a victory are worth while some- | times if they do not wreck funda- | mental party machinery. What has | happened in Nebraska and Minne- | sota to undermine the Democratic party as such will be cited again and again now as a reason for further warfare in other States between the New Deal and conservative Demo- crats. The election returns alone will tell whether all these political sacrifices | were necessary because the campaign was a close one or whether they were for the most part superfluous because they could not have affected the re- | sult anyhow. (Copyright, 1936, Shannon Sale of the four-story commercisl building at 1331 P street, occupied for the last 22 years by Meyer's Men's Shop, was announced todsy by the che Ca transsction. (Copyright, ) THE STORY of D. C. Real Estale Invesiment Told by JOHN D. VISITS DENTIST Walks Practically Unaided After Leaving Office. | DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., November | 3 (#).—Ninety-seven-year-old John D. Rockefeller, who since his arrival i Ormond Beach early this month has | been taking almost daily automobile rides, was observed yesterday to visit a local dentist’s office. | He was seen accompanied by his | valet and the dentist's assistant, leav- | ing the office along a sidewalk, walk- | | ing practically unaided for some of the distance. His chauffeur walked | behind, shading him from the bkight | sunlight with an umbrella. | & Luchs Tt is a frequent story— whether it's an F Street sale, or a property ex- change anywhere in D. C., you'll find, quite often, the name of Shannon & Luchs identified with the transaction. With 30 years” experience in serving Washington property investors, this organization has the abil- ity to solve your problems either in buying or selling REALTORS Sales Experts in Investment Properties for 30 Yeers 1505 H St. N.W. v mmdmm’ ; NAtional 2345 themselves and directly opposed to The Star’s. Pension Plans Compated Landon’s System Held Less Conservative in Revenue- Raising Than BY MARK SULLIVAN. OR more than a year, well-in- formed persons have known that regardless of the outcome of the election, the social secur- ity act must be drastically overhauled. While it was enacted some 15 months ago, it does not go into effect unsil next January 1. .. The approach of | that date, coupled ¢ with the political campaign, has J brought to the front what? thoughtful ~ stu- dents have been aware of. Practically ev- © erybody agrees that old-age pen- sions, in some form, are desir- | able. If any think the principle is not desirable, they must admit it is inevitable. From this point, it is a question of method. One system is on the books. A different one is proposed by Landon. Of the two, Landon's is in an important sense the less conservative. Landon’s method of meeting the cost of the pensions is, from the point of view of sound fiscal practice, less de- sirable; also, Landon’s plan is less consistent with a balanced budget and lowered general taxation. In the system now on the books, half the cost of old-age pensions is borne by the beneficiaries, and the other half by the businesses which employ the beneficiaries. Beginning the 1st of January 1 per cent (rising to 3) of the pay of workers is de- ducted by the employer and is turned into the Government Treasury fund for olg-age pensions. An equal amount, dollar for dollar, is paid by the employer. Landon's Declarations. But Landon's plan does not get the funds from the worker and employer. He said, in his speech last Friday night: “The Republican party pro- poses * * * that the funds for secur- ity payments * * * shall be obtained from a direct and specific tax widely distributed.” In his Milwaukee speech September 26, devoted wholly to so- cial security, Landon said that “every member of the great body of our citi- zens is (to be) conscious of his share of the cost.” Between these two methods of pro- tradiction of principle. In the exist- ing plan, each person pays the cost of his own pension. In the Repub- lican plan, the whole body of citizens pays the cost. As between those meth- ods, clearly the existing plan is the more conservative, the more consistent with sound finance, the more consist- ent with simple arithmetic. We can readily understand Mr. Roosevelt’s indignation when the Re- publicans raised this issue. We can imagine Mr. Roosevelt saying to him- self: “Here the New Deal did a thor- oughly conservatice thing—and I am attacked for it by the conservative political party.” It would be human, in a man as much moved by emotion as Mr. Roosevelt is, if he should say to himself: “Very well, we’ll change the method of payment; we won't re- own insurance: we’ll just pay it out of general taxation and make the in- come taxpayers foot the bill.” Must Pay and Like It. ‘Turn now to the objections to the existing plan. The fundamental one viding funds, there is a direct con- | quire the worker to pay direct for his | Present Law. is the same that is basic in the whole New Deal. It is the fact that the worker is not permitted to decide whether he wants Government in- surance or not. He is not given the chance to have Government insurance, he is compelled to have it. He must take it and act as if he thought it 800d, he must pay for it and like it. ‘The objection to the New Deal plan is the compulsion, the requirement that every worker shall pay for old- age pensions whether he wants to or not; the requirement that every work- er shall see 1 cent (rising to 3) out of every dollar taken out of his pay envelope by the arbitrary action of the Government. The New Deal plan refuses to admit that any worker may prefer to do his own saving, and be able to do it. It refuses to admit that the worker has a right to his pay, to all of it; and has a right to save as much of it as he wishes, or none of it if he wants, and to spend all of it if he chooses for whatever he cares to buy. Phase of Regimentation. Plenty of workers have the charac- ter and intelligence to do their own saving. Millions of them have life insurance policies and savings bank accounts. But the New Deal makes no distinction between the provident and the improvident. “This, the uni- versal compulsion put upon all alike, | is a characteristic running all through [the New Deal which justifies the charge of “regimentation.” In this case it involves the Federal Government keeping a check on every one of some 26,000,000 workers, in- quiring how much they receive each week, following them from job to job— with a new army of Government agents, which I have seen estimated at hundreds of thousands. In this aspect of the social security system lies the difference between voluntary and compulsory, between individual- ism and collectivism. In the same spirit of compulsion, of conformity and uniformity, no pri- vate employer or corporation is al- lowed to have its own pension system as a substitute for the Government one. Even if the private system is better, still the employer must take the Government system. Landon Vivid on Disposition. ‘There is another objection to the existing system. It has to do with ’Lhe disposition of funds which are | collected for old-age insurance, after they are taken into the Treasury. The amount ultimately will run into tens | of billions. There is not space here to describe how the funds are sup- posed to be invested in Government bonds, but are at the same time sub- ject to whatever use the Government may choose to make of them. But Landon was sound, and also vivid, when he described this part of the existing system in terms of a familiar analogy: “Let me explain it * * * in the sim- }plz terms of the family budget. The | father of the family * * * impresses | upon his sons and daughters the ne- | cessity of saving for their old age. Every month they bring 6 per cent | of their wages to him so that he may act as trustee and invest their sav- ings for their old age. The father decides that the best investment is his own I O. U., so every month he puts aside in a box his I. O. U. carefully executed, and, moreover, bearing in- | terest at 3 per cent. And every month he spends the money that his chile | Thrifty Shoppers Enthuse Over Our Optical Shop's 1st Ahniversary Sale We're just one year old— young in years—but old in ex- perience! In we've helped better vision. this last year thousands to Your confi- dence has been deserved— your patronage appreciated. Call for sight test_uenent by our personatized optical service. optometrists, in attendance, Convenient payment Drs. G. E. Dodson and A. Lorig, competefit registered Plfl N of buying complete glasses makes it easy for you to preserve your vision. OCU'iSfS' prescriptions are accurately filled at a price you can afford, ® Our First Birthday Special Offers Big Savings This Week Nationally Known Clearview Frames or at far below reg. price $3.89 Lenses Not Included in ‘The last word fas hion -elévated temples for clear side vision. Superi- or p, beautiful styling, comfort features, make and ou values. durable, 2! in_ white go the price will be much higher. Shop these values Mountings . Light- t, yet engraved. After Saturday now! Optical Shop—Main Floor THE HECHT CO. R STREET AT SEVENTH NATIONAL 5100 EMBER 3, We, the People Whether Liberals or Conservatives Win, the Sun [4 Will Continue to Shine. BY JAY FRANKLIN, BAUK in September, 1920, I was visiting my Aunt Molly—an ardent 1936. Republican—on the island of Nantucket. I was then a strong Wilson Democrat, and when asked to write in her guest book, I set down my impassioned opinion that there was little ability, integrity or idealism left in the Republican party, and that if Harding was elected the G. O. P. would ruin the cotntry. 1 believe that, after my departure, Aunt Molly solemnly expunged this heresy from the record of her hospitality. «And that was that. Election night of 1920 found me in Paris, watching the cabled returns at the Marigny Theater, where the Paris edition of the Chicago Tribune was acting as host to the American colony of that seductive city. I and a group of what we had the nerve to call our “fellow stu- dents” had first made a conscien- tlous round of the zinc bars to for- tify ourselves against the spectacle of the smug Republicans coasting back to power on the tidal wave of “normalcy.” It was a pretty pleasant evening, \ and ended by Mr. Elliott Shepherd throwing us all out of the theater on the unjust charge of intoxication. It Was S0rTow. In fact, we all felt very bad about it. That was th vhis “broke the heart of the world,” as Wilson put it. SR oo But “Uncle Larry” Benet, who was then the Paris representative of the Hotchkiss munitions outfit, reassured us. vintage wine he told a small group of us that the sun would still shine and the rain would continue to fall and the world would get along somehow without the Democratic party of Woodrow Wilson in control of national policy at Washington. It seemed pretty hard to belleve him, but it actually turned out that “Uncle Larry” and I were both right. The Republicans did ruin the country, but it took them 12 years to do it, and the sun and rain continued alternately to warm and wet thé just and unjust of a world which did not die in he process. ‘The ehoice which lies before the American people today is a serious one. Probably it is & turning point in our national history. But, then, history has so many turning points that, in retrospect, they whiz past like fence posts seen from an express train. And the world survives in its own stubborn way. Babies are born and in the end we all go down to join the silence and the dust and leave the world for our grandchildren to make their own mistakes in, Ideas change, institutions alter, human nature slowly adjusts itself to new mecessities and new circumstances, with a vast amount of yelling and grumbling. Aunt Molly is today for Roosevelt; “Uncle Larry” has retired as a merchant of death and still serves good wine; Elliott Shepherd is dead and the “students” he drove out into the hospitable arms of the Paris night are scattered to the ends of the earth. Some have even become Republicans. For the lesson of history is that it has no lesson; only a series of prods and promises urging us reluctantly into the future. The human race makes a lot of talk about liberals and conserva- tives in the process. Sometimes we get angry enough to call them radicals and Tories. But a liberal is only & man who sees that ideas and institutions must change, while & conservative is one who remem- bers that human nature does not change. A realist—and I suppose we all think we are realists—is one who seeks to reconcile changing ideas and institutions to the stubboner facts of human nature. Usually the realists get it in the neck from 7 both sides, but that is what makes realists of them. So we are electing a President today. The Republicans will cry havoc it F. D. R. receives the mandate he ought to get. The New Dealers will foam at the mouth and eat grass if Landon upsets the Democratic apple- cart, but—on the word of many experts—both groups can rest assured no matter how the dice roll. the sun will continue to shine, the rain all, the grass will grow (not necessarily in the city streets, either), and the weary old world will rock along pretty much the same for a good many million years to come. (Copyright. 1936.) dren bring im, party in meeting s | DR_ E, G, RUSHMORE DIES regular expenses, and the rest in va- | rious experiments that fascinate him. | Years pass—the children grow old— the day comes when they have to open thelr father's box. What do they| o™t Outstanding Surgeons. Over some of his really fine | Heart Attack Fatal to Ome of find? Roll after roll of neatly exe- cuted L O. U's’” (Copyright, 1936, -—— Weatherford Leads in Aiken. AIKEN, 8. C., November 3 (#).—W. | H. Weatherford led the ticket in the | three-cornered race for mayor of Aiken yesterday and will enter a run-| off contest a week hence with the sec- ond high man, M. A. Wilder. The vote was: Weatherford, 547; Wilder, 310; W. J. Moseley, 305. ; TUXEDO PARK, N. Y., November 3 (®).—Dr. Edward G. Rushmore, head of Tuxedo Memorial Hospital and a noted international golf and tennis player in the last century, died last night of a heart attack. Dr. Rushmore, who was 74, was re- | garded as one of the outstanding sur- geons in the East. He captained the first American | golf team to go abroad, in 1894, and played in international tennis matches before the inauguration of the Davis Cup tournaments. Headline Folk and What They Do Arthur C. James Plans Bold Venture in Western Pacific. BY LEMUEL F. PARTON, HE only two bearded and solvent carry-overs from the Jim Hill era of railroading, when both whiskers and receiverships were plentiful, are Arthur Curtiss James and Leonor F. Loree, the former 69 and the latter 78. The distinguished Gen. Grant beards have suggested Victorian conservatism and continuity in American railroad leadership. The hold-out seems to have been effective, fRoad management is again eager and assured, leveling off on a new plateau of earnings after a hard up-hill pull, Bold Railroad Venture, Many recent new issues have been refunding operations. Mr. James pro- poses to swing into the reorganization of the Western Pacific $10,000,000 in fresh, new money, not a lot of old track-sore bonds. It is a bold venture in railroading, what with the road | parelleling the Southern Pacific and | packing a heavy capital overhead. But that is the kind of venture that ine terests Mr. James, He owns more railroad securitiey than any other man in the world, He is of the third generation of a family with widespread metallurgical and | railroad interests, and he has more | than trebled his inherited fortune, His grandfather, Daniel James, | founded what later became the great | Phelps-Dodge Corp.. overlord of copper, Tall, stalwart and rugged, his once reddish beard grown gray, his gray eyes are shrewd and wary behind his pince-nez. Much less publicized than | many beardless but conspicuous oper jamrx. he gears railroads to the eco- | nomic actualities of commerce, with constructive labor policies and regard | for how much non-productive capital | can be hitched on behind the caboose. Yachting Is Diversion. His Winter home is in Miami, His yacht, Aloha, said to be the most | beautiful in America, wasn't recom- | missioned this year, and Mr. James is worrying along with a mere housee boat, the Lanai, but it looks as if he could put the Aloha overboard next year, the way things are breaking, | Yachting is his great diversion, his | obsession, almost. He was commo- :d«\re of the New York Yacht Club for many years. He gives a great deal of money to charity. In 1928, he contributed | $25.000 to Alfred E. Smith's cam- | paign_ partly because of Mr, Smith's stand on prohibition. (Copyright, 1936,) 'HAILE MADE EMPEROR 6 YEARS AGO IN ADDIS e Associated Press. LONDON, November 3.—An official spokesman of the Ethiopian Legation was startled to learn that yesterday was the sixth anniversary of the coronation of Hailé Selassie as Em- peror of Ethiopia. He was crowned November 2, 1930, in Addis Ababa. “We won't do any celebrating,” he said, “as I don't think the situation quite warrants it, and besides I do not think it would be fair for us to try to compete with the American election.” The deposed Emperor of Ethiopia himself spent this evening on a train en route to London from his new home, near Bath. He traveled first class, but without any special trappings or quarters. His plan was to attend to business at his desk in the Legation as usual to- | day. “Whkad Whdicfl el Clubs to lay aside the cards for B & O. A new show and movies —a swanky night club—big broadcasts at Radio City. Something differ- ent and exciting. 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