| Show Firu charts washington digest government must be kept liberal cry of president and spokesmen definition of term means he has cast die for realignment of political parties time may prove fallacy of liberal doctrines by WILLIAM BRUCKART service national press washington D C washington there is a great todo to do being made these days about liberalism we are told in the press through the radio in personal conversations that liberalism lib eral thinking is vitally necessary it is urgent that our government be kept liberal and that our daily lives be along liberal lines imes president roosevelt says so and sought in a recent speech to define liberalism his spokesmen repeat and emphasize what he has said the vast army of ballyhoo artists on the government payroll is saying it after the manner of a stooge for a ventriloquist A lot of republic cans trying to ape the new deal ers are saying it too and making just as much of a mess of the apropo atlon as the less slick tongued among the new dealers well any way at any cost there must be liberalism if we don t be liberal we are warned the devil will get us the nation its inhabitants and all of their works will sink to the depth of per it s a very sorry situation indeed recognizing the need the urgent necessity for liberalism mr roose velt undertook recently to define it I 1 quote his words from a recent speech in maryland where he had gone to try to bring about the defeat of sen millard tydings in a race for the democratic senatorial nomi nation for example mr A is a compos ite conservative he admitted that in 1933 interest rates charged by private bankers to ordinary citizens who wanted to finance a farm were altogether too high he admitted that there were sharp practices ex besses and abuses in issuing ties and buying and selling stocks and bonds he admitted that the hours of work in his factory were too long he admitted that old peo pie who became destitute through no fault of their own were a lem he admitted that national and international economics and lation made farming and fishing extremely hazardous occupations and he even admitted that the b buy UY mg power of farmers and fishermen had not kept pace with the buying power of other kinds of workers but conservative mr A not 0 only declined to take any lead in solving these problems in co operation with the government he even found fault with and opposed open openly ay or secretly almost every suggestion that was put forward by those who belonged to the liberal school of thought mr B I 1 said was a composite liberal he not only admitted the needs and the problems like mr A but he put his shoulder under the load he gave active study and ac tive support to working out meth in co operation with the govern ment for solving the problems and the filling of the needs mr B did not claim that the remedies were perfect but he knew that we had to start with something less than per feet in this imperfect world f would force realignment of politics of country y mr roosevelt s pronouncement on what constitutes a liberal fol lowed very closely a statement he had issued in a meeting with the newspaper correspondents at the white house saying that he had no objection to election of liberal re publicans said he if there is a good liberal running on the lican ticket I 1 would not have the slightest objection to his election the good of the country rises above party the importance of these two dec la rations mr roosevelt has cast the die for a new alignment of political parties he has swept aside all previous bonds that held men and women within the democratic par ty or the republican party or the lesser political groups and has said in effect come with me into a new fusion of forces and action of course no one who has studied mr roosevelt s course since his cal ears were first pinned back in defeat of his malodorous plan to add six justices of his own choosing to the united states supreme court could have failed to recognize this eventuality he was planning to force realignment in politics in this country for some months but now the thing is out in the open and the democrats and republicans alike know what confronts them if it is their desire to maintain the present political party setup what will happen is quite another question undoubtedly the democratic party will be the greater suf ferer it has to be so because mr roosevelt became titular head of the democratic party by virtue of election to the presidency in 1932 and again in 1936 as the candidate of that party so many of the for mer democrats have become wed ded to the new deal either by con diction or as a result of having won office on new deal coat tails that there is no turning back for them thus there is a split with those who subscribe to the new deal the ory of liberalism on the one hand and the fhe democrats who adhere to the hundred year old principles ol 01 the democratic party on the other there will be some republicans drawn into the new alignment but they will be fewer than the wing formed from Demo democrats cratA the re publicans who will go over to any new alignment will be of the type of harold ickes now secretary of the interior senator norris of nebraska who once wore a republican label and others of the here today gone tomorrow category and further as to what will hap pen my observation is that these so called liberal movements don t last very long they crack up on the very principles which are sup posed to be their foundation stones always there are too many lead ers every liberal who cata bogues himself as such shouts about it and produces plans for saving the world wherever anybody will listen conceives himself to be a leader someway the ideas and ideals of these liberal leaders always differ each invariably takes the position that his plans must be adopted unanimously or the world will go to pot ideas subject to quick change try something else then too their ideas are subject to such quick change that few of them are retained very long they are cast aside for something else that has more A case in point is an incident of recent his tory after new dealer senator pope had been licked for the idaho democratic nomination for senator by the youthful worth dark clark there was talk among the new dealers about having senator pope seek re I 1 election independently it was pro posed and discussed with mr roosevelt whether senator pope should embrace the faith of the la follette s progressive ticket in ida ho it was found however that the LaFollett es had a candidate tor for the senate on their ticket to the suggestion that he withdraw and let senator pope be their candidate the lafollette spokesman said no siree eel 1 senator pope isn t progressive enough for us and senator pope had campaigned as a per cent new dealer one can walk around the halls of congress any day when the session is on and find hundred per centers arguing how far reform must be carried what liberalism means and in downtown washington where the really important head men of liberalism are to be found they are constantly fuming and fret ting at each other instances are on record where two rabid liberals ac dually have sought to get each other discredited in the eyes of the dent because of their differences over what liberalism means the only thing about which they seem to agree is that anyone who insists on sanity in governmental thinking anyone who takes heed of lessons of experiences and trad eions of the past must of feces sity be a tory a bloodsucker a of the poor an obstruct zionist a republic rat or some other animal in human form who is overcome with personal greed on that point the liberals that we see in the government these days pre sent a united front time may prove fallacy of liberal ideas that is the story of the self ap pointed liberals to them has been given the right in their own minds at least to guide the destinies ol 01 the nation I 1 assume that if they regard me at all they classify me as coming from across the railroad tracks question my mental balance but I 1 shall continue to study their methods commend what is good criticize that which is obviously un sound more important I 1 shall continue to cling to the doctrine of the ages that human nature is go 90 ing to be changed by some power that is considerably above the level of human intelligence I 1 shall hold to a conviction that real progress comes by that method and not from the crackpots who look upon the hu man race as a fresh litter of guinea pigs but anyway we have liberalism defined at last by a man who is qualified to define it and we find and that it differs from what liberalism formerly meant it was only a few generations ago that liberalism meant restricting not increasing the powers of government neither mr roosevelt s definition nor his record in office coincides with the former understanding of the word it seems to me likely therefore that we will go on for quite some years with this quarrel and that may be and this is just a hunch time will prove the fallacy of some of the so called liberal doctrines of this day 0 western newspaper union |
