Show Bru charts washington digest international affairs af f airs likely to influence party politics upon turn of events abroad may alay depend strength or lack of it shown by presidential aspirants domestic life in U S will feel effects by WILLIAM BRUCKART service national press washington D C washington there is an in te terest resting mg offshoot of the several eu ett crises that has begun to at tract attention among political lead ers it has been practically 20 years since international affairs fig ared to any extent in our domestic politics but they threaten to do so next year and upon the turn of events abroad it appears will de pend the strength or lack of it shown by various presidential aspirants it may be that in m the short space of time between the writing of these lines and their publication in your local newspaper another european crisis will have arisen and actual hostilities will have been started it is possible therefore only to take a peek over the horizon and offer con jecture as to the effect upon our partisan battles there can be no doubt of the importance of the subject as a matter for thought however because 1 if there is a european war there will be the struggle between two very powerful forces to drag us in or keep us out respectively and 2 if there is no war abroad but a con linued threat and continued disturb ance of international relations our domestic life will be constantly feel mg ing the effects in one way or an other so the situation shapes up that international affairs are likely to be vitally important in m the mat ter of selection of party nominees next year as well as in the elec tion of one of the major party can dilates to the presidency the condition warrants thought on the basis that it touches private lives private lives are concerned not only because of the ever present possibility when war stalks in the world that there may be blood shed by some of our people the effect goes as well into our everyday af fairs the thing which the int elligen cia usually calls our national econ omy when political leaders took wrong side of question one needs to go back only to 1920 to recall what happened to political leaders who took the wrong side of a question the wrong side from a ma onty of the people president wil son s followers stood by him as they s should hould have done in those days they committed the democratic party to a position on the league of nations and the versailles peace treaty that proved to be unpopular and a good many of them were en gulfed in the flood of the unpopular ity of that side of the question if there were complex conditions to be considered by voters and thought through in advance of the election of warren G harding over james tames M cox at that time the con actions editions then must be regarded as simple to what confronts america at this time nor is there any possibility of simplification of those problems the bulk of the people can say as I 1 firmly believe the ma jonty sentiment to be that we must stay out of foreign entanglements must be isolationists and there still will remain the influence of those foreign conditions upon our own life and living and means of making a living but to be specific with respect to the political picture of presidential aspirants the candidates now going about the country herding in delegate pledges or having their re presenta lives tives do so have thus far proceeded quite naturally upon the basis 0 of f purely domestic questions these questions include such as the roose velt money policies the undoubted waste that has characterized the governmental spending the regi of agriculture with its crop control in one place and crop expansion in another without alpar ent rhyme or reason the sudden changes in national plans and the consequent instability and dainty others could be named but these few suffice to illustrate the point jealousy and distrust no matter what happens now let us assume that actual hostilities have started abroad and that they extend into next year of what use is the political strategy now being employed by those seek mg ing pledges of support 7 or assume that hit er s rapacious plans have been satisfied there still will be heat abroad there will be jealousy and distrust there is the new pact between the sl apery stalin of rus sia and the blustering hitler that neither will attack the other there are now and will continue to be dissatisfied minorities in central eu rope peoples who want to break away or who feel they have been used as pawns there will be all of these and other things to keep the fires burning a sort of an internal ional poison ivy case whatever the conditions may be a year from now there is no way that I 1 can see by which the united states can an avoid consideration of policies to 0 o meet the circumstances general GI by these several influences why take agriculture for example our crops long have entered into world markets although the outgoing shipments have sunk into insignificance lately but our farmers still have hopes consider industry turing thousands of manufacture ing establishments seek export out lets the amount of their exports determine whether these factories can run at normal capacity and employ normal quotas of workers or whether only enough workers can be kept on to maintain supplies for the purely american market thus the unemployment problem and relief enter into the picture it is far from being simple one can despise and distrust his neigh bor on the next farm or in the next block but he still has to pass his house on the highway or go down the alley behind his house campaign strategies plans must undergo revision none knows for example cheth er the agreement between stalin and hitler is going to give the russian lion a free hand in the orient that is to ask can stalin s forces now align themselves with china and force the japanese back to their is land homes if so there is a brand new proposition for us on the pacific side we have wanted and still want the market of china but we have to play with the soviet if by chance the conjectured change takes place and hitler abandons his connections with tokyo thus I 1 think we are brought fore forc ably to the conclusion that the rec made by the two major cal parties thus far may constitute only a part of the things which the e ever ver puzzled voter may have to con sider next year it is made quite plain Aseem it seems to me that campaign strategies plans hopes will have to undergo serious revision in the next few months how they are revised is going to be dependent almost en upon the developments abroad there is always the thought in the background that most people are interested in the things around them not 3 miles away and it is not going to be easy for the po much of a dose they showed attempt to offer there seems to be no doubt that developments between now and next june for example will have a vital effect upon mr roosevelt s cal fortunes most sound thinking men seem to agree on that one hears discussions pro and con many wagers have been made around washington that mr roosevelt can not be elected or even nominated for athard a third term but always there is the reservation unless there is a war always there is that reserva tion unless I 1 relate this not be cause it indicates more than the views of those making the bets but because it illustrates how closely linked are our affairs with those of the rest of the world may call congress to revise the neutrality act there is talk that mr roosevelt will call congress into extra session to deal with international problems and acting with roosevelt sudden ness he may have issued the call two hours after this is written he has wanted the so called neutrality act revised to meet his ideas you w will 11 I 1 re recall C al I 1 that he could not even gain consideration of his program by the foreign relations committee of the last senate they turned it down cold but the question is due to come up whether in an nary session or in the regular meet ing next january and it cannot be avoided who can guess what the political effects of that may be I 1 can not foresee them nor has any one been able to convince me of their ability to see that far into the future As I 1 am able to examine the ale of the future therefore I 1 can see only a very difficult time ahead for those who want to have a voice in their government of course there is going to be a percentage of vot ers as always whose convictions will be those of their political party but there is an increasing number of voters who would like to know what they are voting for or against why they are voting for one man over another they probably constitute the blance of power in american politics and if they do it is a splendid thing yet I 1 repeat they are going to have their hands full in trying to understand the is sues next year it is a tough apropo to learn what proposed poll cies will do for or to us when those policies concern affairs close at home it is just that much more perplexing when we are called upon to figure out what will happen when the issues of a campaign involve not only our own affairs but the af fairs of other nations as well and it strikes me that next year would be a good time for political lead ers to start being honest about what wha they seek to accomplish released bi western ne newspaper shaper union |