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Show Washington. Foli'.ieal students aiui observers in Washington i'uul themselves in a Has 'Em qu.indary coneern-Gucssing coneern-Gucssing '"S tl'P objeetives of the Now Peal a.imir.ist'.-ation beenuse of ft sorios of l.i:o developments. Frankly, most students of polities have to confess their inability to fathom the various developments of reeent weeks or to treasure their sie.nitiear.ce. 1 have written, heretofore, about the wide open split in the Democratic Demo-cratic party and about the presidential presiden-tial moves to heal that split but, instead of the new developments be-i:-S of a kind designed to heal wounds, they appear superficially at least to be doing directly the opposite oppo-site thing. Confessing my own inability in-ability to understand the political strategy, if there be strategy, let me merely call attention to such things as: ' Tho recent radio speech by Senator Sena-tor GutTey, Pennsylvania, Democrat, Demo-crat, which thoroughly read out of the party such able men as Senators Sena-tors Wheeler of Montana. Burke of Nebraska and O'Mahoney of Wyoming. Wyo-ming. The speech of Postmaster General Gen-eral Farley before the Young Democrats Demo-crats at their Indiana meeting, stating stat-ing that there will be no reprisals against those Democrats who have seen fit or now see fit to object to parts of President Roosevelt's New Deal program. The so-called harmony dinner of Democratic senators at a Washington Washing-ton hotel after the election of Senator Sena-tor Barkley of Kentucky as Democratic Demo-cratic leader of the senate, and tee absence of President Roosevelt from that meeting. The renewal by President Roosevelt Roose-velt of his criticism of "Economic Royalists" in his speech in celebration celebra-tion of the birth of Virginia Dare, the first white child born in America, Amer-ica, at Manteo, N. C. The speech of Senator Guffey in New York declaring without equivocation equiv-ocation that the Committee for Industrial In-dustrial Organization, headed by John L. Lewis, should provide a nucleus for an American Labor party. par-ty. This party should have among its objectives the political destruction destruc-tion of any one who fails to carry through the New Deal policies or who opposes a program designed to make the court structure of the United States subservient to the President. There are other phases, other circumstances cir-cumstances that might be included in this list, but those enumerated serve to show the confusion that prevails. They present to me a v.hol'y nonunderstandable and un-explainable un-explainable hauling and filling breathing hot and cold without a change of face. There has been nothing of a purely pure-ly political nature create quite so much of a stir in Guffey a long time as did Causes Stir the radio speech of Senator GuiTey in which he called for defeat of all these who opposed the President's plan to reorganize the Supreme court of the United States by adding to it six justices of the President's own choosing. It was in this speech that Senator Guffey singled out Senators Wheeler, Burke and O'Mahoney for destruction. He did this because these three senators led the fight against the President's plan to pack the Supreme court Senator Wheeler and Senator Burke conducted the fight on the floor of the senate; Senator O'Mahoney wrote tiie devastating report by which the senate judiciary committee commit-tee advised the senate to kill the court packing bilL Senator Guffey's speech was made at night. When the senate convened at noon the following day. Senator Wheeler took the floor and delivered one of the most vicious speeches of which he is known to be capable. It was excelled in bitterness bit-terness only by the attack which came from Senator Burke. Senator O'Mahoney likewise made sure that the senate record revealed the feeling feel-ing of those who were convinced the President had made a vital mistake mis-take in proposing the court reorganization. reor-ganization. I have heard these questions asked many times: What can the .... , , President gain by What s the making Senator Answer? Guffey or any man of his type a spokesman for the administration? Further, can the President afford politically to strike at the very heart of the Democratic party by permitting permit-ting even secretly the political destruction de-struction of such brilliant men as Wheeler, Burke and O'Mahoney? The answer to those questions, as ar as I can see it or as far as I have been able to gather opinions on the point, must inevitably lead in the direction of a party purge. Ey that I mean, the President and his closest New Deal advisers must be seeking to drive out of the Democratic Demo-cratic party, the machinery of t which he controls, nny and all Democrats Dem-ocrats who are unwilling to be one hundred per cent foe the theories of economies and u.H'ial reform which the New Dealers countenance. counte-nance. If that be true, and I repeat re-peat it is only an assumption, then the President evidently is hoping to create a class party, a radical party which can be made to include such outfits as the John L. Lewis following, follow-ing, the communists and half-baked nitwits who are opposed to the principle prin-ciple of individual employment, the accumulation of personal belongings and even the idea of owning homes by individuals, free from debt. On the other hand I cannot convince con-vince myself that Mr. Roosevelt would make a political mistake of this gravity. For it would be a mistake mis-take in two ways, namely, virtual destruction of the Democratic party and the blighting of any hope the President may have for being elected elect-ed a third time. It is these combinations com-binations that make the whole situation situa-tion so difficult to understand. It may be that one result will be that Senator Wheeler or Senator Burke may find himself in a political politi-cal situation where one or the other will be forced to seek the Democratic Demo-cratic Presidential nomination in 1940. It is quite apparent now that the split in the party is going to cause a violent explosion in the next Democratic national convention. There is no way to avoid it It may be added in the same breath that Mr. Roosevelt can go into that convention con-vention and force his own renomt-nation renomt-nation because surely the Farley political machine cannot be dislodged dis-lodged unless the factional dispute spreads to the rank and file of Democrats Dem-ocrats throughout the country. This is to say that, having control of the party machine, Mr. Farley can muster the election of enough delegates dele-gates to the party's national convention conven-tion to assure the Roosevelt nomination, nomi-nation, especially since Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt demanded and obtained the repeal re-peal of the age-old Democratic rule that required a vote of two-thirds of all the sitting delegates before the convention nominates a candidate. With further reference to Senator Guffey, Senator Barkley told the senate during the violent Wheeler-Burke-O'Mahoney attack that Senator Sena-tor Guffey had tendered his resignation resig-nation as chairman of the Democratic Demo-cratic senatorial committee a week previously. Senator Barkley's statement, state-ment, however, was not accepted generally; it did not have the ring to make it convincing, nor did it appear to be anything more than an attempt by Senator Barkley to save Senator Guffey's face. It may well be that the rupture in Democratic harmony will turn out to be a great is-May is-May Be sue as early as Big Issue the 1933 congressional congres-sional and senatorial sena-torial elections. There are a number num-ber of senators who opposed the court packing bill and, therefore, fall within the Guffey castigation, who will be up for re-election next year. If the Guffey attack is followed fol-lowed up at all in the state organizations, organi-zations, those Democrats who opposed op-posed the President's will necessarily necessar-ily must defend themselves. The only way they can defend their course of action is by a counter attack at-tack on the President and those policies of his" which the candidate for the senate opposed. I predicate predi-cate my prediction of continuation of the row in 1938 on the statement made by Senator O'Mahoney in answer an-swer to the GurTey radio tirade. In that statement of position, Senator O'Mahoney stated, to quote a single paragraph: "I would rather walk out of the door of this chamber and never return, re-turn, than to surrender any honest convictions I have. I say to you, senators of the United States, so long as I am in this body I shall raise my voice and cast my vote as my conscience dictates and nobody, whether he comes from Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania or from New York or any ether state, can tell me or the people peo-ple of my state what I should or should not do." Contrast chat statement with the following declaration by Senator GurTey in his radio speech: "I was elected to the United States senate in 1934 because I assured as-sured the voters of Pennsylvania that it was my intention to support loyally and without wavering the program of the Chief Executive." And in calling attention to that statement of subservience, Senator Burke of Nebraska declared: "Pennsylvania may want that kind of representation in the senate, and, if they do, God bless them, let them have it; but to me it would seem that if the senate is to have that kind of representation, it might as well have a parrot in a cage in the secretary's office and bring it in when the senator's name is called and have him say, 'Yes, Mr. Roosevelt, Roose-velt, count me for that, too.' That is not my idea of what a senator should do." 4. Western Newspaper Union. |