| Show washingto digest national topics owes ole 0 1 by WILLIAM BRUCKART I 1 la C r washington an inquiry comes from my old home town in missouri asking in effect time T G 0 P n what are the IF busy publicans public ans doing the letter quite obviously from a follower of that old democratic stalwart former sen jim reed explains that the writer would like to see democratic party machinery back in the hands of democrats but it is complained that the republicans have provided little opposition to the new deal left wingers the further complaint is registered that many of the democrats in congress have failed to set forth cold facts about new deal spending ending ep I 1 have paid very little attention to republican party affairs for quite awhile for the simple reason that republican publican Ile partisans either as a party or individually have been doing nothing they have a chance now to do something whether they win will become really active remains to be seen they have been quarreling among themselves snarling fighting letting petty jealousies keep their ranks split wide open but lets take a look at their picture now to see whether there is any real hope it will be recalled that during the fight against the roosevelt plan to pack the supreme court with six new justices the republicans kept very quiet that is they were quiet as far as surface indications go beneath the surface they were busy helping the democrats fight off that nation wrecking scheme put forward by the new dealers I 1 believe everyone regarded that as good political strategy by refusing to make the supreme court packing plan a partisan issue the republicans kept a lot of ammunition out of new deal hands that fight was led by regular democrats like senators wheeler of montana burke of nebraska rep hatton Surn ners of texas and others like them but the supreme court battle was followed by a cleavage in the ranks of the dominant party in in congress and the republicans failed to follow up their jobs as the opposition party they failed to take advantage of many opportunities in fact nothing was done at all until the government reorganization bill was pushed onto the stage and president roosevelt made that legislation an issue it may be said that the republicans did nothing of consequence in that fight but they voted with the real democrats at the finish that was the vote that killed the reorganization bill theirs was the vote which had it been taken under the british or french parliamentary system would have forced resignation of the government because it showed lack of confidence in the executive and now to the present in the last few weeks there have been signs that ought to be heartening to the rank and file of the republican lists they are however just signs as far as any honest appraisal goes the republican national committee has selected franklyn waltman a washington newspaper correspondent to take charge of and reorganize the bartys publicity setup set up mr waltman is a fine writer one of best he has spent some come fifteen years as a political observer ile he has courage and imagination perhaps not as much imagination as charles michelson of the democratic national committee but he is young and vigorous this sign is significant because there has been no trained publicity man at republican headquarters tor for the last three months and the man who occupied the post before either cither was unable to do anything or was not allowed by his superiors or the factional strife within the party to accomplish anything so I 1 say it is important to realize that the voice of the party is apparently acing to be employed again rep joe martin of massachusetts who is chairman of the lican signs biens of al ai committee and awakening is assistant republican leader of the house has come forward with two or three blasts lately also he has been able apparently to awaken some of the ninety odd republicans public ans in the house of representatives to the fact that they constitute the opposition party so they have been making some speeches in the attack on the new deal spending program chairman john ilam hamilton of the national committee has been on the air a time or two and former gov alt alf landon of kansas has attempted in a couple of speeches to recall that he was the bartys 1936 presidential nominee former president herbert hoover came back from europe and jumped onto much 0 of f the new deals vital theory in one of the best speeches he ever has made A score or more organization meetings have been held in various parts of the country in the last month and I 1 understand that a flock more of them is scheduled but to go back to a previous state ment these are just signs they can be made alive and real and effective fec tive or they can be allowed to die of dry rot it will be a couple of months more before anybody can tell even though representative martin now is on record as saying the republicans will win 76 additional seats in the house this fall the answer to the republican problem lies I 1 believe in the answer to one question can the R republican e factions get together that is to say will it be possible for the so called new york crowd and the so called middle west crowd to arrange a common ground upon which all can stand and it if they succeed in that will they then be able to persuade numerous lone wolves and bellowing calves to come into the corral for united aati action on in this latter category one will find oodles of individuals who claim leadership of followings great or small one will see senator of michigan trying to dodge affiliations of any kind that may hinder his hurdle race because mr is building for the republican nomination whether lie he is willing to admit it now or not then there are such others as rep hamilton fish of new york who was a great university football player I 1 suppose mr fish knows his congressional district and knows how to play politics there but it seems to me that he ought to be of great aid and comfort to the new dealers it is obvious therefore that while the dominant party is split widely between new dealers and regular democrats the republicans have some harmonizing ahead of them th em too they will get somewhere or not just as they decide to sub subordinate ardi di petty jealousies and efforts to keep control to the party necessities in the coming congressional elections some observers in washington lately have insisted to me that republicans will gain in the house and senate this year despite and not because of party organization tio their conclusion is that mr Roosevel ts personal popularity has declined tremendously and if that has happened obviously the strength of the new deal has slipped off onto very thin political ice ice the national capital has been treated lately to a life sized uproar over the abuse of franking the franking abuse lege the franking privilege is accorded all members of congress and officials so that they are not required to pay postage out of one pocket and collect it back for the other I 1 have no doubt nor does anyone else who is familiar with the practice that the franking privilege has been frequently abused it remained for horace russell general counsel for the home owners loan corporation to get caught at it however and mr russell therefore is the goat about which the storm has centered he has resigned his job but it appears that he may be stuck with a postage bill of about mr russell was accused on the floor of the house by representative church of illinois of having sent out millions of letters advising attorneys for the home owners loan corporation in the various cities ies that judge 0 B taylor was resigning as associate general counsel and was opening private offices in in washington for the practice of law the letters which were shown later to number about ten thousand highly praised judge taylor and solicited business for him disclosure of the act in the house brought about mr russells prompt retirement and apologies but the post office department and the department of justice had to look into the matter j hence the likelihood that there will be a demand for payment of the postage and that there will be no further prosecution the incident created a stir and more will be heard from it probably because there can be no doubt but that the free mail privilege has been abused viciously but it may be of interest to know that there have been few if any convictions vict ions for violation of the free mail privilege post office department officials were unable to recall any prosecutions although there had been some indictments since the present arrangement went into effect in 1887 the incident involving taylor and russell calls attention to the tremendous amount of mail that is carried free of postage last year according to postal records pieces of mail were carried under free provisions of these came fro from in members of the house and senate if postage had been paid on all of the mail the amount would have been postage on the congressional mail was estimated at something in excess of which indicates how much less campaigning costs after a politician is once elected to house or senate 0 western newspaper union |
