Show 01 0 r L 0 no on no no f L C ae C A Is r I 1 suggested in these columns a year or more ago that the campaign of 1938 1936 break in would brin bring forth party lines some of the most amazing oddities in political alignments that this country had ever known it was apparent even during the battle for ballots in 1932 that a gigantic shakeup shake up in the epting alignment of citizens was in the making these things are now being demonstrated and more proof of the changing times seems just around the corner we all have seen how such ing figures as gov alfred E smith of new york the democratic presidential nominee in 1928 1 ave bold ly flouted president roosevelt and his new deal theories and we have wit hessed such vitriolic outbursts as those by farmei senator james A peed reed that old line missouri democrat and we have wat hed with interest the hauling and filling by Jeffers jeffersonian onlan democrats who find new deal fantas es to be a bitter pill to swallow lately there has come another most interesting situ atlon respecting partisan al at gement although the action received much less attention than I 1 bel eve it de serves the determination of the vir ginia republicans in their recent con bention at roanoke to refrain from placing a republican candidate in the field against senator carter glass constitutes to my mind one of the most extraordinary twists ever to take place under our two party system that convention acting utterly without precedent took the position that it was better to leave leane the field clear for the election of the veteran senator than to precipitate a political battle by naming a republican candidate the reason tor for the action of the vir ginia republicans is quite clear in one way they felt that carter glass al at though a life long democrat who has carried on his share of bombardment of republican principles and policies could do the country more good from their standpoint than could be attained by placing a republican cond date against him without cl ince trice of success to state this premise in another way carter glass does not swallow the new deal as a whole and when he finds objectionable features in n the roosevelt program he Is independent enough and has the strength of char acter to voice his feelings doing this as a member of the majority party in the senate necessarily has more weight than all of the criticism of the new deal that could be voiced by a re publican if one could be elected in virginia and the virginia convention chose a course which it believed would best serve the nation as a whole but it Is the circumstance of a party coment convention lon refusing to engage in battle that interests me most under such circumstances the old idea of party loyalty becomes not only iliof illogical I 1 cal but ridiculous instead of a call to battle we see what amounts to a call for of a theoretical opponent of course in the op nion of many carter glass Is the outstanding es ex of conservative thought in the democratic party and if he speaks for conservative thought in the democratic party he Is alinosi ali almost speaking for con lNe thought in tie tle republican party it is easy to see therefore why the virgin a cans adopted the course tl ey d d bui bul where does that leave party loyalty what does it mean as to the future alignment of political tl ought the couise fol followed by the virginia republicans Is not more strange than the action of on the dent poosevelt roosevelt him other hand self who has indorsed senator hiram john son of california and senator george norris of a with nith almost boy ish enthusiasm senator johnson and senator norris have not been regarded as regular cans but they have haie been flying the republican banner for a good many years yet the president verbally vei bally pats them on the bick and offers his blessing during tl tie e same period we have watched air poosevelt roosevelt play ng touch and go with the la Fol lettes in wis coasin of course the la Fol lettes catalogue themselves as progressives but bilt they never nener have hid a great deal in common w th old I 1 ne democrats likewise in the senate if one is to bel ev e gossip frequently bandied about senator mceniry of oregon the titular republican leader has been only half heartedly fighting the ne nev v deal in fact some of senator own colleagues claim that he his really given aid and comfort to their thel r political enemies in the meantime one can wander around the tails of congress and hear private observations from men who A were ere supposed to be stalwart partisans that they have been unable to deter mine yet what their course ought to be one of them remarked confided con fiden bially to me that he believed he would have to consult a clairvoyant before he be could say whether he was going to sup port the new deal or oppose it or try to straddle the fence of course his remark was vms in a humorous vein nein but it epitomized the thought and I 1 may say the worry of n very great many parti sans at this time so we have a picture six months ahead of the actual casting of the bal hat lots in which party lines are torn asunder for countless hundreds of more or less important party figures I 1 thirk thirl everyone agrees that the condl alon comes from the development of new deal and policies under the leadership of president roosevelt there will be many who are now doubtful as to their course who will realign them themselves selNes with the new deal because they N were nere ere originally demo brats and there will be many who will again follow the republican banner down donn tl e stretch cut but it seems to me that it tiree ree years vears of Roo roosebelt probably have established a greater segment of independent voting strength in this countey than had resulted from a ter of a century of partisan politics before the situation must be construed then as indicating that hereafter those who stick definitely in party harness will continue to stand hitched because they have political aspirations and am bivions or because economic conditions in their communities are better fos by the party with which they have aligned themselves beyond that it seems to me citizens in most cases will vote in increasing numbers for the man instead of the party at last after almost two years of promotion work president ident koose noose velt has aban quoddy dream boned two of his dropped cherished dreams harnessing the tides of bay in maine and construction of a gigantic canal across florida the quoddy project designed to produce electric power in quantities never before turned out was to cost 40 the great job of excavating a slit silt across the face of the state of florida to let ships go direct from the atlantic to the gulf without going around the toe of the state was to cost only a small amount that s a small sum compared to other new deal ex tures had been wasted on the ship canal plans before it was tossed into the limbo of forgotten things but something jile hi e 10 already has been used in the attempt to make the moon worl wort through the medium of the tides of quoddy bay both projects can be charged up to politics and ev ex peri perl ments and probably the country will be better off to tal e the loss and avoid the use of fertl er money the president fully intended to go through with his plans respecting these two projects until he ran into vicious opposition in congress too many representatives and senators realized that they were going to have the names quoddy bay and florida canal hurled at them through the corn com ing campaign if they voted noted their ap by ii 11 eluding additional funds for these projects in the relief appo app o I 1 don t know what wha Is going to become of the homes the model city erected for workers near the quoddy bay project photographs of this village indicate it to be a corn com of which any resident might be proud it was con constructed strutted ted to assure the workers on the quoddy project a comfortable place in which to live they still have bane the comfortable place in which to live because the govern ment still owns the homes but what is to become of those people and what disposition is to be made of the property is something else again thus development of electric power from the tho tides of quoddy bay has been an eni deering question thit th it his h s raged for years as a contro controversy ersy it has recurred frequently as a political matter but never until the nev ne v deal came in were ere any tangible steps taken to install elec equipment in that bay where the tides run ruh higher than anywhere else in the world orld most engineers have contended that it was impossible to place in the bay equipment t that hat faced could function satis difficulties fact facto orlly rily while at the same time prodoc ing electric current at a rate that would bring a return on the tre investment necessary fur ther than that no one yet has been able to show where so much electric energy could be marketed the terri tory is sparsely spir sely settled and the indus trial production is small NAY hile it was contended that limitless power would bring industries into that section the indications were even after actual work started for only a small increment in the number of factories and other users of energy the quoddy power idea probably was the most fascinating and most romantic of anything proposed by the new deal for the purpose of creating jobs like the proposed florida ship canal it held potentialities but those whose opinions heretofore have been sound remain unconvinced that either the po ver er plan or the canal for a hort cut across florida ever could repay ta tie e government for money spent a western ln on |