Show 6 90 national Nati oral topics interpreted by william bruckart NV washington ashington Ill history story shows that many years are required for the accomplishment ot of a realignment transition in politics of voters new alignments in party groups are seldom if 1 ever brought about in the span ot of a lifetime yet those alignments appear app ear now to be very near so near in fact that astute political observers of national politics are looking tor for a shakeup that will have been virtually completed when the time arrives for another national election because things move so slowly in political transitions I 1 believe we are generally prone to dismiss each little incident as without particular cance nevertheless each one counts and in the aggregate if we pause to collect them the minor changes constitute the web or pattern of a great movement mm ement hence circumstances of the last few weeks necessarily must be weighed for in those circumstances Is seen that which may verily prove to be the beginning of the final stage in a national realignment of voters and as has been the vase rase in some other political changes among voters in the united states money Is the focal point the center about which the whole thing revolves there Is developing according to the best political judgment available in washington a definite trend among party men and women toward affiliation with one party or the fhe other sole ly on the basis of economic views of the party chosen in other words there are those who believe in attempting new things in government and in its relationship with commerce and industry and there are those who believe in allowing private initiative to lead the way and develop the changes as human nature demands roughly the two types like to describe themselves as liberals and conservatives in accordance with the respective views set out above so the political observers who study those things day after day and interpret their meaning are of the opinion that important changes are coming the conclusions reached by many of these observers Is that perhaps as early as the national campaign of 1036 there will be shifts from hean rolls to democratic rolls and shifts of others from democratic rolls to republican rolls in sufficient numbers to have established one of the parties as distinctly liberal and the other as distinctly conservative the roosevelt campaign last year developed enormous shifts that Is it developed a transfer of voters from republican ranks to those of the democrats for permanent residence in pointing to the fact I 1 do not include the pro test lest vote that went to the roosevelt candidacy much of that will be hick back home in the republican ranks if and when mr roosevelt Roo makes the race for president again excluding that protest vote there were thousands who had bad checked the republican ballots heretofore who will never do so again that brings me to the present situation the circumstance that has come over the question of what sort of money ve ne shall have mr Roosevel alts ts monetary policies have found favor in vast areas of the country and they have met with an objection as vehement and as bitter as peacetime peace time views can be the result of nil of this Is I 1 an issue has been so sharply drawn that a decision by the country cannot be avoided barring one thing that one thing Is a return to prosperity prop erity at a rate much faster than is possible to expect when I 1 said there would be partisans leaving their old political haunts to ally themselves may shift with ith what hail had been A allegiance their opposition party I 1 cannot include c such men as alfred E B smith former governor of new york and 1928 1923 presidential candidate of the democratic party nor can it be expected that senator carter glass of virginia will desert the Wil lation Illi atlon of his lifetime to turn republican even though both the former governor and the senator strongly espouse sound money but they serve as illustrations of the point I 1 am trying to make if those two men were not so high up in party councils they might leave the party thousands of less consequence will do it observers here contend that it Is quite bulte possible that the la follette group of wisconsin and its step chil dren in ID other states and the norris faction in ID nebraska with its kindred klu dred the brookhart group in iowa and the johnson republicans of california among others might logically be expected to transfer their allegiance to the liberal party they have been republicans public ans only in part for some years and senator norris campaigned for roosevelt as he did for smith in 1928 13 while these factions and wings of the republicans may be looked upon as available timber for the anticipated liberal party there are a great many democrats who mho are de democrats almost solely because they happened happen pd to have been born or located later in a thoroughly democratic idea they are conservative by birth and instinct and by judgment it would seem to be a situation therefore in accordance with the way seasoned observers size it up namely that the republican party eventually will be the completely conservative party and the democrats will carry the banner of the liberal thought of the country pursuing this reasoning further it Is made to appear that eventually we may see the party divisions formulated sharply in accordance with the type of commerce and industry in each section of the country for example the manufacturing cities of the fast east may be expected to be hidebound hide bound conservative as one extreme while hard delv en farm areas in the middle west may as naturally be expected to go liberal if not radically liberal liberal and conservative thought obviously divide on economic lines the stage seems to be set for consummation of that which has been in the making since the bull moose days when theodore roosevelt bolted the laicans 0 0 general johnson the national recovery administrator burst out with a new threat the johnsont johnsons other day and the threat chorus of chortles that it evoked leads me to believe he has moved out on the wrong foot the general once a hard boiled cavalry officer who remains hard boiled says that the federal era government Is going to police business unless business polices itself under the codes of fair competition all AH of which Is possible of course but in my wanderings around the capital city and in conversations with business men from other parts of the the country I 1 feel that the general would be biting ot off more than he can chew it if he proceeds far on the program implied by his announcement there can be no honest doubt thal thai chiseling chi as mr roosevelt ch described it Is taking place in almost every community to a greater or less extent it is evident to anyone taking the trouble to look about him there are hundreds of businesses that have signed the codes of fair competition with their fingers crossed they knew it would be dangerous to refuse to sign and so they signed in order to get the famed blue eagle insignia but they had no intention of living up to their obligation it Is a sad gad commentary yet it is true that a certain element of business and quite a large element at that cannot be trusted so as I 1 see the problem perhaps general johnson is right in de mandin that business be policed the weakness of his plan however Is inherent in the scheme for controlling bus business ineis federal control necessarily means that the national government has to inject itself into the private affairs of all and that Is the sort of thing that led up to repeal of the eighteenth amendment people resented interference from the government in I 1 their heir personal affairs then there Is another phase of the problem a difficulty as applicable to prohibition as it Is in general johnsons plan thousands of persons will be required for this policing job just as thousands were used in prohibition enforcement there will be ns as many or more meddlesome matt mattics les get into the johnson pollee police as were found in the prohibition police and there will be some few straight out crooks crook get jobs the meddlesome individuals either through fanaticism or through a misguided sense of duty will stir up more fuss fuse in a few minutes than they ought to stir up in a year crooks if any get in will bleed business which will be forced to pay for protection exactly as occurred in the case of prohibition 0 washington newspaper correspondents who devote their time to writing of financial affairs in the treasury have backs ni down lately come through a brisk although ataw brief battle with the new acting see sec detary henry jr no sooner had sir mr who Is only forty two years old been installed as acting secretary than ho be sought to curb the rights of the correspondents by forbidding his dubor donates to talk with fill the writers it was censorship if ever censorship was attempted the writers rose up in righteous wrath and with an announce ment that there would be no compromise on the principle the battle lasted as a matter of fact only three days before the acting secretary called the correspond ants to his office to invite them to agree to a modification of his bis gag rule ile he was nas met with an absolute refusal to agree to any proposal unless that proposal contemplated freedom of the writers to seek and obtain actual information that was a matter of record and properly available to the public the new head of the treasury was in a tough spot and he be yielded on ball all points which the writ era demanded as their privilege except that he be requested they avoid seeking information on treasury policies from the subordinate officials since the correspondents never tune haie been will ing to take information on uie the framing of policies from anyone in official life excepting those who decide questions question of policy namely department heads the writers felt they had won and were satisfied C |