Show washington digest shaping of national policies influenced by work of congress party defections defeats and victories of president have important place in picture growing split in democratic party blamed on roosevelt by WILLIAM BRUCKART service national press bid washington D C washington when one examines political situations and maneuvers neu vers there is nearly always a tendency to overestimate the imbor tance of the current activity that is to say an action or a policy just completed is generally likely to be given an appraisal that exaggerates its significance political plans on the contrary ought to be looked upon in the mass this is especially true of national politics which of course involves the national party and voting strength for these reasons there seems to be need for a review of the first session of the seventy sixth congress tha things that have happened the party defections and party realignments temporary defeats for the president and balancing victories for him and his political philosophy all should be analyzed the result of all of these things is the important bit of history it is important because it has a direct bearing on the 1940 political campaign and voting it is more valuable to see the shaping of national policies at this time than usual because of the efforts being made to put forward president roosevelt for a precedent breaking third term in the white house most alost every one has been aware since since 1936 that a split in democratic party strength has been growing mr roosevelt himself led the way and was perhaps the main cause of the present wide breach it will be remembered how he sought to purge the democratic party of senators george of georgia smith of south carolina tydings of maryland and representative oconnor of new york he failed on all except the new york representative senta tive so there were three senior members of the united states able openly to battle mr Roosevel ts policies around these three have since collected all of those democrats who fear radical leadership in the party who fear a roosevelt third term and who are determined to restore party control to those who have been responsible for a long line of party successes old line democrats succeed in building 1940 platform there has been much written and spoken about maneuvers underneath and what the results of these maneuvers are I 1 am inclined to the opinion however that only now after seven months of the first session of the seventy sixth congress are we able to evaluate them properly the various acts of congress the various attitudes arid defeats and victories can now be placed in the basket when they are sh shaken iken up it strikes me that the old line democrats have succeeded in building what amounts to a national democratic platform for 1940 and that platform can reasonably be said to be one upon which no real new dealer can run for the presidency next year perhaps the statement of senator joe guffey of pennsylvania evaluates the circumstance better than I 1 can do guffey new dealer closer associate of the president than mr roosevelt sometimes desired asserted in a recent radio address that mr roosevelt has had no term in the white house at all for his work was destroyed by the supreme court in the first term and was wrecked by tories in the second years when one places the seething mass of legislation bureaucracy and propaganda under a microscope mr guffey undoubtedly is is correct if the view is from the new deal angle alone the wild reforms proposed by the brain trust of the first term were knocked down by the sup supreme reme court further attempts to rebuild america were slowed down by congress little by little until the current session of congress has been telling the P president rest what to do in a great many instances thus it can be said the president remade the supreme court to his liking but he lost congress and it is well to remember just here that the supreme co court urt decides only qu questions that are brought before it if congress does not enact questionable laws the highest court does not get a cliance chance to hold them constitutional congress takes back power delegated to mr ro roosevelt cosevelt it becomes less difficult therefore to sit back now and use hindsight we see practically from the time of the purge how congress began to take back powers it delegated to mr roosevelt in the hectic dys days of 1933 and 1934 A bite here and a bite there the pinnacle was t reached when the senate lucked kicked out the presidents power to devalue the dollar and took away the right to buy silver with a repulsive and disgusting subsidy of course after a bi brief lapse those powers were div given en hack back to th the e president but there is is significance in that fact it showed that when congress is ready it will be just as free to take away from the president as it was to give powers to him before the party breach in between the extremes just mentioned and particularly within the current session of congress there have been unmistakable signs of congressional domination I 1 do not mean to say that the democratic wheel horses in congress have thrown the president overboard they have chosen to chisel away his strength they have avoided knockdown and drag out battles as much as possible unless the issues were paramount their strategy plainly has been to build strength for themselves in their own districts and in in their own states rather slowly the whole thing amounts to a program of education of the voters who a few brief years ago were hailing mr roosevelt as the national savior I 1 believe the work has gone so far now that most of the democrats in in congress have considerable support in their home playgrounds to elaborate on the generalities which have been stated above I 1 may cite such things as the house determination to continue the investigation something new dealers did not want additional funds were voted for continuation of the investigation of un american activities headed by representative dies of texas a program openly attacked by the new dealers the constant threats of congressional investigation vesti gation of the labor belati relations ons board and the federal communications commission are two other things which the inner circle of new dealers are moving heaven and and earth to prevent many things that annoyed new deal faction of party reduction of the fund total early in the spring while small was just another annoying mosquito bite on the new dealers legs the voting of furloughs furroughs for workers who have had 18 months of continuous checks was disliked by and was thoroughly distasteful to the new deal deai faction of the party nor did mr roosevelt want to see congress change the tax laws senator harrison of mississippi together with undersecretary I 1 laynes haynes of the treasury worked out the law that was passed it eliminated the principal schemes for reform that the new dealers had sponsored in the days when congress was completely subservient to the white house it is to be noted just here too that these tax changes had the support of chairman doughton n of the house ways and means committee who had been a dependable ye yes s man for the pre president aident up to that time changes that were made in the social security laws were ne never ver acceptable cep table to the inner circle of new dealers who constitute the presidents principal advisors but again congress showed its teeth in only a snarl the senate foreign relations committee gave the administration something more than name calling however on the question of neutrality legislation this of course followed a real spanking by the house the house it will be recalled took the administrations neutrality program and butchered it right out where all could see what was going on president gets plain mad the way things are going it might be proper at this time to call attention to another phase of the situation here although it can hardly be said to be a part of the circumstance that I 1 have been discussing cus sing lately mr air roosevelt has had his dutch up so to speak and has not minced words for example he called in lyle wil wilson s on head of the united press bureau here and denounced mr air wilson and his organization for sending out dispatches which the president said were untrue these dispatches or one particularly told of a purported split between mr roosevelt and the able and patient secretary hull 0 of f the dep department artmont of state their differences were reported to be over the presidents policy on neutrality anyway the incident wound up with with the president taking the almost unprecedented action of issuing a public statement accusing the united press of falsification of the facts this series of incidents came after many reports were in circulation at the capitol that mr roosevelt was mad about the way things were going whether these reports were true or false they were se seized iz ed upon by republicans and by the democrats who no longer want any part of roosevelt policy they were spread in the most fanciful fashion and there was no opportunity overlooked by which those old around the congress could add to the presidents discomfiture of coul course se all of this is a part ot ol the great game of politics released by western newspaper union I 1 |