Show national topics interpreted by william bruckart washington Ill history story shows that many years are required for the accomplishment of realignment a transition in voters vote ra new alegn S ments in party groups are seldom if ever brought about in the s span pan of a lifetime yet those alignments appear now to be very near so near in tact fact that astute political observers of national politics are looking 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 arc generally prone to dismiss each little incident as without particular significance nevertheless each one counts and in the aggregate it if we pause to collect them the minor cli changes anges constitute the web and pattern of a great movement hence circumstances of the last tew 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 case 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 aff affiliation illation with one party or the other solely on the basis of economic views of the party chosen in other words there are those who believe in attempting new dew 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 spec tive 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 those these observers is that perhaps as early as the national campaign of 19 1930 26 there will be shifts from republican 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 serva tive athe the roosevelt campal campaign n last bear i ear 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 protest vote that went to the roosevelt candidacy much of that will be back home in the republican ranks if and when mr roosevelt makes the race for president again excluding that protest vote there were thousands who had checked the republican lean ballots heretofore who will never do so BO again that brings me to the present situation tia tion the circumstance that has come over the question of what sort of money we shall have mr roose belts monetary policies have found favor in vast areas of the country and they have met with an objection as vehement veli ement and as bitter as peacetime views can be the result of all this Is an issue that 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 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 may shift thellis eh es with it had been allegiance t their b e I 1 r opposition party I 1 cannot include such men inen as alfred E smith former governor of new york and 1028 presidential candidate of the democratic party nor can it be expected that senator carter glass of virginia will desert the anili atlon of his lifetime to turn republican even cen though both of 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 observers here contend that it Is quits quite pos possible bible that the ln la follette Fol lotte group of wisconsin and its step ebil dren 1 in ollier states stales and the norris faction in nebraska with its kindred the brookhart group in iowa and the johnson republicans of california Ifor rila among ot others hers might logically be expected to transfer thel their allegiance to the liberal party they have been republicans only in part for some years arid and senator norlis campaigned for roosevelt as he did for smith in 1928 while these fik tiow and Nv wings Ings of the republicans may be looked epou as neuil idail able timber for the anticipated liberal party there ire are a greit great many democrats ho ire are democrats anost al solely because they happened to have been born or located later it IH a thoroughly democratic idea they are conservative by birth birt tt and instinct and by judgment it would seem geem to be a situation therefore in accordance with the way seasoned observers size it up namely that tho the republican party eventually will be the completely conservative party and the democratic party will carry the banner of the liberal thought of 0 the country pursuing this reasoning further it Is made to appear that eventual eventually ly we may see the party divisions formulated sharply in accordance with the type of commerce and industry in each section of the coun try for example the manufacturing cities of the east may be expected to be hidebound hide bound conservative as one extreme while hard driven farm areas in the middle west may as naturally be expected to go liberal if not radically liberal general johnson the national recovery administrator burst out with a new threat the johnsons other day and threat the corus 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 government ii 14 going to police business unless business polices itself under the codes of fair competition all 0 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 country I 1 feel that the general would be biting oft off more than he can chew if he proceeds far on the program implied by his announcement there can be no honest doubt that chiseling chi g as mr roosevelt describes it Is taking place in almost every community to a greater or less extent it Is evident to anyone taking ta k the trouble to look about him there are hundreds of businesses that have signed the code of fair competition with their fingers crossed they knew it would be dangerous to refuse to sign and GO BO they signed in order to get the famed blue eagle insignia but they had no intention of 0 living up to their obligation so as I 1 see the problem perhaps general johnson is right in demanding that business be policed the weakness of his plan however Is inherent in the scheme for controlling business federal control necessarily means that the national government ernI nent lias 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 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 as many or more meddlesome battles matt les get into the johnson police as were found in the prohibition police and there will be some out crooks get jobs the meddlesome individuals either through fanaticism or through a misguided sense of duty will stir up more fuss in a few minutes than they ought to stir up in a year crooks if any get in will bleed business which w nili ill 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 backs doryl da treasury have lately come through a brisk although brief battle with the new acting secretary henry jr no sooner had mr air who Is only forty two henrs old been Ins installed rus as acting secretary than lie sought to curb the rights of the correspondents by forbidding his subordinates to talk with the writers it was censorship sor ship shili it if ever censorship was attempted the writers rose up in righteous wrath and with fin an announcement no that there would be no compromise on the principle the battle lasted as a matter of fact only three days before the acting in secretary called the correspondents to his office to incite them to agree on a modification of ills his gag rule ile he ans met with an absolute refusal to agree to any proposal unless that proposal contemplated freedom of the writers i to seek and obtain factual information thi that was a mutter matter of record and properly available to the public the rica now w head of the treasury vas x as in a t tough 0 ill 11 n spot and he yielded on all points point s which the writers demanded as their privilege except that lie requested they avold avoid seeking information on treasury policies from the dubor binate officials since the corre spon dents never have been willina waling to lo tako information ou on the fra ing of policies from aron anyone in 0 official iclal life excel excepting Aing those who decide 1 1 e questions of policy licy namely depart rt ment heads the writers felt they thes had won and were satisfied Q 1333 1933 western newspaper Nowa pAper union |