Evening star. [volume], May 07, 1937, Page A-11, Image 11

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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G.O.P. Enjoys
Opportunity
in Crisis
j I
New Deal Foes, What
ever the Name, Must
Lay Issues Bare.
BV DAVID LAWRENCE.
FOR several days now there have
been discussions hereabouts
concerning the future of the
Republican party. Members of
the Senate and House have partici
pated in these informal deliberations,
but the net result
has not been to
bring forth any
definite formula
of action. The
underlying ques
tions appear to be
these:
1. Shall the
Republican party
change its name?
2. Shall a new
party be formed
out of Demo
crats who have
broken wi'h the
New Deal and
Republicans who
David Lawrence.
opposed the Presidents re-election?
The answers being given to the
first question are numerous, but it is
curious that the sentiment for a
change in name is diminishing. As
for the passible coalition with Demo
crats. it is being pointed out that the
matter is complicated by the existence
of local county organizations which
are essential to the national party
organization and which do not wish
to be swallowed up or eliminated in
any reorganization plan.
Not being a Republican myself,
never having voted the ticket or con
sidered myself a follower of its doc
trines, I perhaps am disqualified to
discuss what the Republican party
ought to do. But it is important
that all those who do not believe in
the alleged democracy of the New
Deal should have an opportunity to
express their beliefs through the
medium of a two party system.
Constructive Opposition Needed.
The real problem is how to de
velop a constructive opposition to the
party in power which has so much
political machinery at its disposal
through Government funds and pub
lic offices as to keep itself_entrenched
for several years to come unless there
Is an uprising of voters who care
nothing for party as such and a great
deal for principle.
Men like Senator Borah of Idaho
do not favor a change in name of the
Republican party. For one thing, it
would do no good to change the label
if the men behind the label were
dominated by the same reactionary
viewpoints that have been ao domi
nant in Republican national conven
tions.
The Republican party does not need
to undergo a change of name but a
change of heart. Like the present
Fo-called Democratic party, which at
times has professed a deep interest In
the welfare of the common man, the
Republican party first had the true
touch of devotion to the public Interest
find lost it in the maze of political
patronage and governmental favors
such as now envelop the New Deal
party and will in due time lead also
to defeat.
The Republican party has an
•extraordinary opportunity. A cross
section of the 17,000,000 who voted the
Republican ticket last Fall might be
fisked what they really want the
Republican party to do. Surely
17,000,000 cannot have been “eco
nomic royalists” or interested in tread
ing on the rights and opportunities of
their fellowmen. Seventeen million
persons constitute an enormous part
of the electorate and their co-opera
tion Is essential in making the eco
nomic system of the country function.
17,•00.000 Forgotten Voters.
For several months now there has
been a studied attempt on the part of
the President and his followers to
•'bow out of existence” the 17,000,000
Voters who registered their opposition
to the New Deal. The frequent ridi
cule of Maine and Vermont indulged
In by New Deal speakers, headed by
Rlr. Roosevelt himself, is designed to
foster the impression that the Nation
Voted almost unanimously, by 46 to 2,
last Autumn to give the President the
right to do as he pleases with every
thing from the Supreme Court- to the
smallest agency of Government.
The Republican party management,
©n the other hand, has assumed that
©11 of the 17,000.000 who voted the
Republican ticket were Republicans,
ror have any plans been made to take
Into the opposition ranks the persons
who now feel that they made a mis
take last Autumn when they assumed
that Mr. Roosevelt was not going to
try to change the American system of
Government.
There is, to be sure, need for a
new political party in America, one
that will repudiate the selfishness
of republicanism of recent years and
the fascism of the New Deal, which
is slowly but surely developing its
©wn adaptation of German and Ital
ian concepts of an all-powerful State
In which the rights of the individual
ere subordinated if not gradually ex
tinguished.
Such a new party might carry the
name Republican or any other name
bo long as it was plainly recognised
by the masses to be a party truly in
terested in the average man. Today
the New Deal is bringing about every
month a bigger and bigger cut in the
pay envelope of the workers by in
creasing the cost of living. The de
cline in "real wages”—as purchasing
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j Open Evenings and Sundays
News Behind the News
House Startles Observers by Beating Pension Bill,
Indicating Economy Move Is Real.
BY PAUL MALLON.
HE millennium arrived last Monday. On that day, the House of
Representatives declined to pass a pension bill. Lobbyists, old
timers and insiders may not believe it, but the Congressional
Record shows the House then refused to consider a bill appro
priating $5,000,000 a year more for soldiers, sailors and nurses of the Span
lsh-American War.
When legislators decline to vote for pension bills, you may be
reasonably certain that something is wrong with the world. In this
instance, it is a fairly good indication that the appropriators are
downright serious about setting President Roosevelt’s budget aright.
In fact, those who have joined the House and Senate Appropriations
Committees in their corner sessions lately have it on top authority that
Mr. Roosevelt s recommendation for a one and a half billion dollar relief
appropriation would be cut to a flat billion.
A majority of the two committees are agreed on it. Their decision
will De made purnic eventually.
The committeemen also have
some bad news in store for In
terior Secretary Ickes. The Sub
committee of the House Appropria
tions Committee has decided to
trim his P. W. A. expenditures down
to a point approaching abolition.
What the subcommittee says usu
ally goes, which means that the
Ickes era of P. W. A. spending is
probably nearing an end, by con
gressional edict.
MUR
P. W. A. expires June 30. A resolution extending it for two
years has been under consideration by the subcommittee. Mr. Ickes
has obligated the Federal Government for expenditures amounting to
S282.000.000 during this two-year extension period. In addition, he
has a $145.000.000 revolving fund, which amounts to a drawing
account on the Treasury.
The subcommittee has decided to let Mr. Ickes spend his $282,000,000
of obligations, but to cancel his drawing account. His $145,0C0.000 revolv
ing fund is to be abolished. Tire money automatically is applied to cur
tailing the national debt
In a word, this would be the end of the far-flung P. W. A., pet child
of Mr. Ickes.
* * * *
If these things work out. you will have to hand it to Congress. The
workings of this democracy down the ages have created the general supposi
tion that Congress is the irresponsible spending agency and the executive
is the sound retrenchment force. Now you have a situation in which the
Congress, under able and quiet leadership, is taking the budget in hand
to do an effective job on it. You have serious-minded legislators bent on
a common sense revision of Federal expenditures Instead of trying to hog
all they can from the Federal Treasury for their local districts.
It may seem to be too good to be true, and it probably is. but. if the
current drive is carried through, a lot of legislators who have just been
ordinary congressmen for the last few years, will earn justifiable renown
as statesmen.
What papa said, went. The Farley candidate for the secretary
ship of the Federal Communications Commission still is with the
Democratic National Committee, hoping for a job in the Commerce
Department. The successful candidate for the post was Thomas J.
Slouic. secretary to Representative William S Jacobsen of Iowa.
His selection was dictated by the President's son and secretary, James
Roosevelt. He was papa's candidate.
* *• • *
Mr. De Valera's new Irish state proposal impressed authorities here
far less than the headline writers. As they see it here, even if Mr. De
Valera can achieve his goal, he does not intend to remove himself from the
British commonwealth. He wants a status like that of Canada and Aus
tralia. but the big guns of the British Royal Navy are too comforting to
be abandoned.
• • • •
The latest check indicates Mr. Roosevelt cannot get six Justices, no
matter what he does. Even the House is against this. Many think the
best he can get there is two justices and a constitutional amendment pro
viding automatic retirement of judges over 70 or 75. The President, how
ever. has given no indication that he would compromise even to the extent
of half an eyelash of the sixth justice.
The truth is most legislators wish the court-packing plan had
never been offered. They would like to forget about it. They feel
that it is only a personal issue with the President, and less
important than he seems to believe it. Rumor also persists at the Capitol
that two court members intend to resign after the present term ends. If
rur trumS
MUST
Jd (i
mat snouia develop, men an tne
hard feeling engendered by the
court fight would have accom
plished minus zero.
The demagogue club is grow
ing rapidly. Legislators find it an
excellent outlet for objections they
do not care to voice in public. It
has become so well organized now
that groups of members are being
assigned subjects upon which to
debate. One group has the Power
Trust, which is always a superbly denouncable subject. To another .group
is assigned war, etc.
One member strolled in the other day and spent 20 minutes denounc
ing a bill. After having aired these conscientious objections from hit
chest, he announced he would go out and vote for the bill—and he did.
Another member pointed out that the lobbyists of a veterans’
organization were sitting in the gallery to keep a check on the votes
of members. He denounced them in forthright terms, but decided
that, after all. perhaps he had better keep on the right side of the
veterans. Said, he: "I will show the head of that organization that
I can be as demagoguic as he can "
He proved his point.
(Copyright. H».'i7.)
power of money is called—has been
noticeable for some time.
There are many persons who voted
the New Deal ticket last Autumn and
who do not care about party labels.
Many of these people today, rightly
or wrongly, consider the Republicans
to be indifferent to the true welfare
of the masses. If the new party which
emerged from the present situation
were called Republican but were fun
damentally interested in a program
to bring about a stabilised prosperity
and leaders of such a new party arose
whose sincerity were established by
their action in behalf of truly pro
gressive measures, the opportunity for
New Deal fascism to be extended
through a controlled judiciary, legal
ized monoplies and centralized gov
ernment might be considerably cur
tailed.
CCopyrlgiit, 1937 .J
CTHE opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not
x necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are presented in
The Star’s effort to give all sides of questions of interest to its
readers, although such opinions may be contradictory among
themselves and directly opposed to The Star’s.
Taxation and Criticism
Second Article on Theme Fears National Rudder Is
Seriously in Need of Repair.
BY DOROTHY THOMPSON.
* tr-pvHE NEW STATESMAN AND
I NATION,” Socialist in ori
I entation and an unofficial
organ of the British Labor
party, has attacked the new British
supertax on the profits of heavy indus
try on grounds strongly reminiscent
oi tne unheeded
criticism launch
ed In this coun
try against the
undis t r 1 b u t e d
profits tax. The
essence of that
criticism Is that
the tax discrimi
nates unjustly
against •'precisely
that section of
capital which at
least can claim
that it Is shoul
dering the maxi
mum risks of in
dustry, while the
Dorothy Thompson.
pure rentier goes scot free." Produc
tive energetic enterprise, which em
ploys labor and produces goods, is to
bear the brunt of high governmental
costs, while the rentier—bond and
mortgage holders in general, and espe
cially holders of government and
municipal bonds—remains protected.
"Bv what standards, capitalist or
socialist, is it justifiable?" asks "The
New Statesman."
“From the Socialist standpoint,”
continues the criticism, "this new tax
(national defense contribution) is
superficially an attractive proposition.
It doubtless will suppress stock mar
ket exuberance and ostensibly it satis
fies the just demand that prosperous
citizens should not make undue profits
out of rearmament * • *
Effects Cause Misgivings.
"It is when the practical effects of
this tax In a capitalist system are
considered that misgivings arise.
Adroit though it be from an election
eering angle, there is room for grave
doubt whether 'N. D. C.' may not
prove administratively a nuisance,
occasion considerable hardship and
injustice and intensify economically
the very trouble in the way of an
inflationary boom which it professedly
sets out to check.
"The unsheltered (non-consumer
goodsi industries are now beginning
to enjoy ampler profits . . . accru
ing in much greater degree from world
recovery. Their capital needs for re
equipment are great, and in many
cases—e. g., shipping—adequate pro
vision for depreciation has not yet
been made; yet their earnings are to
be mulcted, while those of the con
sistently prosperous 'consumer' lndus
trise will scarcely be touched unless
they can be proved to be earning huge
percentages on their 'real capital.’
"As between similarly situated con
cerns. the tax- will create gross
anomalies. ... In its incidence the
holder of true risk-bearing bonds and
prior charges, whatever may be his
wealth, is left unscathed. Its burden
falls exclusively on the entrepre
neur.” . . .
The psychological effect of the tax.
it Is further pointed out, is likely to
be adverse, above all in the case of
“new” industries such as those pro
jected for the distressed areas.
In the light of this criticism, which
in England comes from the intelligent
opposition of the Left, consider again
the arguments which the United
States Chamber of Commerce urged
against the undistributed profits tax
before the Senate Finance Commit
tee last year:
(1) The tax would not provide the
it's a SECRET- • BUT MOTHER SAYS
ITLL BE THE TOAST OF THE TOWN!
additional $620,000,000 in taxe*—to
balance even the so-called "regular"
budget.
(2) It would replace a method which
is certain with an untried and highly
complex one.
(3) The measure discriminates
against enterprises which are new or
financially weak in favor of those
which are intrenched with ample sur
plus funds and available sources of
capital. Companies with heavy debts
or with depression-depleted reserves,
and new and unseasoned enterprise*,
could not accumulate sufficient earn
ings to attain an adequate capital po
sition.
(4) The banking, investment and
general credit position of many busi
ness enterprises would be needlessly
Impaired. Those with bonded in
debtedness would be penalized for
attempting to retire it.
(5) The measure is apparently based
on the false assumption that a cor
porate surplus consists of idle cash.
(6) The plan disregards the need of
companies with widely fluctuating
earnings to put aside a substantial
portion of their Incomes in good years
to carry them over bad ones, whereas
other corporations with fairly steady
earnings would be in a position to
escape the imposition of the penalty
rates.
(7) The heavy penalties upon re
tention of earnings for business ex
pansion would retard re-employment
and recovery from the present de
pression.
Experience Upholds Criticism.
Already, a year from the date o<
these criticisms, experience is begin
ning to show how justified they were,
They were made, not only by business
men, but by most of the economists of
the country. They were disregarded,
purely—as far as I can see—because
of the sources from which they came,
and because, in the last two years a
curious thing has been happening in
America: Without any socialist party
or philosophy seriously contending for
responsibility and power, faith in
capitalism, and the recognition of its
laws and realities, has been continually
assaulted by a Government ostensibly
pledged to its maintenance, and policy
has been colored by unconscious
Marxian dogmas based on fallacious
and oversimplified reading of the
human motive and society. The result
is that we move neither toward the
establishment of clearer capitalist
principles nor toward a socialist state,
but only Into a confusion, in which
productive enterprise is being drained
to support a Government constantly
extending its responsibility for the
maintenance in one way or another of
larger and larger numbers and groups
of people, without any half-way clear
idea of where the process will stop, or
how, in the long run, it Is to be sup
ported.
Obviously, at such a time, a criticism
which constantly demands the state
ment of objectives, and analysis of the
means we are taking to achieve them,
is urgently necessary. And this leads
me back to the original point of these
two columns.
(copxmnt 1937.»
_
This Changing World
Menace to State by Fourth Internationale Causing
Anxious Moments in Moscow.
BY CONSTANTINE BROWN.
THE world is changing so rapidly that sometimes it is difficult to keep up.
The Soviet government was considered a few years ago a danger
to other countries. Germany and Italy still harp on the Bolshevist
menace to the world but this is another matter; Russia has Im
mense supplies of raw materials which Germany wants to acquire.
Now the communist govern
ment in Moscow Is worried to death
about the menace to the founda
tion of the state from the Fourth
Internationale which is slowly .
gaining power and tends to sup
plant the Third Internationale
with headquarters in Moscow. ^
To the real Communists who
adJ>ocate a fight to the bitter end
by the world proletariat against
capitalism are dissatisfied with 1
the policies of the Moscow government. The Soviet government has
become recently just another bourgeois regime where all national
resources and the activities of individuals are subject to the supreme
idea of state. From that angle there is practically no difference
between the V. S. S. R., Germany, Italy and the other authoritarian
governments which exist today or are in process of being created.
* * * *
The idea of a world revolution where the proletariat will reign supreme
has been abandoned by Stalin and his collaborators. The real revolution
aries throughout the world have now gathered in a Fourth Internationale,
much more advanced than the Third. For the time being their activities
are more or less undercover. But the flare up in Barcelona betwepn the
Communists and the so-called anarchists is the result of these two different
political philosophies.
The Soviet government apparently is more worried about this
new move than any other country. As in the Czarist regime, the
G. P. U. is taking the same measure as the Czar’s Ochrana to pre
vent the infiltration of insidious ideas in the Soviet territory In
dividuals suspected of spreading revolutionary propaganda are
arrested. It won’t be long before the Soviet government will adopt
the same methods against revolutionaries coming over from France
and other Western countries, as these states took against Communist
agitators in the early days of the Russian revolution.
The idea of the preservation of the Constitution is played up big with
the Russian people. Their nationalism is also being exploited by the
administration. It is said openly that the attempt to disrupt the present
organization of the State comes principally from Russia's outside enemies,
principally Germany, which is encouraging the anarchists to work against
the Moscow government. And to show that this argument is correct, the
Russian people are reminded that Lenin and a carload of his followers were
smuggled by the German army in 1917 into Russia to upset the Kerensky
regime. History is likely to repeat itself, say the Russian leaders, unless
the government keeps a watchful eye on these German maneuvers.
* * * *
Tlie fighting value of the Italian army is being seriously questioned
by army experts. After the Ethiopian campaign it was conceded by Euro
pean general staff officers that the new army could no longer be com
pared with what the Italian used to be during the war.
In the Spanish civil war the blackshirts have not given such a
good account of themselves. They were defeated before Madrid and now
it appears that they are having a
hard time to destroy the resistance
of the Basque militia It may be
that the Italian militiamen are not
as good as the regular army, if we
are to believe that no regulars have
been sent to help Franco. It may
also be that the Italians are better
fighters when they fight for their
country; that is to say when they
know that a victory means some
material advantage for the kingdom.
au incse tilings are possible. The cold fact however is that the
blackshirts are no match, not only for the International brigade which
lights with the loyalist for an ideal, but not even for the Basque militia.
* * * *
The Anschluss (union) between Germany and Austria has practically
been achieved by delayed action.
This is the correct interpretation of the Mussolini-Schuschnigg
interviews at Venice, when 11 Duce opposed the reinstatement of the
Hapsburg dynasty and of the subsequent interviews of Mussohni
Neurath-Goering, after Schuschnigg went back to Vienna, a some
what disappointed man.
Whether the European powers like to admit ft or not. it is an indis
putable fact that the central European block composed of Germany,
Italy, Austria and Hungary is now a reality.
It is composed of about 120,000.000 people who will shriek louder than
In the past for expansion and raw materials.
Headline Folk
and What
They Do
Czar of London Bus
Strikers Like Late
Sam Gompers.
BY LEMUEL F. PARTON.
There Isn't a line in the British
“Who's Who" about the one man who
can make or mar the coronation
and who is causing more headaches
and loss of sleep in certain quar
ters than any other person. Stanley
Baldwin’s fervid plea to "rend and
dissipate this dark cloud which is
gathered over us” is addressed, in
effect, to big. husky, moon-faced Er
nest Bevin, head of the Transport
Workers' Union and czar of the
London busmen's strike England, it
seems, is going to have company
and doesn't want any trouble in the
family. Mr. Baldwin's plea Is one of
the most impassioned and eloquent of
his career.
Mr. Bevin has made quite a score
tying knots in the lion’s tail, even
when the lion wasn't on parade.
Transport is Brittania’s Achilles heel.
Leading the big dock strike in 1926,
he dealt the country a case of the
jitters from which it hasn't yet re
covered. In 1924 he had 100,000 dock
workers out in a strike for a 2-shill
mg-a-day rise.
On that occasion he proved that
coronation impresarios have r.o mo
nopoly on showmanship. Employers
brought into a conference a distin
guished professor, with charts and
l statistics, assaying a week's rations
; purchasable by the docker's wage.
The professor showed that a docker
j could get fat on his earnings and have
money left over. Mr. Bevin. antici
pating this, brought in a few bags of
food, bought out of a weekly wage.
I The total was not impressive. The
i employers granted a shilling increase.
| Mr. Bevin got a fanfare of publicity
1 out of this which made him a power
i in England. He became the “docker's
’ K. C,” the initials standing for King's
counsel.
He is, if anything, a shade more
conservative than Stanley Baldwin.
He runs Communists out of the union,
cries down Communist doctrine,
doesn't want any truck with Russia,
snubs the intelligentsia when they
come around with social philosophies
and appeals to ancient British patriot
ism and nationalism. Like the late
Samuel Gompers, he is against labor
mixing in politics of any kind. Ke
matches somewhat our own bulky and
intransigent John L. Lewis, also a foe
of the left-wingers.
[ He doesn't tell Mr Baldwin whether
he will or he won't "rend and dissi
pate the dark cloud," but he does
hold in check the trolley car and
j trolley bus workers who want to head
into the strike. He comes from the
; Limehouse district, never represented
in British pageantry, and probably
has more to say about things in Eng
land than anybody else ever born in
that section
(Copyright. 1937.1
Year Record for Tourists.
While only 7.000 visitors came, and
! most of them spent only a day, the
j Dominican Republic is pleased be
cause 1936 was its record tourist year
HOLDS ITS HEAD
HIGH
-/kitf Cctujf&Hy
BEER
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for there is universal appeal to the Senate
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tingly, but it’s there, and the yeast has brought
it across the finishing line with the help of
picked quality ingredients. If you’d have new
relish for your next meal start with a glass of
Senate!
CHR. HEUBICH BREWING CO.
WASHINGTON. D.C.
Dine Out During National Restaurant Week,
May 3rd to 9th
BEER ‘9fujh 0n Any CovnytMty
t k t A