Evening star. [volume], May 19, 1938, Page A-11, Image 11

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

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Earle Record
Held Issue
in Vote
State Democratic Head
Says Jones Not Foe
of Roosevelt.
Bv DAVID LAWRENCE.
ON THE subject of the Penn
sylvania primary elections, it
seemed an appropriate occa
sion yesterday for me to in
terview the man with whom I am
sometimes confused—David L. Law
rence. who happens to be chairman
David Lawrence.
,Df the Demo
cratic State
Commi 11 e e of
Pennsylv ania
and also secre
tary of the Com
rnonwe a 11 h at
Harrisburg.
‘•Well, for one
thin g," said
Chairman Law
rence, "t here
wasn’t any New
*Deal or anti-New
Deal issue on our
side, that is in
the Democratic
prima r i e s. We
were all for Roosevelt. We conducted
the campaign on a high plane and
entirely on the record of Gov. Earle,
which evidently satisfied the Demo
cratic voters of the State.”
”What,” I asked, “was the princi
pal issue—was it the C. I. O.?”
‘‘It was Gov. Earle's progressive
record. We had the support of a
substantial number of labor votes.
After Mr. Kennedy was put into the
rare by the C. I O. it was natural
that the A. F. of L. would be sympa
thetic to us.”
‘ It has been said.” I remarked,
■‘that your candidate for governor,
Charles Alvin Jones, was an anti
Roosevelt man. having been against
him in 1932—was this factor in the
result?”
Stumped for Roosevelt.
“Our opponents tried to work up
that idea, but the facts are that,
while Mr. Jones was for A1 Smith at
the Chicago convention of 1932, he
was not a part of the stop-Roosevelt
movement there. Mr. Jones stumped
,the State for Mr. Roosevelt in 1932
and 1936 and he was a liberal even
before the New Deal.”
“What is your opinion.” I inquired,
‘‘of the large Republican vote in the
primaries?"
‘‘The Democratic and Republican
registration of voters in Pennsyl
vania.'' replied Chairman Lawrence,
"is about evenly divided. We each
have about 2.000.000 registered and
there isn't nowadays more than 100,
^00 votes between us on the registra
tion records. The Republicans this
year had a real contest as between
Mr. Pinchot and Judge James, so
they had something to brine out their
vote, too. But I don't think the total
primary vote was unusually large.”
G. O. P. Total.
It turns out that the combined Re
publican vote was somewhat in excess
of the Democratic totals, but neither
party polled more than about 60 to
§5 per cent of the registered vote.
I gathered from my talk with Chair
man Lawrence that it would be his
effort as State chairman to' try to
reconcile the factions in the Demo
cratic party, but that, the task had
not been made easier by the falling
out inside the party over the selec
tion of candidates.
National Chairman Farley's state
ment urging the election of both Mr.
Earle and Mr. Kennedy looks now
(in retrospect to have been a means
of trying to satisfy both factions, even
though it was probably known that
Mr. Kennedy might lose out. Cer
tainly the national administration has
kept faith with the C. I. O. and at
the same time has heliied pick the
winner, George Earle, for the Senate.
The latter is a pro-Roosevelt man,
any way, and, if he is elected to the
Senate, will join the rubber-stamp
group of Democratic Senators who do
whatever Mr. Roosevelt tells them to
•do.
Much of Mr. Earle's political
Strength as Governor came from the
ease with which he got Federal funds
Into Pennsylvania from the Roosevelt
administration, so, in a sense, the
Roosevelt policy of helping Governors
get promoted to the Senate by the
use of party machinery and Federal
funds has worked out again—at least
so far as the party nomination is
concerned.
Davis Versus Earle.
The voters of Pennsylvania will
now have to decide whether they
want Senator Janies J. Davis re-elect
ed or Gov. Earle. Mr. Davis unques
tionably had the support of the Re
publican members of the American
Federation of Labor. He is a 'strong
union man and for 10 years was Sec
retary of Labor in the Harding, Cool
idge and Hoover cabinets and is held
in high esteem in labor circles gen
erally. It would not be surprising if
a large part of the Democratic vote
which went for Mayor Wilson of Phil
adelphia as nominee for Senator, and
which is opposed to Gov. Earle, will
be found lined up for Senator Jim
Davis in the autumn elections, so
his chances of re-election would seem
& have been immeasurably improved,
This last inference should not be
attributed to Chairman Lawrence,
who. by the way, has a middle initial
in his name, the letter “L.” I gather
that it doesn’t stand for "Lewis.”
My own impression of the primarj
f is that the A. F. of L. is more of a
factor than has been generally real
% p.■■■■...
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The Capital Parade
Roosevelt Offers Aid to New Deal Candidates in
Primaries Despite Advice of Farley.
By JOSEPH ALSOP mnd ROBERT KINTNER.
THE President has offered his august encouragement to New Deallsh
candidates in primaries in South Carolina, Georgia and elsewhere.
In so doing, he has ignored the urgent advice of his oldest political
crony, James A. Farley. And he has sided, once and for all, with the
newer strategists of his administration’s left wing, who long to see the
Democratic party remade into a sort of popular front.
The President and his Postmaster General have had a long-standing
quarrel over the best course for the Democracy. Big Jim is a shrewd man,
but no lover of novelties. He has pleaded'for “organization politics.” He
has argued that, so long as the winners of local elections were labeled
DON'T
GO in THERE.
chief, Please/
Af'e.
• Democrat," it was silly to worry
about their views on such measures
as the wage-hour bill. In effect,
he has told the President:
"There's no use bucking the
boys in the precincts.”
From the start, the President
was more inclined to listen to
Harry L. Hopkins, Robert H. Jack
son, Harold L. Ickes and other more
anonymous advisers, who have de
manded "politics of principle.”
They have placed tneir empnasis not on party iauei», uiu uu ouyyvn.
the New Deal program. In effect, they have warned the President:
“The conservatives are ganging up for 1940. What does your suc
cessor’s label matter, if he shares none of your beliefs? You must fight
hard, and now.”
* * * *
The President has made his usual coy announcement that he is not
“interfering in local primaries.” Nevertheless, every one knows he is. The
best proofs are South Carolina and Georgia, where pro-New Deal Governors
have been persuaded by the White House to seek the Senate seats of the
hard-shelled conservative Democrats, Cotton Ed Smith and Walter F.
George.
Another instance, less clear, but quite as important, Is Pennsyl
vania. The Farley statement, indorsing Gov. Earle for the Senate
and the Gufley-C. I. O. candidate, Tom Kennedy, for the governor
ship was the outcome of C. I. O. insistence that the administration go
down the line for its progressive allies. And here again, while John
L. Lewis was dissatisfied by the omission of Mayor Wilson, the Guf
fey-C. I. O. Senate candidate, from the indorsement, the President
chose the course leading to a popular front. The Pennsylvania
venture turned out sourly, but its result has not modified the Presi
dent's intentions.
Two big arguments were used by the advocates of “politics of prin
ciple." The first was the Illinois primary, in which Gov. Henry Horner
trimmed Chicago's Kelly-Nash machine. In this primary, it was argued,
the Kelly-Nash forces lost as much because they stood for “politic^ of
organization” and machine rule as for any other reason.
* * *
The second argument, of course, was the Florida primary, in which
the turn was so aptly called by James Roosevelt. It was remarked here
some time ago that, after the primary in Florida, the President would .return
from his fishing trip loaded for bear. He did.
The President's choice of “politics of principle” is vastly significant
for several reasons. In the first place, it means that he has shot his politi
cal roll on one throw of the dice. If lus New Deafish candidates come out
on top in the primaries and survive the election, he will collect the whole
/S-OUT 'N
Wales',
I
pne on me tauie. iic win uv m a
position to remake the Democratic
party in the image desired by his
left-wing advisers. And if the dice
come up the other way, he will be a
political deadbeat.
The President's choice means
also that, in the palace politics of
the White House, the left-wingers,
whose slock fell this winter, are
now predominant again And. above
1 all, it means that the President is
now prepared to steer leftward witn tnese advisers.
Aggressiveness is once more tne watchword. The phrase “We've
just begun to fight," is bring whispered in the White House corridors,
and the outlook is growing darker for the milder men who would
make peace between business and the New Deal. Florida has con
vinced the President that he can still say what he always says to ad
vocates of caution—"The country is with me; I know it.”
The Muse of history is far from inventive. Situations repeat them
selves from year to year with a wearisome regularity. Now. In a small way,
the President and public opinion are reaching to the Florida primary as
they did to the Now Deal triumph in 1936. Those who have hopefully pre
dicted a collapse in the President’s strength are hiding their faces. And the
President is preparing to march to the wars in his gayest and most care
free mood.
For the future of their cause, liberals should hope that overconfidence
will not be the prelude to such a bloody and wasteful combat as the
court fight.
(Copyright. lti.'iR by the North American Newspaper Alliance, Inc.)
I
ized, and that when it goes out to
prevent the C. I. O. from electing its
1 own leaders to high political office, it
i does a very effective veto job. as, for
instance, in the Detroit and Seattle
and other local elections, where C. I.
O. has made a bid for power.
(Copyright, 1938.)
eTHE opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not
* 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.
Mr. Guffey’s Plight
Senator May Yet Be in Position to Control Democratic
Convention Bloc.
By MARK SULLIVAN.
THE outcome of the Pennsylvania
primary is significant with re
spect to several important
questions. The time is still
early for an estimate, and doubtless
some qualifications should be made to
the judgments here briefly expressed.
Mark Sullivan.
The Commit
tee on Industrial
Organiza t ion,
and its head,
John L. Lewis,
have suffered a
check to their
political ambi
tion. Mr. Lewis*
heart was much
set on the nomi
nation of the
secretary - trea
surcr of the
United Mine
Workers, Thomas
Kennedy, to be
Governor of the
second largest state in tne union, in
the political ambition of C. I. O. and
Mr. Lewis, their spear-point was to
have been Mr. Kennedy. Last fall,
when Mayor La Guardia of New York
was running for re-election, when he
was the candidate of the American
Labor Party, and when It was said
that if the mayor was re-elected he
might be a likely candidate lor the
Presidency—in that condition Mr.
Lewis, making a speech in New York,
said his strongest political wish was
to advance Mr. Kennedy.
Doubtless now Mr. Lewis’ rivals In
the labor field, the heads of the
American Federation of Labor, will
add to their taunts a suggestion that
Mr. Lewis and C. I. O. had better do
what the A. F. of L. has done with
satisfaction for 75 years, namely, stick
to the business of labor organization
and forego any attempt to make
labor a separate political party or
Bhalf of the New Deal dream, a
Farmer-Labor party.
May Regain Their Ease.
Democrats in Congress who. sinee
May 3. have been In a state of pan
icky intimidation because of the
marked success of New Dealer Peppei
in getting himself re-nonnnated foi
the Senate in Florida, may now gel
back some of their poise. They mat
now be more at ease—and more dis
posed to live up to their prerogative
I of acting on their own judgment
For the Pennsylvania outcome as s
whole is a bad omen for Mr. Roose
velt and the New Deal. True, all the
candidates of all Democratic faction;
in the Pennsylvania primaries pro
claimed themselves New Dealers. Bui
the one whose fate meant mast tc
Mr. Roosevelt and the New Deal was
Mr. Kennedy. It is not merely that Mr
Kennedy was Indorsed by Democratic
National Chairman Postmaster Gen
eral Farley, and that Mr. Farley and
the Administration are to this extent
rebuked. Deeper than that, the tie
between C. I. O. and the New Deal
is close. The hope of the New Deal
to prosper depends much on the hope
of C. I. O. to prosper, and a setback
to the latter is a setback to the
former.
Besides we must not forget that
genial Senator whose calling cards—
so I see in the public prints—read "Mr
Guffey of Pennsylvania.” Mr. Guffey
is the Democratic Senator who, imme
diately after the court fight was lost
by Mr. Roosevelt last summer, de
nounced those Democratic Senators
who had opposed the court plan and
declared they must be retired from
jjubnc life.
When Mr. Guffey issued that bull of
, excommunication he was without the
faintest doubt, the most important
State political leader In the United
States in either party. He was the
nearest thing now existing to the old
time political chieftain with a whole
State as his private political barony,
of the type of Quay and Gorman and
Platt and Hill and Penrose. Mr. Guf
fey last August w as the baron of Penn
sylvania, in control of the dominant
party in the second largest State of
the Union, with no other leader In
any State, in either party, having
anything like his power.
Now He Is Singing Low.
In short, Mr. Guffey last August
was riding high. Today he is singing
low. He wanted his party leaders In
Pennsylvania to give him the nomina
tion for Governor, because in that
position he could more readily keep his
grip on his feudal power. This the
party leaders denied him. Then when
i the party leaders had set up a slate
S for Governor and Senator, Mr. Guffey
i raised the flag of rebellion and put up
a slate of his own. His candidates
are now defeated.
Nevertheless Mr. Guffey is a re
sourceful and energetic person and
able in polities. And the way may
be open for a "comeback” of the kind
he would most like. Without doubt
Mr. Guffey's chief ambition is to be a
factor in choosing tTle Democratic
presidential nominee in 1940. to sit in
I the 1940 convention as he sat in those
of 1936 and 1932. as the Democratic
baron of Pennsylvania, with 75 dele
gates in ills hands. This ambition Mr.
Guffey may yet achieve, for the con
ditions will be more favorable to him.
I Mr. Guffey achieved his rise to power
| in Pennsylvania as the head of the
minority party, during the years when
the Republicans were carrying the
State. If Mr. Guffey functions best
as head of a minority party, he may,
after next November, have the oppor
: tunity to function that way again.
Should Carry State.
It is fairly clear that the Repub
licans should carry Pennsylvania in
November. The Republicans should
have their own strength and should in
addition have the votes of many con
servative and orthodox Democrats.
This type of Democrat in Pennsylvania
has no place to go except to the
Republicans. None of the candidates
who won the Democratic primary are
likely to be satisfactory to the con
servative type of Democrat.
What happened in Pennsylvania was
the result not of conservative Demo- j
crats getting control of the party, but
of a split among New Deal Democrats.
: In the primary, all the candidates of
all the Democratic factions proclaimed
themselves New Dealers. After the
primary, the Democratic chairman of
i the State hurried to wire to President
! Roosevelt, probably with more gener
i osity than accuracy, that the event
was “another victory for the Roosevelt
: democracy.” Even though Gov. Earle,
i now the Democratic candidate for
We, the People
New Deal Liberals See Tax Bill Approval as
Confession of No Coherent Program.
By JAY FRANKLIN.
HE passage by Congress of the new tax bill found New Deal liberals
hoping that President Roosevelt wo>’id veto what they describe as
a dangerously deflationary measure.
They hoped that the New Deal leader would pluck up the moral
courage to block this plan to relieve the speculators and the big corpora ■
tions of their tax liabilities, not so much because they regarded Pat Harri
son’s pet measure for the- relief of the upper bracketeers as uneconomic |
and anti-social, as because they felt that a presidential approval would
'
NCW
TA*
r“' 0IM«
indicate mat tne administration is
without a coherent program or a
well-rounded national policy.
Since by the time this column
Is printed the issue may already be
decided, I propose simply to recite
the reasons advanced in Treasury
circles against the virtual repeal of
the capital gains and undistributed
profits tax, and to indicate what
the New Deal liberals expect to be
the result of this congressional
catering to the shortsighted sell-interest of the big industrialists and
financiers. *
They regard the two taxes most hated by so-called “business” as
being calculated to drive hoarded capital into new investment or consump
tion channels. To repeal the capital gains tax is. according to the Treas
ury, to encourage the investment of idle funds in the common stocks of
existing corporations. It would add nothing new to capital investment
and would, moreover, be unjust, since earlier tax laws permitted the big
taxpayers to deduct capital losses frpm income. To repeal the undis
tributed profits tax is to encourage corporate hoarding and to prevent
the distribution of corporate earnings to the owners of our principal busi
nesses, the stockholders.
Treasury economists argue that today, as in 1933, the problem
of America is a problem of hoarding. Then it was hoarding gold and
currency. Today it is hoarding bank deposits and corporation re
serves. There is plenty of money in our economic system to make the
system work provided that those who control that money are willing
to recognize that unless the system is working their money is without
value. These two taxes are designed to put money to work and to
discourage hoarding; their repeal is designed to deepen the*depression.
This is, however, a minor point in the eyes of New Deal liberals.
They feel that for the. President to sign the repeal of taxes on the rich is
to confess that the New Deal has no program, no policy, no national
economic design. As they see it, the pump-priming crusade—to the tune j
of $5,000,000,000—is sheer waste, unless it is part of an integra'ed and
coherent program to make the system work. That, raiher than budget- j
balancing hog-wash, was Henry Morgenthau's objection to the spending
program, according to my information. The Treasury believes that, without
a real program, the five billions will
simply run through the system and
find a snug harbor in the same
hoarded bank deposits and corpo
rate surpluses.
The sort of program which
they recommended to the Presi
dent and which the President is
putting out bit by bit. rather than
as a unified policy for national re
covery, includes regulation of hours
and wages, curbing of monopolies,
and taxation which will drive idle, hoarded funds into either productive in
vestment or consumption. They feel that Rooseveltian willingness to sign
the bill for the relief of the 60 families will show that the President is
simply dealing with circumstances as they arise, making the best of things
and hoping to muddle through somehow. And they fear that a policy of
hopeful muddling can wind up in only one thing: A Fascist dictatorship,
in fact if not in form, for the United States of America.
(Copyright, lids. Register and Tribune Syndicate.)
Senator, attacked C. I. O. during the
campaign, his record as a whole is
not likely to commend him to the
orthodox Democrats of the State. For
them the Republican ticket must be
the preferred destination next No
vember.
(CopyriBht. lOIiS.)
WOULD CURB IMPORTS
SEA ISLAND, Ga„ May 19 (>P).—
Gov. E. D. Rivers today urged that the
Tariff Commission “without delay’
adopt a quota limitation on foreign
imports as a protection to Southern
industry.
He told members of the Georgia Cot
ton Manufacturers Association that
unrestricted importation of foreign
goods was retarding prosperity, but
aaid “adequate protection” could be
effected through quota limitations.
‘HANDICAP’ IS TOPIC
Workers for the Blind to Hear
Education Office Aide.
Joseph P. Clunk, supervisor of
service for the blind, office of edu
cation, will speak on "Is a Handicap
a Challenge?" before the District of
Columbia Association of Workers for
the Blind at a banquet celebrating its
i 25th anniversary at the Church of the
Epiphany, 1317 G street N.W., at 7
o'clock tonight.
The Rev. Ze Barney T. Phillips,
pastor of the church, will pronounce
the invocation. Mrs. H. R. Thompson,
president of the association, will serve
as toestmlstress. Preceding the ban
quet, a brief business meeting will be
held at 6 30 o'clock.
An American
You Should
Know
Extension Service Head
Works With Farm
Problem First-hand.
By DELIA PYNCHON.
FOR 15 years Clyde W. Warburton
has been teaching American
farmers how to be better farm
ers. As director of the “Co
operative Agricultural Extension Serv
ice” in the Department of Agriculture,
his field of operations has been as wide
and as long as the Nation itself.
Mr. Warburton’s service in the de
partment goes back to 1903, when a
graduate of Iowa State College, that
Mr. Warburton.
training ground
for Government
leaders, he en
tered the Bureau
of Plant Industry.
His appointment
to head the exten
sion service was
made by the late
Secretary Henry
C. Wallace, father
of the present
Secretary. Born
on a farm near
Independence,
Iowa, Mr. War
burton has lived
ali his life close
to farm problems. His principal hobby
is gardening.
The Agricultural Extension Service
works through actual demonstration
on the farm and in the farm home.
It had its inception in 1903. when
Congress appropriated money to con
trol the boll weevil, which was ravag
ing cotton in' Texas. The first county
agent was employed in 1907. Seven
years later the Smith-Lever Act,
providing for a national system of
extension work, was passed. Now the
extension service has a staff of 9.000
agents—at least one agent to every
rural county. These agents are aided
by some 368,000 men and women, who
are serving each year as volunteer
local leaders in extension work. Mr.
Warburton says. Over 115.000 are
giving like service among farm boys
and girls.
The extension service is particularly
proud of its famous 4-H Clubs. About
1.250.000 farm boys and girls are
working out farm problems by actual
demonstration in accordance with
programs laid down by the service.
In 1936, there were 42.778 home dem
onstration clubs for the farm women,
with 996,153 members.
All this practical instruction natur
ally costs money. Federal, State and
county governments put up the cash,
nearly S30.000.000 a year. The Federal
Government contributes about 57 per
cent. It is money that pays large
dividends in better farms. State ag
ricultural colleges and State agricul
tural experiment stations have been
learning better agricultural methods
for years—but it took some times 25
years to get this information put into
practical use on the farms. Hence
the great value of the demonstration
method.
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