ANOTHER SPLIT IN DEMOCRATS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31154, 2 September 1966, Page 11

ANOTHER SPLIT IN DEMOCRATS

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

WASHINGTON, September 1

Almost as important as the subject of the debate on tight money and high interest rates between the President and Mr Truman is the fact that Mr Truman’s sudden and unexpected re-entry into national affairs underlines yet another split in the Democratic Party.

The split again is between the President and the party of which he is the head and leader.

There is the split in the party over Vietnam, there is a split about economic guidelines and labour-management relations, there is a split about whether t< increase taxes or not: and now comes the split between President and former President on the subject of money. Traditionally the Democratic Party is the party of low interest rates and cheap money and Mr Truman is certainly a traditionalist in party matters and party policy.

Until now he and President Johnson have formed a mutual admiration society which is what helped to make Mr Truman’s intervention so stunning. It is clear that he. and a lot of other. Democrats, feel strongly that President John-

son has gone back on an important section of the party creed and some of them begin to wonder what sort of a Democrat the President now is. Election Coming A lot of Democrats feel the the same way about him when it comes to Vietnam, for they find him following in Vietnam, policies he campaigned against in 1964. The President may be a hundred per cent right or equally wro >g in these things but what is incontestable is that he has created feelings among some Democrats that no one could have forecast. Some can be said to be doubtful, some worried, some a little frightened and some outraged. All of them with such feelings have one worry in common—that these party differences are rising towards the fever mark just two months before an important election.

Ship Holed.— The Dutch steamer Prins Der Nederlanden, abandoned by> passengers and crew, was in danger of sinking today after being badly holed on a rock in the Azores last night—Lisbon. September 1.