TESTS OF NEW DEAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 263, 6 November 1934, Page 5

TESTS OF NEW DEAL

AMERICAN ELECTIONS HOUSES OF CONGRESS “STAND BY THE PRESIDENT" GOOD USE OF SLOGAN By Telegraph —Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, Nuv. 4. The biennial elections, at which the lull House of Representatives of 432 members-, excluding three already elected, and 37 Senators, the latter in-cluding-live vacancies, will be elected as well as a large number of of State Governors, is expected to resolve itself into a test of the New Deal next Tuesday. Successful use has already been made of the slogan, “Stand by tire President.” (During <5 years the average tosses oi the party in power have been almost 50 scats in the House of Representatives, but this is not expected to occur next week. The opponents of the Roosevelt Administration declare that the Congressional campaign has been turning wholly on the question whether army voters receiving subsidies and direct doles will register their gratitude at the polls, with other national issues completely o vetrshadow ed. Party Prospects. The Republicans lust the first übjective uf the Congressional campaign when they failed to carry Maine on September It), says the LiteraryDigest. Failure of their second objective is reflected in the filing of the parly’s first financial statement for the campaign. It had been aimed to raise a campaign chest of 1,000.000 dollars for the effort to stop the New Deal in November. With less than six weeks io go, less than one-fifth of that sum has oc'.-u realised. The Grand Old Parly is hard pressed i"i lund.-. The usual big contributors have bvn slow to give this year. Party ivade - i imfide that this is not only be-<au.-.j money is mure scarcer; they say ili 'y find a considerable reluctance to be identified with the campaign chest j to fight the New Deal. It reflects a trend that was noticeable in Alaine. Outstanding industrialists, concluding that the New Deal was here to slay for another two years at least, regardless uf anything Maine might du about it, wanted to avoid offending the local Democrats who could help tiieni in Washington. bo it is in llie national field. The Republican high command admits (hat it cannot hupe to recapture control of Congress this year. The turn of the Alaine election indicates there is doubt, lo say the least, that the New Deal even can be slowed down. Hence, to line up fur a sacrifice for a principle. There are not so many contributors as uf old on this basis. It was easier tu get campaign funds when there was iimie th.-in i eason.-i hie nrnsiw'ct of sur.-

inoiv in.iii a i ca-oua uic piospcct or sucliic situation this year is su acute that an official of the Republican State headquarters in Indiana was protesting that lie was having to scurry around to provide himself with a mailing-list. ••imagine the Republican Party in Indiana, of all places, having sunk tu die point where it is a struggle for it to get a mailing-list” he exclaimed. In that State, incidentally, the Republican organisation is controlled by ■'Sunny Jim” Watson, erstwhile Republican leader of the Senate, Whatso'ii loses no sleep worrying whether .-L'liaior Robinson will be re-elected. The main objective of the Republican organisation in Indiana is to recover as many as possible uf the country governments that they lost in the Roosevelt landslide. It. is the fundamental activity towards rebuilding the party for 19 3G. In the Republican national Congressional campaign, it is virtually every man for himself. That is to say, the candidates for the House of Representatives, in many instances, aic following campaign tactics independent uf the Republican National Committee platform. The National Committee platfornt calls for a frontal attack on the New Deal. Not all the Republican candidates for the House arc satisfied fhat that would be popular in their districts. The first phase of the campaign ended with tiie Democratic and Republican btate conventions in New York Blate. It hardly would be correct to say that the Republicans arc making their* last stand there. Yet the heavy artillery resistance to the New Deal is centred there as in no other State. On the theory that a Republican victory in President Roosevelt s home Slate would take the edge oil a New Deal victory in the nation, the Republicans are preparing for an unusual fight to recapture New York. If they are nut united Lu the Nth degree, neither, at heart, are the Democrats. At the very least, the Old Line Republicans will re-establish their control and show that the Macys are not the Republican spokesmen. The political situation in New York Slate epitomises, in a sense, the mixed political situation in the nation as a .... The national nominating season closed virtually with the selection of the State tickets in New York. Up to then, it was a struggle between clashing political parties. From now on it is to be, theoretically at least, a struggle of the major parties for supremacy. The clear-cut trend in the primaries and State conventions —intra-party tests of public sentiment—is to the Left, even to the Left of the New IDeal, in many places, but the immediate objectives are confused. Seldom has lhere been a more confusing picture of American thinking.