Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 9, Number 42, DeMotte, Jasper County, 7 September 1939 — Bruckart's Washington Digest International Affairs Likely To Influence Party Politics [ARTICLE]

Bruckart's Washington Digest International Affairs Likely To Influence Party Politics

Upon Turn of Events Abroad May Depend Strength or Lack of It Shown by Presidential Aspirants; Domestic Life in U. S. Will Feel Effects.

By WILLIAM BRUCKART

WNU Service, National Press Bldg., Washington. D. C.

WASHINGTON.—There is an interesting offshoot of the several European crises that has begun to attract attention among political leaders. It has been practically 20 years sine** international affairs figured to any extent in our domestic politics, but they threaten to do so next year. And upon the turn of events abroad, it appears, will depend the strength or lack of it shown by various presidential aspirants. It may be that, in the short space of time between the writing of these lines and their publication in your local newspaper, another European crisis will have arisen and actual hostilities will have been started. It is possible, therefore, only to take a peek over the horizon and offer conjecture as to the effect upon our domestic partisan battles. There can be no doubt of the importance of the subject as a matter for thought, however, because: (1) if there is a European war, there will be the struggte between two very powerful forces to drag us in or keep us out, respectively: and (2) if there is no. war abroad but a continued threat and continued disturbance of international relations, our domestic life will be constantly feeling the effects in one way or another. So, the situation shapes up that international affairs are likely to be vitally important m the matter of selection of party nominees next year, as well as in the election of one of the major party candidates to the presidency. The condition warrants thought on the basis that it touches private lives. Private lives are concerned not only because of the ever-present possibility when war stalks in the w r orld that there may be blood shed by some of Pur people. The effect goes as well into our everyday affairs, the thing which the intelligencia usually calls our national economy. When Political Leaders Took Wrong Side of Question One needs to go back only to 1920 to recall what happened to political leaders who took the wrong side of a question—the wrong side from a majority of the people. President Wilson’s followers stood by him, as they should have done in those days. They committed the Democratic party to a position on the League of Nations and the Versailles peace treaty that proved to be unpopular and a good many of them were engulfed in the flood of the unpopularity of that side of the question. If there were complex conditions to be considered by voters and thought through in advance of the election of Warren G. Harding over. James M. Cox at that time, the conditions then must be regarded as simple to what confronts America at this time. Nor is there any possibility of simplification of those problems. The bulk of the people can say, as I firmly believe the majority sentiment to be, that we must stay out of foreign entanglements—must be isolationists—and tiiere still will remain the influence of those foreign conditions upon our own life and living and means of making a living. But to be specific with respect to the political picture of presidential aspirants; The candidates now going about the country herding in delegate pledges or having their representatives do so have thus far proceeded, quite naturally, upon the basis of purely domestic questions. These questions include such as the Roosevelt money policies; the undoubted waste that has characterized the governmental spending; the regimentation of agriculture with its crop control in one place and crop expansion in another without apparent rhyme or reason; the sudden changes in national plans and the consequent instability and uncertainty. Others could be named, but these few suffice to illustrate the point. Jealousy and Distrust No Matter V/hat Happens Now, let us assume that actual hostilities have started abroad and that they extend into next year. Of what use is the political strategy now being employed by those seeking pledges of support? Or. assume that Hitler's rapacious plans have been satisfied. There still will be heat, abroad. There will be jealousy and distrust. There is the new pact between the slippery Stalin of Russia, and the blustering Hitler that neither will attack the other. There are now, and will continue to be, dissatisfied minorities in Central Europe, peoples w f ho want to break away or who feel they have been used as pawns. There will be all of these and other things to keep the fires burning, a sort of an international poison ivy case. Whatever the conditions may be a year from now, there is no way that I can see by which the United States can avoid consideration of policies to meet the circumstances generated by these several influences. Why?

Take agriculture, for example. Our crops long have entered into world markets, although the outgoing shipments have sunk into insignificance lately.. But our farmers still have hopes. Consider industry, manufacturing. Thousands of manufacturing establishments seek export outlets, The amount pf their exports determine whether these factories can run at normal capacity, and employ normal quotas of workers, or whether only enough workers can be kept on to maintain supplies for the purely American market. Thus, the unemployment problem, and relief. enter into the picture. It is far from being simple. One can despise and distrust his neighbor on the next farm or in the next block, but he still has to pass his house on the highway or go down the alley behind his house. Campaign Strategies, Plans Must Undergo Revision None knows, for example,Whether the agreement between Stalin and Hitler is going to give the Russian lion a free hand in the Orient. That is to ask: can Stalin's forces now align themselves with China and force the Japanese back to their island homes? If so, there is a brand new proposition for us on the Pacific side. We have wanted, and still want, the market of China. But we have to play with the Soviet if, by chance, the conjectured change takes place and Hitler abandons his connections with Tokyo. Thus, I think we are brought forcibly to the conclusion that the records made by the two major political parties thus far may constitute only a part of the things which the ever-puzzled voter may have to consider next year. It is made quite plain, it seems to me, that campaign strategies, plans, hopes, will have -to undergo serious revision in the next few months. How they are revised is going to be dependent almost entirely upon the developments abroad. There is always the thought in the background that most people are interested in the things around them, not 3,000 miles away, and it is not going to be easy for the pomuch of a dose they showed attempt to offer. There seems to be no doubt that developments between now and next June, for example, will have a vital effect upon Mr. Roosevelt’s political fortunes. Most sound thinking men seem to agree on that. One hears discussions pro and con. Many wagers have been made around Washington that Mr. Roosevelt can not be elected, or even nominated, for a third term, but always there is the reservation “unless there is a war.” Always, there is that reservation “unless.” I relate this, not because it indicates more than the views of those making the bets, but because it illustrates how closely linked are our affairs with those of the rest of the world. May Call Congress to Revise the Neutrality Act There is talk that Mr. Roosevelt will call congress into extra session to deal with international problems and acting with Roosevelt suddenness. he may have issued the call two hours after this is written. He has wanted the so-called neutrality act revised to meet his- ideas. You will recall that he could not even gain consideration of his program by the foreign relations committee of the last senate. They turned it down cold But the question is due to come up whether in an extraordinary session or in the regular meeting next January, and it cannot be avoided. Who can guess what the political effects of that may be. I can not foresee them, nor has anyone been able to convince me of their ability to see that far into the future. As I am able to examine the puzzle of the future, therefore, I can see only a very difficult time ahead for those who want to have a voice in their government. Of course, there is going to be a percentage of voters, as always, whose convictions will be those of their political party. But there is an increasing number of voters who would like to know what they are voting for or against; why they are voting for one man over another. They probably constitute the blance of power in American politics, and if they do it is a splendid thing. Yet, I repeat they are going to have their hands full in trying to understand the issues next year. It is a tough proposition to learn what proposed policies will do for or to us when those policies concern affairs close at home. It is just that much more perplexing w'hen we are called upon to figure out what will happen when the issues of a campaign involve not only our own affairs but the affairs of other nations, as well. And it strikes me that next year w r ould be a good time for political leaders to start being honest about what they seek to accomplish! (Released by Western Newspaper Union.)