Let's Look at the Record
Childs, John L.
Let's Look at the Record The Issues in the New York City Mayoralty Campaign By John L. Childs THE struggle to determine the patterns ei this year'a municipal cam-paign* began last January. At the...
...This ticket has the support of the Citizens' Union, the Cftiteni...
...But they still are rep-r***nt*tive* of the French people as a whole, the long-suffering French people, which, in the present emergency remain almost wholly inarticulate...
...political vitslity can no longer be measured by voles—at leant not in Kurnpe...
...The foregoing conversation was held in Washington on January 19...
...At the jnauruial Of President Roosevelt, I WIS approached by an eminent national {tam* ratio leader of New York City...
...IIa leadership ia desperately weak, which explains in part the dominating position of Leon Ilium It is a good vote-attracting parly, but can it "operate...
...Yet the CP ia not a free agent...
...from left to right, the So-ciaiiats...
...It is a tortured logic which holds that we must suffer corrupt Tammany government in New York City in order to have progea-•ive government in our Stat* and Nation...
...O-Not only the worst elements in Tammany, with their underworld connections, but the political machine of Marcentcnio .and Mike Quill played an active part in bringing about the situation which got the nomination for O'Dwyer...
...is doubtful that in a , lisis or even at election-time many Nationalist* will sup-pert the extreme left...
...The SP rejected fusion with the Stalinists but it is still hound to them by the United Front policy and by election bargains...
...Hf, like practically the entire country, ¦<*sred from Yiehy...
...lit replied that this should not be difficult, for many Democrats weee tired of the "thieves of Tammany" and wanted tjwrr Party to have candidates in New York City of the same quality as their »tate snd national candidates...
...the other half tjli lavthe passive, ¦¦vociferous half which used to govern the country...
...Itul in France, as snywhers else, a Center Party could undertake Its task only with some degree of faith in ils own message—th* traditional message of the Western World—liberty snd justice for all...
...Ev - -··-"mary of it put* a number of crucial points beyond dispute in the present city campaign...
...TM» leader said that the Liberal ami Baa erratic partise had cooperated with ajbmdld reatdta in the national cam-paign of 1044, and he hoped the two parties would also cooperate in the New York Cdy campaign of 11)46 I replied ejfcat'tae Liberal Party was willing to ruse erste with either, or both, of the major parties providing they were will-inf to support a good government ticket...
...I government in our City...
...Gaullism is Rtrongly attracting non-CoAtriunist or auti ? Oinmuiiist Socialists...
...It is because its recommendations of such outstanding men as Judge Rosemann, Comptroller McColdriek, Judge Goldstein and J udge Pecora were not acceptable to "the hoys in the district club houses" that the Liberal Party finally refused to make common cause with the Democratic Party...
...But the question is whether it can operate in this sense ¦/ nil...
...But it eahalf divided acaiiytitaeW., So what...
...in Ujjs spectacular fashion no *Obt...
...7—The election of the Goldstein M< Goldrick-Pette ticket will grcait* strengthen the position of honest lib eralism...
...At the same time the Socialists constitute both object i and subjectively a Government party, "supporting the General more or less wholeheartedly in his policy and decisions...
...The SP would be, according to some critics, if il were not tied into such hopeless knots by its policy of double allegiance to the Stalinists in the name of labor unity and to the Gaullists in the name of national unity...
...The 'leaders of the Liberal Party have been ' involved ever since in the work of or--faniilng a good government ticket...
...Only as liberals make the Liberal Party the balance ef power party in New York City and Stale ran they have ¦ political instrument suited to the achievement el their deeper purposes and long-run objectives...
...Nothing in th* actual record supports this argument, and President Roosevelt himself repudiated It on three occasions when confronted by a choice between Fusion and Tammany candidates...
...But sooner or later, if hy some chance the democratic process in France is not destroyed in the meanwhile, France should And its traditional political equilibrium again: a Center Party in power, the impenitent right being reduced to its normal function of a small nationalist and ronservn tive opposition, and the obdurate left, mainly Stalinist, reassuming its usual role of damning the Government...
...Little • known in Paris of the actual operational, aot electoral, strength of the Socialist Party today...
...We have never had good government in New York City without the support of the Republican Party...
...The Communists make their presrnce felt constantly and everywhere...
...to the Communists the tremendous moral benefit of being the only labor opposition in a country in which starvation is always ?usi around the coiner...
...Certainly they will get a lot of votea in the elections, hut the unholy double alliance will probably still be in force, and it will be difficult to assess the leal strength of the party from the reaults...
...Are the Socialists forced lo adopt this hesitant, if »et incoherent policy because ef inherent weakness...
...This, In sum, is the record...
...The SP thus lc.iv...
...Such therefore are the two movements which dominate political life in France: st the very most halt of the population ¦•represented...
...For in a country divided as France is into three political components—Nationalist Konapartist right, Liberal-Socialist renter, Stalinist "left" it seems obvious that both the right and the left can wield power only by coercion, against the two other groups, while only the ('enter ran form a slabie, democratic Govei iiiiieot...
...Mayor LaGuardia bolted his own Party, the American Labor Party, and its candidate, stating that he had told O'Dwyer "if he came out as th* candidate of these bosses" he would support an independent ticket A—The Mayor's candidate, Newbold Morris, has no chance for election...
...Those who know the full facts know that O'Dwyer, if elected, will be inescapably indebted to these forces...
...Helping the country to recover physically will help to restore France's belief in the western world, There is nothing she needs more...
...J -^Only after the efforts of eminent leaders of the Democratic Party to get their local organization to accept a good government candidate failed did O'Dwyer become the candidate...
...It is not yet clear whether the Socialists have missed their opportunity entirely...
...The bloody shocks of fil ? in and 1939-45 have been too much for Frame's faith...
...Radical-Socialists are being used by the Communists against de Gaulle, while...
...That faith may he difficult to achieve in a country as ill-fated as Frame...
...As Charles C. Burlingham has written, "Who can doubt that his candidacy merely offers an escape for simple souls whose chief concern is to keep their own voting record clean and pure, however futile their voles may be...
...produrr results, as the CP does...
...Ib.- Center Parly, a coalition nf the IIei not Blum forces, around which would rally many smaller groups and which would propose to re-establish the Republic at home by democratic means and French prestige abroad by a measured and dignified foreign policy, may not be realized after the coming elections, nor even for some years to come...
...C—The Liberal Party GoldsteinMc Goldrick-Pette ticket was formed through the initiative and active support of Comptroller McGoldrick, a man who knows the groups required to achieve it...
...Probably not...
...they too rallied, resisted •wl wd...
...They all h-jve •strong politftal tradition and relatively Wore governni.oi experience than the NetitmarJst right and the Stalinist "left...
...fes* heroic also in most cases, ">»n the career officers of the BCRA ami ltl* Deuxiemc Bureau and the Commu-"'•ts of the FTP...
...infiltration and de-"•oraliz^tion...
...both those affiliated to the mam (Bhun) body and the others, the Radical "•cWlsts, various similar groups end "?*· moderate Catholics...
...The I'npulairr is technically one of the norst pspcr.i in France (il haa always been that) and Socialist propaganda on a large scale Is cons pic uoua by its absence...
...Though "National < oiuiritroism" ha* been dominant in t l' propaganda for njaov years except, during the 19?9 41 interludet...
...It ia^flttittedly the dynamic half, in control of all the real centers of strength in the country...
...And this center majority, which could take the lead and increase its influence considerably at the expense of both right and left, is politically and even ideologically so inhibited, so terrorized, thst it allow* itself Instead to lie deeply penetrated by the conflicting ideologies of the two enemies...
...Movements and "fronts," including those •T' the Socialists (they are many) who wtn always prefer a Communist to any "bourgeois," because the Communist is "store to the leit...
...It is a majority of the country which is deprived* of a voice in national affairs by the two warring factions—Gaullist and Stalinist...
...On the basis of this record the election of the ? ioldstein Met loldrick-Pett* ticket should ha an active concern of SVtry liberal friei...
...Facing that -!·> percent is another 25 percent—the Com Munists and their many affiliated groups...
...There arr only two ways out of the present -internale in Frsnre: either the Gaullists or the Communists disappeai from the political scene, by coercion, persuasion or rapid decline, or the Center Party, under the guidance uf a determined group of leaders conscious of the aigniftcance of Its mission and lirnily opposed to the spirit of compromise with any authoritarian or totalitarian group, assume* the responsibility of government Only such an increasingly strong Liberal Social iat Party could afford Rnrope and the world some protection against the rlska of an adventurist French foreign policy or the consolidation of Stallnlal influence on the east shore of the Atlantic and the north shore of the Mediterranean...
...I.jiisII.sM oiaiiiiiiiiisl Deadlock Church intp account—pronounced Gaullist parties of this type represent at present tame 25 percent of public opinion la very rough estimate...
...Rut one way of helping people to have faith in themselves is to hsve faith in them snd to help them in their hour of need...
...Non-Partisau Committee, and the City Fusion Party— the very forces which broke the grip of Tammany over our City twelve years ego...
...The Liberal Party I* the only Party which haa organised a comprehensive program for our city in this crucial postwar period...
...In the same way the CoinniunKtLe ran also rely on many former lUdiual-Soeialtat votes...
...The terord of these eight months throws a lot of light, on the present situation...
...As the Austrian and German Social-Democrats learned not so many years ago...
Vol. 28 • October 1945 • No. 40
