WILL DEMS GO FARMER-LABOR?
STOUT, JONATHAN
Washington and the Nation Will Dems Go Farmer-Labor? By Jonathan Stout WASHINGTON, D. C. AB THE NERVE CENTER of the nation, Washington was 1 fairly jumping this week with three political...
...All three are paving the way for a new political orientation in the United States...
...Calling themselves "the Fair Deal Democrats," a strongly organized group of these progressives have issued a challenge to the present leaders of Tammany Hall...
...So this means "business" to Washington...
...In part, it helps to solve a serious dilemma for Democratic National Chairman J. Howard McGrath...
...The implications of these moves for the established political parties are clear...
...The next step for both, obviously, will be the setting up of a political director in each state...
...But for the foreseeable futuce, ne doubt, the independent existence, ol the Libe/al party will serve as a backstop for the liberal wing in the Democratic party and as a bulwark fee Mb continued leadership...
...When the "business agent system" is applied to politics, it becomes clear that the political system in the United States will withstand that kind of organized pressure no better and no longer than employers who tried to resist the ujiions...
...Real political organization of the strength of the labor union, as planned by the ILGWU, the UAW and other unions, will provide McGrath with part of the answer he has been seeking...
...New YooarsUaseoJ pasty undoubtedly will 1 lessee the local nucleus of an indspendsnt tabor parry fat Hat Halted Stasis...
...The object of the UAW is the same as that of the ILGWU...
...Another part of the answer was tackled by McGrath this week at DesMoines, Iowa, where a conference called1 by Democratic party leaders Seemingly for the sole purpose of ^launching the "Brannan Plan...
...If McGrath succeeds, it is altogether likely that the Democratic pasty will find Its place in Osm political spectrum as the social democratic party of America...
...This •plan,, devised by Agriculture Secretary TBr&anan, would continue to support iprioesifer agricultural poduots in such way as to permit these products to find- a natural market price according to supply and demand and thereby lowfr prices for consumers...
...One of these events took place in Des Moines, another in the Pocono hills of Pennsylvania and the third in New York City...
...CSeaivlBead of the identity of Interest between labos and the farmer on the overwhelming majority ol nalieeel Issues, McQtaik is siakine the political future of the Democratic party on this effort...
...Sparked by the victory of Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., however, a progressive upsurge is now developing within New York's traditionally conservative Democratic machine...
...The spirit of the New Deal actually has been vested in the Liberal party in New York and not in the Democratic party up till now...
...An important aspect of this problem emerged in New York City a few days ago...
...But the Des Moinos conference was move than that...
...But the problem that has concerned McGrath so far is that of replacements...
...and it is quite likely that one of the chief functions of^the state directors will be to coordinate and bring into common focus the political activities of all unions within that state...
...By Jonathan Stout WASHINGTON, D. C. AB THE NERVE CENTER of the nation, Washington was 1 fairly jumping this week with three political developments of such portentous meaning they should not be overlooked by any serious student of American politics...
...McGath invited to it representatives of labor in an effort to build that long-sought bridge between labor and the farmers...
...If, at long last, New York's Democratic party is about to fall in line with the Democratic national leadership and national program, the dominant political weight of that important city will go over to the liberal side...
...AND SO A PICTURE EMERGES of the farflung political plans of organized labor...
...Having discovered the weakness of Tammany in the recent Roosevelt campaign, the Fair Dealers think New York'b Democratic party is readier for an internal housecleaning than anyone has fully realized In one respect, of course, this new York development is not unusual, for it parallels the trend in other parts of the nation...
...I«sM dees net happen...
...For one thing, political decisions can no longer be made by old line bosses alone...
...Political circles here have for some time had a healthy respect for the potential power of organized labor...
...If he fails, eventually a labor party will antes the arena and replace the Democratic party as the home of the nation's progressive forces...
...In a otsjr where politics is tbt> major business and the bread and butter of tens of thousands of its residents, the three developments outlined above are being treated with the greatest seriousness...
...IT THE FAIR DEALERS succeed in their housecleaning in New York City, it may help to untangle a complex political situation that has existed in New York since the early days of the New Deal...
...Washington, professionally cynical about most political announcements, accepted that of the ILGWU with great gravity...
...To be sure,, the Administration is counting on the Brannan Plan to hold the agricuHswal Midwest for the Democrats...
...While the ILGWU is a pioneer in this development, it is not alone...
...In the 1050 primaries the Democratic party will begin a campaign to rid itself of hostile local bosses like Ed Crump of Tennessee...
...Washington la wry much alive te these political calculations...
...Creation of the Liberal party was a necessary expedient in a city where the dominant machine has for fifteen years been at variance with its own national party...
...In the industrial states a political decision won't be worth a struck match in a high wind unless it has labor approval...
...Washington was most responsive to the decision of the General Executive Board of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, made over the past weekend, to establish a system Whereby each local union will have a political steward whose full-time business will be to marshal the political strength of that local...
...Elsewhere, the trend has reached a point where individual Republicans of liberal persuasion are in some cases debating whether* they should not switch their party allegiance...
...Itt" atejgjsg^ a^o^sa^pi , jfttjaa" etfem) a^osl^j a^M^* Liberal party probably will AspeneV on whether the Demooraite perry sw skenllg isnlsn sals a soolal deaae* crests pasty...
...Both agree, however, that they have not reached the end of this lfne of development...
...Of the two major parties, the Democratic is the more sensitive and more responsive to the emerging new pattern...
...If Mud haggises., mm may suppose that the Uberal peefr will at that time merge) itself late New Yeefcfs Detnecteac part...
...What the ILGWU Executive Board accomplished in sessions at the union's Unity House in the Pocono Hills goes only a step beyond what the equally progressive and enterprising CIO Automobile Workers Union did in setting up a political director at the head of each one of its numerous regions throughout the nation...
...A substantial portion of Democratic machinery is in the hands of local bosses who are basically opposed to the philosophy of the Fair Deal and to the development of the "social welfare state," as envisioned by the party's national convention...
...There, progressive politics has been represented by New York State's Liberal Party...
Vol. 32 • June 1949 • No. 25
