*Tew York Tribune February 9,195?
rS5DAY'#wd TOMORROW!
.. By WALTER LIPPMAIW, 'I
A Tragedy in the Making
THAT the President's position
has become very difficult ufso
evident to all experienced ob-
servers in Washington that not even
his friendliest supporters deny It.
He Is at a point where he stands a
abetter than even chance of wrecking
himself, his party, and his whole
program, both domestic and for-
eign. For this he is. himself re-
sponsible, though it is the country,
[and very possibly the world, which
may have to suffer the consequences.
Mr. Roosevelt is following a course
of personal conduct which, if car-
ried any further, will almost cer-
tainly paralyze the operation of the
government and. illustrate once more
the weakness of democracy.
The root of the trouble' is that
Mri Roosevelt Is unable to make up
his mind whether he means to be
a national statesman or a factional
politician. He is trying to be both.
It cannot be done. And in the end
he will forfeit his national leader-
ship and he will be defeated in his
factional enterprises.
•    • ' *
During the past thirty days, that
Is, since the convening' of Congress,
he has laid out a program of mv;
tional defense and a foreign policy
designed to prevent war. which can
be carried out only if he has the
broadest kind of national support.
He has followed ft up at once by a
Series of specific actions in domestic
politics which have divided his party,
have divided him from Congress, and
have brought him to a position, so
far as his political influence is con-
cerned, which begins to look ex-
traordinarily like that of Wilson at
the end of his administration, and
of Hoover at the end of his.
But whereas Wilson had to strug-
gle with the aftermath of a world
war and Hoover with the effects of
a world-wide depression, the Presi-
dent has provoked his own difficul-
ties and almost daily he aggravates
The beginning of his present
troubles was the ill-fated decision
of last summer to purge the Demo-
cratic party of the Senators who had
shown some independence, particu-
larly in regard to the Supreme Court.
The purge failed completely. The
Voters would have none of it. But
Mr. Roosevelt has refused to accept
the result and to abide by it. One
of his very first acts after Congress
met was to appoint to his Cabinet
Mr. Harry Hopkins, the man who,
as former head of the W. p. a., rep-
resents to every one of the Senators
who were to be purged the power
which threatened them with political
destruction.
Mr. Roosevelt's next move was to
Insist stubbornly and unco-opcr-
atively on a deficiency appropriation
for W. P. A. which, in the eyes of
Congress and of a large part of his
own party, symbolized the President's
determination to accept no Important
reform in the system of relief. His
next move was to challenge one of
the most respected figures in Ameri-
can public life, Senator Glass of Vir-
ginia, on a judicial appointment.
Had the President had his way in
this, it would have been regarded as
meaning that the political position
of Senator Glass in the state of Vir-
ginia was to be attacked by the use
of Presidential patronage.
The, personal merits of Mr. Hop-
kins, the complicated question of
whether the W. P. A. will need next
June to have $150,000,000 more than
have been appropriated, the personal
qualifications of Judge Roberts, of
Virginia, the abstract question of
Senatorial courtesy^-ftll these things
! are;-beside the point. The fact Is
that the President's actions are re-
garded by Congress as an attempt
to carry on the purge after the purge
had been defeated by the Demo-
cratic voters in the primaries and
by the people generally in the No-
vember election.
• • •
On top of all that came the ap-
pointment of Mr. Thomas Amlie to
the Interstate Commerce Commis-
sion. Now Mr. Amlie is by his own
profession in his official biography
"active in the movement for new po-
litical alignments." That means
that he wants, or has wanted until
he became interested in a good job,
to break up the Democratic party,
and then to organize on the ruins
some sort of very radical Farmer-
Labor party. Taken in conjunction
with the purge of last summer and
the attempt to continue it this win-
ter/the Amlie appointment is bound
to be regarded by the Democrats in
Congress as evidence that the Presi-
dent Is trying to rule by ruining
their party.
All these things together have pre-
cipitated a situation where the con-
trolling issue In Washington is not
the national defense and the na-
tional interest, but the life and death
of'the President's political party and
the political existence of the most
prominent politicians in it.
• • a
The effect on the Republican op-
position is as demoralizing as it is
on the Democrats. For though the
Republicans made gains in Novem-
ber which indicate that they are
likely to win In 1940, the Republican
party has by no means recovered
from the disasters of the past eight
years. It is not yet ready to assume
the responsibilities for the national
government. It has no program. It
Is not really united. And it has as
yet few well known and seasoned
leaders.
They could no doubt be developed
In the next two years if conditions
were such, that the party could win
In 1940 only if it were united on a
program" under positive leadership.
But the disruption of the Democrats
offers the Republicans an altogether
too easy opportunity to win, too easy
for their own good or for the good
of .the country. Their present policy
is to let the President destroy the
Democrats. Their only tactics are to
fish In the troubled waters. The
fishing is very good.
For they find themselves in a situ-
ation where they can ignore the
great tradition of their party, the
tradition of Theodore Roosevelt,
Blihu Root and Charles Evans
Hughes—to .name only Republicans
who' are not involved in the present
struggle. And what the.Republicans
are headed for at the present time is
something very much like 1920, wi£h
their party controlled by their poli-
ticians rather than by their nation-
ally-minded leaders. They are under
no inducement to make the effort of
deserving to win; they have much
too good a chance to win by capital-
izing the disruption of the Demo-
crats.
.    • *
The President alone can avert a
general political disintegration inl
which the country will suffer be-
cause its two parties are demoral-
ized. He has not much time to lose.
Unless he can rise above factional-
ism, above his grudges, above bis
minor purposes, unless he can
change the climate by displaying an
enlightened magnanimity, the United
States will have for more than two
years to come a government Incapa-
ble of governing.
afo^g^MO. New York Tribune Inc.. *»b. 8.   All right* reserved.