Old Grandparty
The Republican Party, 1854-1964. By George H. Mayer. (O.U.P., 68s.)
OR the last twenty-five years the Republican Party has had a bad name in Britain. There was a natural inclination to favour the Democrats, Who have been in power for all but eight years of that period. From Lease-Lend onwards, the intimate Anglo-American relationship was largely by result, on the American side, of initiatives ny Democratic Presidents and Secretaries of State. Britain liked Ike, all right. But it didn't Foster bulles, the isolationist Republicans of the late Thirties and Forties or Senator McCarthy. It is already evident that on the whole it doesn't like Senator Goldwater, an attitude that will do the Senator no harm with his followers.
But the British are remarkably ignorant about the Republicans and their party. Professor Mat'er's book should put this right. It is com- plete, thoughtful and thought-provoking and candid. The author recounts the party's history 11.°111 its beginning in the middle of the last century through the great age of Republican domination from the War of the Rebellion until the arrival of Woodrow Wilson down to the frustrations and fumblings of the Roosevelt era and the constitutional reign of Good King Ike. The British reader, puzzled, as who is not, by the eccentric gyrations of the Republicans in re- cent years, will find the answers here. The his- ',Man will note how the radical party of the 1860s gradually transformed itself into the party of the conservative right. 1 he amateur of high- level intrigue will be regaled by the account of '0W Senator Harding, in his way as alarming figure as Senator McCarthy, was nominated for the Presidency and why the honest, irascible, k„Bifted Robert Taft lost the nomination to c•isenhower.
Professor Mayer has provided sketches of Republican Presidents and candidates, rescuing such forgotten worthies as Chester A. Arthur and providing a clear sketch of Lincoln as a politician. This is a side of that enigmatic charac- ter often discounted. He was a politician and an able one, but it was that peculiar alchemy of the "residency that made him a statesman and a great man. The author makes the point that Li"Coln, by early training a Whig, was not a
strong President as the term is understood now. He expanded his office's powers to run and win the war. But he left the initiative for internal affairs to Congress.
To those who wish to push deeper into the American political scene, and this is a good year to do it, William Goodman's book on the two- party system is an excellent guide. Mr. Good- man is precise but illuminating. If his approach to politics smacks too much of the scientist, that is the fashion of the times. But he is almost never dull. For politics in the United States remains, despite the efforts of the pollsters and their com- puters, a combination of art and entertainment, clamorous, at times ridiculous, always very tough and to most of us the greatest show on earth.
If American politics sometimes appears mys- terious ,to Britons, the book by Broadus Mitchell and Louise Mitchell may be recommended as a primer. For the Constitution is the starting- point for American politics. And this compact book tells you who wrote it—the authors' average age was forty-two—why it evolved as it did and how it has been amended since. In a very special way the Constitution is the United States to most of us. Franklin Roosevelt's first political reverse as President occurred when he attempted to pack the Supreme Court. This was widely interpreted, and not by Republicans alone, as an attack on the Constitution. Professor Mayer, charting the erratic course of the Grand Old Party in the Thirties, shows how ill-equipped they were to do battle with FDR. His description of Roosevelt is remarkably apt; here is Roose- velt the politician :
Estimates regarding the character and motives
of Franklin D. Roosevelt differ widely, but nobody has ever disputed his ability to capi- talise on the errors of his opponents. He had more faces than the Hindu Brahma, and turned upon the Republicans whatever one the occa- sion required to keep them off balance. Some- times they were confronted with the face of the dreamy humanitarian clouded by thoughts of war or malnutrition. More frequently they saw the face of the crusader with jaw set and chin tilted upward. On other occasions they
beheld the austere countenance of a chief of state who seemed aloof from party and self- lessly devoted to public welfare. Just as often a puckish face invited Republicans to believe that politics was only a game, but during the campaign season gdod-humoured smiles gave way to indignant frowns over what Roosevelt branded as the behaviour of a malignant oppo- sition. Coupled with a versatile personality were a superb sense of timing, an uncanny ability to stay just ahead of public opinion, and a knack of obtaining sustained favourable publicity from a hostile press.
This is as good an estimate of FDR the poli- tician as any I have read. It explains why the Republicans were never able to beat him and, perhaps, why, as John Gunther wrote, millions of Americans will continue to vote for Roosevelt as long as they live. But on the whole it is a book about Republicans, their squabbles, their policies, their leaders. They are all there, includ- ing Theodore Roosevelt, who inspired two of the most lapidary comments in American politics. When the first Roosevelt succeeded the assas- sinated McKinley, Mark Hanna remarked, 'Now, look, that damned cowboy is President of the United States.' And later the British ambassa- dor remarked that 'the President is about six.' The ambassador was wide of the mark; Roose- velt in some ways was a very good President.
I do not feel that Professor Mayer finished his history with any strong feelings of optimism about the Republican Party. It was written, of course, before the nomination of Senator Gold- water. For he writes, 'There are no issues that offer the Republicans an immediate prospect of detaching major pressure groups from their traditional Democratic allegiance.' He is wrong, The issue is there in the segregation problem. For the first time since the Thirties it is pos- sible to see the industrial masses in the northern cities turning away from the Democrats. Pro- fessor Mayer may have to bring his book up to date sooner than he thinks.
DREW MIDDLETON'
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