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Show National Topics Interpreted jL by William Bruckart fe I ers here construe that legislation as giving the government absolute domination over the farmer, and I suspect that most farmers ure not going to stand for that. At any rate, this and other pro- ' posals are moved forward because there Is an "emergency." But I have j seen signs of a reaction among the Washington. One of the outstanding out-standing signs to be noted in the Washington Minority political s 1 1 u a- Wakes Up tiou t,iese days Is the renewed courage cour-age and strength being gathered by the minority. There is no longer any doubt about It. The minority In tiie government, consisting, first, of dyed-in-the-wool Republicans and, secondly, of old line Democrats who cannot quite follow all Items of the New Deal, have begun to pull back, For the first time since President Roosevelt came in, there is at least a real "opposition party." Astute students of politics and government govern-ment insist It is a most healthy sign and that It will make for better government gov-ernment In the end. There has been opposition to a great many of the Roosevelt policies heretofore, but a considerable portion por-tion of It has been just silent mumbling mum-bling and grumbling. Most of them seemed to be afraid of the wide- farmers. They are signs that never fail. Representatives from agricultural agricul-tural areas have been getting mail from home and there are many of the house members who now Insist It is time to call a halt. Frankly, I hear frequent sharp declarations that the professors In the administration adminis-tration have gone far enough. That means votes against the bills. Yet the professors are hard workers. work-ers. They never cease to turn out new plans, and the proposals continue con-tinue to flow from the White House to the Capitol. Among the newer projects is one that proposes to establish es-tablish a set of government banks to aid what the nromoters describe ly advertised Roosevelt popularity throughout the country. Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt Is popular, more so, perhaps, than any President we have had ln many years, but the support so represented rep-resented does not appear to run to all of his proposals. It certainly does not apply In favor of all of his subordinates. The "opposition" now appears to have found out these facts and they are concentrating their attack. I noticed the first signs of It In debate In the house of representatives representa-tives and in the senate where a desire de-sire was, and is, plainly evident to call a halt. New Deal plans are not being swallowed without mastication mastica-tion any more. The most important phase of the trend, however, appears to be in the tendency of the opposition to question ques-tion continued enactment of every as the small business. The plan contemplates con-templates creation of the regionnl banks much after the manner of the Federal Reserve bank, with the treasury supplying the Initiation capital cap-ital to the extent of $140,000,000. Here, again, is an emergency measure. It is pointed out, however, that the project Banking for is designed for Industry permanency. It is, therefore, a move by which the federal government, through a step-child, would be put Into the business of banking for Industry, In-dustry, and, of course, once that happens, the system will hang on and on. It will hold so much commercial com-mercial paper, representing loans, that there really will be no time when It can quit and retire from business. 1 sum or legislation unaer tiie guise of emergency needs. Everything up to this time has been pushed through with a loud cry of "emergency!" "emer-gency!" Some of it, if not most of it, was emergency legislation. But now everybody with a pet scheme is rushing In with It as "emergency" legislation, and It Is an overworking overwork-ing of that word that has brought about concentration of the opposition opposi-tion forces, according to the consensus consen-sus that I have been able to gather. From what I have been able to see, It Is a re-enactment of the old story of giving the calf too much rope; It Is choking Itself to death. I was talking with a rather well known senator about the plan, the other day, and he voiced his prl vate objections most vigorously. He suggested that there was grave danger dan-ger of the Industrial loan system being strongly Influenced by politics and that this condition would sure ly lead to the making of loans lm properly secured, loans that no souud bank would dare make. "I will tell you Just how far that thing could go," he added. "It could easily reach the point where, If a business man wanted to borrow money, he would have to go Into the bank on the arm of an office 1 lie importance of this trend, perhaps, per-haps, is best pointed out by the fact that there are dozens of units of the New Deal setup that are predicated wholly on the fact that they were proposed as a part of the general program for recovery. I think none can doubt that the depression lias presented an emergency just as great as any arising under a war. But when any war was concluded the emergency was over, then and there, and emergency legislation was neither passed by congress nor sustained sus-tained In courts. One might possibly pos-sibly conjecture a bit as to where the emergency ended in the fight to get the economic structure back on a prosperous footing, but the new developments certainly show a considerable con-siderable number of leaders In congress con-gress and outside who are unwilling to have the emergency contiuue forever. for-ever. It might be natural to assume that the movement to halt enactment of emergency legislation had developed devel-oped naturally from the fact that holder." Another piece of legislation that is going to have rough sledding is the Roosevelt tariff adjustment proposal. pro-posal. It says on the face of the bill that it is emergency legislation. Down In the text, however, there Is a provision that any of the international interna-tional tariff agreements reached under un-der provisions of the bill may be renewed and that they will continue In force as long as one nation or the other, parties to the accord, do not give notice of cancellation. The opposition op-position holds this to be a proposal for permanent legislation under the guise of emergency plans. Some of the few Republicans left in the senate and house have been chiding the Democratic leaders about the tariff proposals of the administration adminis-tration because they would delegate to the President and the tariff com mission more authority to revise rates upward or downward than now exists. The Republicans are recalling recall-ing to their Democratic friends how the Democrats foneht asrainst this thls is an election year for the 435 members of the house and some 35 members of the senate. Political analysts of long service and able Judgment assure me, however, that this is not the whole case. They say that existence of a campaign probably prob-ably has strengthened the backbone of some of the opposition, but that the trend more properly represents the divergence of thought In the two schools of students of government. If that be true, as it appears to be, then we may expect to see more and more assaults on the Roosevelt position. po-sition. Every time he slips with an error of judgment or on bad adviceand ad-viceand he is human and those slips have and will come the opposition oppo-sition can be counted on to make the most of it. For example, and as Indicating hov the lineup Is changing, attention atten-tion need only be Changing called to the op-Lineup op-Lineup position that has been encountered ln the house on new agricultural legislation. leg-islation. Most of these bills are designed to go further than the program pro-gram laid down In the agricultural adjustment act, and to use compulsion compul-sion where the present New Deal philosophy has been based on voluntary vol-untary co-operation from agriculture agricul-ture itself. There are half a dozen or more pieces of legislation, the nature na-ture of which need not be recounted here, that would give the federal government added control of farmers' farm-ers' affairs. One of them, for Instance, In-stance, would give the secretary of agriculture authority to tell a farmer farm-er what to do with the land taken out of production by his agreement to limit acreage of cotton, or wheat, or corn, or tobacco. Most observ- idea when it was proposed by President Presi-dent Coolidge. Officials of the Department of Agriculture Ag-riculture admit little about reported criticism they re-Farmers re-Farmers ceive. They con- Obiect tend that crlt-cism crlt-cism Is to be expected ex-pected and that, under the AAA plans being molded by Administrator Davis, the organization and rules are to be kept flexible. I understand, however, that there Is quite a bit of objection reaching the department about the necessity for farmers allowing al-lowing government agents to examine exam-ine their records. The reports I get are to the effect that since most of the facts have to be gathered by county representatives of the Washington Wash-ington government, many farmers do not like the Idea of neighbors knowing know-ing all about their affairs. I have Inquired around to find out whether there Is any way that such a condition can be corrected and have found no answer, except the statements of the high officials who nrgue that there Is little examination examina-tion necessary. The condition seems to be one that must be expected If the concerted effort contemplated by the AAA principles of crop control con-trol are to be effective. .The situation Is one that obviously obvious-ly and naturally develops as the government wades further and further fur-ther Into private business. Most persons per-sons recall the circumstances that came with the Inauguration of the income tax as a system of raising federal revenues. Business men objected ob-jected vigorously to granting government govern-ment agents the right to dig Into their books and records, but their fight was to no avail. by Western Newspaper Union. |