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Show nal Topics Interpreted by William Bruckart f , National Prm Building Wahlnton, D, c. i Washington. A week or ten days ago, the name of Frank O. Lowden was scarcely whls-"Draft whls-"Draft pered around Lowden" where politicians foregathered. They talked about the forthcoming Republican Re-publican National convention and they mentioned Governor Landon of Kansas; CoL Frank Knox of 1111-nols; 1111-nols; Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan; and others, but never was the name of iowden mentioned. men-tioned. In the short space of a fortnight, there has come first a whisper of the name of Lowden, then a mention men-tion of him as a possible Republican Repub-lican nominee and finally a full voice that approximates a "draft Lowden" movement. A few weeks ago I reported to you In these columns that the prospects pros-pects were very good for the Republican Re-publican National convention to turn to a dark horse. There was no name at that time upon which anyone could pin a prediction but there were circumstances, undercurrent under-current in character, that seemed to point the way to the nomination of a man not then in the forefront fore-front of political prognostication. Of course, with the Republican convention delegates pledged and unpledged here, there, and everywhere, every-where, it is possible for almost anything any-thing to happen but my information informa-tion Is that the leaders desire most of all to avoid a bitter battle. They wish to avoid the very thing which New Deal political strategists have been seeking to foment Only the final ballot will tell the story, of course, but It does appear at this time that the Republican leadership leader-ship may display some good horse sense and seek to accomplish a moves. WherT, have been ffl ; been benefited. WhS i spokesmen hav H k ttherewerel J - :! Now, the point ta . ? RooseveU had Here's 90 1 f ', " casio,).,! the Point havt t . , situation - ? reacted unfavorably to 1 1 be recalled that X - i President has tried : 4 rles on various govern- lems and 1ms studied reaction to his trial i did not do this wiuj J He left the Job of draf&l ' islation to the bW( treasury, being tomJ number of men who hj,,, ceptlon whatsoever of i -practices and care little t lean traditions, produced, of legislation that would j, ever prevented any busj, from saving fundi tt t through times of depret proverbial rainy day. In the discussions iron, ' - ington, it Is frequently ta-had ta-had Mr. Roosevelt talej, called tax experts into i . made them explain the t of the bill they were p, much of the difficulty ic been averted. But he did b this foresight and thewi:. history. lie has alienated ( slderable amount of coop, support that be ordinary have for the mere asking. ? v. As the tax legislation t" is nothing more nor In nomination without splitting their party wide open. This "draft Lowden" movement has come on with almost startling suddenness, as I have Indicated above. It has resulted from the fact, apparently, that Mr. Lowden, while he was governor of Illinois a number of years ago and since that time, has built up for himself a record as a friend of agriculture. Thus, the strategy would seem to be that the Republican leadership Is turning to a man who can give President Roosevelt a run for bis money In the farm belt states. As far as I know, Mr. Lowden has not been consulted respecting the nomination. It would seem, however, that if he were nominated he would accept despite the fact that he has not sought the nomination nomina-tion in any way nor has he been very active in politics since he sought the nomination for President In 1920. It was on that occasion, It will be remembered, that he and the late Gen. Leonard Wood fought through Into a convention deadlock and Warren G. Harding of Ohio was nominated as a compromise candidate. It Is difficult to see how the conservative con-servative element In the Republican Republi-can party could refuse to back Mr. Lowden and It Is equally difficult to see how the farm representation and the liberals In the party could withhold their support when the makeshift boost lu rates, t ' added nothing at all to tfr 1 the nation's general tasat cles. It seems to nie that! Is ripe for a general tndy tax structure with the Idea i that a wholesale revisios take place and that scientlSr ods should be employed, 1 not forget that we have a r debt of more thna thlrtj lions and that several other i ' in securities are really to It 1 ed in since those obllgatr guaranteed by the United !; That debt must be paid pa-It pa-It may be that all of tbn one billions In tax payw:.' borrowed money which Mr i velt has expended cao be Is in every respect. It may be -future years the nation ft ; grateful that this era of er gance Is a part of our nlitn -the fact still remains that r government or an Indium rows money, that money returned to those who hold & dence of the debt , The civil service comml ly hus compiled some sta dlcatlnj , U. S. Pay merit s.: Roll Grows thefede ernmentli1 pushed aside at an alarmit? The commission's figures i every President since Arthur H : Lowden farm record Is considered. But all of this represents subject matter that must await convention action because, after all, there are still other candidates who have blocks of delegate behind them and they may be "unwilling to withdraw with-draw unless they are satisfied with the dark horse that finally trots out onto the convention platform. One hears more and more discussion discus-sion In Washington these days of t the tax muddle In ax which President Muddle Roosevelt has ,., , fi . fld himself. I think it is fair to say that his prestige has suffered considerably from the way his proposed tax increase in-crease was handled and I think it la the general consensus that this !! b'U was Proposition ?H,:h. PresIdent too has expanded the scope oi sified civil service during ministration until the i4 Hon of President Roosevelt It would be a list much t to record here how the t" employees of the federal P : ment has increased each J the government has expa as a matter of history me as interesting to see "w per cent of employees of" eral government under r.; McKlnley held their Jobs civil service system and i." how this percentage ln-. 61.5 per cent under Presi to 72 per cent under Pres' . son; to 79.8 per cent dents Harding and CoolidS 80.1 per cent under Hoover. , By the end of Jm number of civil service in the federal government'" i Sometime In the future, the hls-ory hls-ory of the New Deal will be written writ-ten In a clear and comprehensive manner. The story then will show in retrospect that which we can hardly understand now-the good and the bad in the bewildering adventures ad-ventures attempted under the poll-cies poll-cies of reform and recovery. I be- wme T Wh wrI,e that h'story will dwell upon the 1930 tax legls-ationa8 legls-ationa8 of the ,mportant litical weaknesses developed by Mr. Roosevelt. , As far as I know, there has never been a public official who has been entirely consistent at all times In his methods and policies. Mr Roosevelt, being human, has been "consistent ,ike the rest ana i. - Wmu renson t0 exPec tt StLT fbV0De "cePtlon despite de-spite the fact that some of his fol- lowers maintain that he cannot make mistakes. wlfhM J'" the tax -"'atlon with the fact that Mr. Roosevelt he Ch me Ca" attentlon to the further fact that be has been bold, even daring, m niany of edto only 63.3 per eeTJ number and, while the cw ice commission has not" the record for this year,1 stand reliably that the be about 67 per cent The total number of j , of the federal gnj grown consistently since t the century when it stooa if In Taffs administration, was 370,000. President first administration ernpra . 000 and then with tnea World war the rMM ; ed Its personnel to its Ws0 917,000. , . vtK : As the war agendei dated, the number of w ; clined obviously un'11 Harding and Cooliilge tions the highest P0,nt .af 540,000. The Hoover aW 1 f numbered 583,000 "JJ but the election of Pr'u oD f velt Immediately brougl p er numberg and by JDB (r there were 719,000 on tw . pa, roll and this nam ther Increased to 806.0W of March this year. 1(t 1 |
