| Show Lord High Executioner Installed In Gaudiest of Capitals Capital's Buildings B By RODNEY BUTCHER DUTCHER NE NEA Service Writer w WASHINGTON ASHINGTON April 5 5 On On the theop top op floor of the largest office building in the world Is the biggest and handsomest handsomest hand hand- handa office ever occupied by a cabnet cabinet cabinet cabi cab net member There behind the nations nation's na nl- na- na tion's hugest gaudiest reception room sits a wizened elderly man who has the misfortune to be the most unpopular unpopular un un- un- un popular member of oC President Roosevelt's Roosevelt's Roosevelt's Roose Roose- velt's official family On the street below the enormous department of commerce bUilding a newsboy dashes ly y forward screaming Its It's horrible Its It's horrible Inside the building arc are men and women Many or of them quake with fear They go into one huddin after another nother In this great mausoleum of oC misery which was once the capitals capitals capi capi- tal's al's pride but is now called Hoovers Folly FoUy The thin man is Secretary Daniel Calhoun Roper Secretary Roper Isnow is islow known I now low as Washington's lord I high ugh executioner Th The newsboy beatS bears a local newspaper to o give latest details of Ropers Roper's prospective pros pros- reorganization n of ot the depart depart- ment The men and women are the I departments department's who believe I that hat hundreds if It not thousands of them arc are going to o lose their THE TilE THREATENING AX Ropers Roper's department of ot commerce will vill get the ax first first and and probably hardest It has hns at home lome and abroad and many their heir their functions reshuffled or eliminated elim elfin mated before Colonel Dan gets get through The boys and girls who expect expect ex ex- the worst masSacre massacre are the themore more than 2000 in the bureau of foreign and domestic commerce the darling of or Herbert Hoover and and ana Julius Klein in ir the days of ot pros prosperity erity Politicians and business men come to Roper in hordes He sees them all all but buthe he is a headed hard working hard executive executive-a executive executive-a a shark at figures and a I passionate advocate of ot LOST IN VASTNESS You get to see see Roper in his office perhaps an hour after your appointment appointment appointment appoint appoint- ment time time time-so so many are ahead of you Three or four other visitors are in ir the same room waiting their turn but the office is so large that they're i out of ot bearing hearing Several more wait in ir I the outside office And others in th the gigantic reception salon across th the i hall hail The colored attendant who announces an an- your name to the secretary secretary's S secretary says this chamber is fe feet t tand and seven inches long It has what wha t seem like acres of ot walnut paneling Mr Roper talks There are times which demand a 1 basic study of ot government facilities One such time has now arrived This Thi S is a new era Here we have an opportunity of studying with business men mci mena I Ia a new approach to cope with changed I conditions In Iii prosperous times we think o of r salesmanship in times like these more mon i fundamental studies for business that tha will endeavor to discover trends ii in this thi- country and the w world We Wc must muss make scientific studies and analyses and give business the advantage of them Here were we're Just a trustee and a I clearing house for business treating all suggestions deliberately and ap p preaching solutions from from-an from an unselfish wide nation viewpoint REORGANIZING STUDIED STUDIE Reorganization VT V. Well e 1 11 1 they're studying the possibilities of coordinating the foreign services of the state and commerce departments A committee is working on the reorganization in the room behind Mr Roper Its membership is supposed to be secret but Mr Roper says hear anyone who wants to be heard You try to ask him some more questions about bout it and he lie suddenly stands up and youre you're all through Meanwhile scores of rumors travel tra over the square feet of floor space in lathe the commerce building M Mystery Mys Mys- tery begets fear Many of ot the arc are indignant I They realize that the bureau of ot for for- c eign ign and domestic commerce Is over- over e expanded but they regard the drastic nature of the thc forthcoming shakeup as I indicating a spite plan to be inflicted inflict Inflict- e ed cd d because of the sins of oC over ballyhoo a and nd promotion over committed by Hoover and Klein They whisper r that Roper Eloper is there because the administration adminis t ration didn't like him and wanted to toive give ive him a dirty job to do The bureau needs pruning but some someo o of ot its experts are among the chief a authorities s in their particular fields Ields of business economics markets and anda a dozen other phases Many of them l long lona ong ago ao took up the study and promotion promotion pro pro- promotion motion of t trade as a life work Roper has said that he wanted to preserve a balance between the interests interests inter inter- ests of the thc taxpayer on the one hand and nece necessary sary cooperation with business busi busi- ness on the thc other but no one even knows his fundamental theory WHAT SHOULD IT DO Hoovers Hoover's theory was that a commerce commerce com corn merce department should concentrate on furthering the interests of individual ual firms and producers There had been some hope that it might now be become come a service bureau in the interests of ot the consumers as well as producers developing plans for economic buIlding building build buIld- i ing ng and helping work out the problems l lems ems of production and distribution Politically Ropers Roper's appointment occasioned much surprise and was usually interpreted as payment of whatever debt Roosevelt owed to W. W G. G McAdoo Al Smiths Smith's friends r regarded re it as a slap because they think of Roper as a who did all he could to defeat Als Al's nomination in 1928 Roper was wa born in South Carolina in 1867 and went vent to the state legislature legislature legisla legisla- ture at 25 Then he was a n senate committee clerk here a special census bureau agent from 1900 to 1910 a n committee clerk again and then successively suc sue successively first assistant postmaster general tariff commissioner and collector col lector of internal revenue under Wil wn- son He always did an efficient job and made a a good collector making the I machinery for administering the Income income In in- Income come tax laws and collecting the bi big wartime levies function successfully He helped more than one industry re reorganise organise e after the war Knowing Knowin more ab about ut income tax than anyone else he became a lawyer specializing on income tax cases after alter the Democrats Democrats' lost the federal jobs I 1 in fl 1921 and is known as one of the best For years he was an ardent tion worker as well as a power in the tha Methodist Church South but last lasi L year declared for resubmission of ot the eI eighteenth amendment to the people In 1916 he was chairman of the Wilson Wilson Wil Wil- son campaign organization bureau I and arid In 1924 was McAdoo's chief chic lieu Heu- tenant at the famous Madison Square Squar convention After his desertion in 1928 he went into eclipse but he hc went to work for Roosevelt last year rounding up the old McAdoo followers follow follow- ers and apparently playing an important important tant part behind the scenes at the Chicago convention Copyright 1933 1933 NEA Service I Th Inc I |
