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Show NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS Written for The Telegram By Ray Tucker ! By IRA BENNETT Vice Ray Tucker WASHINGTON "I shall expect ex-pect considerable discussion," said a Democratic senator when asked how the senate would deal with the bill which gives President Presi-dent Roosevelt six anonymous assistants at 810,000 each. "He already haa 'em," added the senator. "He has a man In R F C, another in W P A, and others posted where they can do the most good. Tommy Corcoran and Charlie West are already getting get-ting 810,000 each. Benny Cohen gets only 88300, but I understand he has a cushion left from his whirl in Wall Street." Special agency insiders say the White House "contact men" get on the nerves of F R C Chairman Jesse Jones, Secretary Ickes, Reserve Re-serve Board Governor Eccles and members of the communications, interstate commerce, federal trade and power commissions. General opinion is that presidential assistants as-sistants will prove to be troublesome trouble-some go-betweens who wlil promote pro-mote misunderstanding between the president and his official advisers. ad-visers. Against this opinion stands the fact that Mr. Roosevelt could use 100 assistants if they could really assist A few weeks ago it was pointed out that some doubt surrounded the oase of Justice Van Devanter, who sent a letter to the president announcing his "retirement," but who is still subject to service as a supreme court Justice when called upon. Thus he is a member of the supreme court and not a member, just as you look at it Senator Borah Insists that the Van Devanter retirement did not create a vacancy. This curious situation might lead to Interesting consequences If Justice Van Devanter should perform official duties. The law granting full pay to retired Justices Jus-tices cannot change the constitution, constitu-tion, of course; and if a retired justice continues to serve, if only temporarily, he is still on the bench, subject to impeachment The administration view la that thsre'a a vacancy, and that there should be more. No one doubts that a nomination or appointment will be made of somebody to succeed suc-ceed Van Devanter. Probably the retirement pay law will be amended to prohibit a retired justice jus-tice from acting further. 4t-Jecomes more probable than ever that a showdown must occur on this question: Shall the United States government be given power to regulate industry,, labor and agriculture, regardless of state lines? Gradually the opinion grows that congress eventually will draw up and pass a proposed constitutional amendment extending extend-ing the power of the government aa indicated. Highly competent and impartial legal opinion obtained by this column runs thus: The supreme court, no matter what Its personnel per-sonnel may be, will not set aside the constitution. Pressure for more effective national regulation of the nation's business will Increase. In-crease. The new wages and hours law may bring the question to a sharp issue. Therefore, it is reasoned, rea-soned, the people sooner or later must decide whether the power of the federal government shall be enlarged. President Roosevelt seems to agree with this conclusion when he Insists that the government must have power to control farm production. If the president should demand enactment of reorganization bills before adjournment as many expect ex-pect there would be fireworks in the senate. Joe Robinson was chairman of the select committee on reorganization. He waa deftly sliding through part of F. D. R's program when he died and deftly sidetracking other parts. Senator Sen-ator Byrnes is now chairman and Byrnes is off the reservation. The house branch of this committee com-mittee intends to press the bill abolishing the general accounting office and the comptroller general, setting up an auditing system that would go over the books after federal fed-eral money had been spent The congressional majority seems to be dead aet against this proposed change and F. D. R. is dead set for it This, like all other matters, waa blanketed by the court fight Who's going to rule whether the spending of billions Is technically tech-nically lawful or not an official answerable to congress, or the president? The billions are there ready to be apent But congress haa put strings around some of the fat packages in the bundle. The three police services in Washington metropolitan, cap-itol cap-itol and parks are cooperating in f plans for handling the Jobless army that la expected to descend on the capital on August 23. The organisers of this march have done thorough spadework. They expect to rally several thousand ' men, women and children, who will proceed to squat in Washington Washing-ton and ask, "Well, how about it?" Precautions are taken by congress con-gress against disturbances by passing an antlpicketing bill that will keep the crowds at least 600 feet away from diplomatic quarters. quar-ters. Foreign envoys who have excellent information services in this country have told Secretary Hull that some of the visitors are bent on mischief. Among the organisers of the march are communists com-munists who are working international inter-national schemes. Secretary Hull and his trade-agreement trade-agreement staff tore their hair when the house committee on labor Inserted in the wagea and houra bill a provision excluding from Interstate commerce any foreign goods produced below the "fair labor standards" to be fixed by the proposed labor standards board. This provision, to be enforced, would require a small army of inspectors in-spectors in foreign countries to paas upon factory and wagea and hours conditions. State department depart-ment officials said the proposed arrangement would sound the knell of trade agreements. Japanese goods would be hardest hard-est hit by such a regulation, but wages " generally are lower and hours longer abroad than In this country. Supporters of the provision pro-vision reasoned that American producers complying with the law were entitled to be freed from destructive competition by foreigners for-eigners who are not bound by law to provide decent ' wages and houra. Notes: Secretary Roper entertains enter-tains a few hundred guests at a lawn party by distributing watermelons water-melons from South Carolina . . . Employes in retail establishments are subject to the wages and houra bill . . . About 500,000 new homes will be built this year . . . Statisticians Stat-isticians say average American wagea this year are 8T.S cents and average work week la 38.5 hours . . . Wages and hours and housing acts will call for many attorneya at good pay 83900 to 89000 a year. (Copyright, 1937, for The Telegram) |
