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Show . NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS. I Written for The Telegram By Ray Tucker WASHINGTON The most dramatic dra-matic and Important spectacle on Capitol hill during the session ses-sion which convenes todsy will be the open clash between Franklin Frank-lin Roosevelt and John Garner for control of congress and the Democratic party. With numerous other partisans - Musars. Harrison, Byrnes, Wheeler the vice president operated oper-ated behind the scenes in rerouting rerout-ing the White House legislative craft at the lust session. Almoat every event during the recess labor unrest, rising costs, the economic recession. G. O. P. advances ad-vances in local elections have convinced them that they were wiser than the presidential (new deal) set. Now they figure that unless they can convince the country of the party's innate conservatism con-servatism they face the threat of a atunnlng defeat in 1938 and 1940. In presession palavers the leaders lead-ers have urged F. D. R. to ton down his wages-farm-powcr measures so as to encourage large-scale investors and check the present slump. They much prefer to arrange these affairs quietly within the political family. fam-ily. But if he won't revise they will. And they intend to perform per-form publicly this time so that they may reap thfe credit at the polls. The Inside story of the now-famous now-famous O. Max Gardner letter illustrates how fiercely the Garner Gar-ner gadflies are stinging the president in a concerted movement move-ment to force a new deal tone-down. tone-down. It was the most overt move to frighten F. D. R. on record. rec-ord. The former North Carolina governor's warning was presented present-ed to the president by Wsys and Means Chairman Doughton at a White House conference for discussion dis-cussion of tax revision. Briefly, it declared in brutally frank terms that unless the administration stopped stripping capital of any Incentive for going to work, the result would be an economic panic for the country and a political panic for the party. It refuted, seriatim, F. D. R.'s attacks on Wall Street and his earlier contention con-tention that the stock market upset up-set hurt nobody but "gamblers." Mr. Doughton's explanation of the letter was that Mr. Gardner recently spent some time in North Carolina, and he (Doughton) asked his old friend to write him his opinion of conditions back home. But the chairman, oddly, had only recently toured his state. f sees Mr, Gardner regularly at 1 Washington and could have obtained ob-tained the tatter's views verbally. The house tax expert wanted to impress F. D. R. and the letter was stagemanaged as a political frame up. The worldwide trend toward military secrecy has at last struck the war department at Washington. Washing-ton. It has closed its doors against visitors hitherto welcomed as prospective publicists and converts con-verts to the big-army theory. The particular office now under guard military intelligence has always functioned quietly and mysteriously. It studies and files reports from military attaches assigned as-signed to foreign capitals and battlefronts (Ethiopia, Madrid, Shanghai), and it constantly revises re-vises war plans for offense and defense. But until a few days ago the experts were always willing will-ing to discuss new tactics and weapons with accredited correspondents corres-pondents whose reliability and patriotism were trusted. Through this system the American people were kept Informed of new horrors hor-rors that may some day afflict them. But now the officers have been Instructed to give no Information of any character to anybody. The excuse offered is: "The officers are too busy to talk these days" It's another sign of the tension which grips Washington at the moment. Henry L. Morgenthau may achieve his pet ambition at the next aession of congress, even . though the president's government govern-ment reorganization program doea not pass. He may become the world's most famous cop, outranking qeads of the F. B. I., Scotland Yard and the French Surete. The treasury measure reorganizing reorgan-izing Mr. Morgenthau's police "units secret service, Internal revenue, customs, alcohol tax-was tax-was sidetracked a year ago to clear the track for the general bilL White House aids won't admit ad-mit it publicly, but they have scant chance of enacting the reorganization program at the special or regular session. So several Morgenthau . sleuths-Messrs. sleuths-Messrs. Irey, Wilson and Graves have quietly prepared a plan for coordination of all the treasury treas-ury detective units into an Woman Wo-man enforcement branch. Except for the enmity of other federal police groups jealous of their prestige, the idea has general gen-eral support on Capitol hill. It ' will save money and permit even better tax, customs, alcohol, counterfeiting enforcement. , Treasury police are recognized as the finest, though the least spectacular, spec-tacular, in the land. And Mr. Morgenthau does want to be the world's biggest cop. Partisan politics pursued Hugo L. Black to the very threshold of the supreme court. No quick-change quick-change stsge performer ever slipped from one costume to another an-other more speedily than Mr. Black climbed out of a political toga and into a black robe. The coauthor of the wages-and-hours bill was deeply concerned over his reelection prospects in Alabama, and told his troubles to Ace Publicist Charles Michelson. As tbe then senator outlined the situation, his association with the controversial measure and the CIO threat to southern industry jeopardized his chances in cities like Mobile, Montgomery and Birmingham. So Messrs. Black and Michelson, as astute pollticos, decided that he must make a strong and steady play for the farm vote. A speech setting forth the new deal's accomplishments for agriculture agri-culture was written for Mr. Black as part of the strategy. Then He was named to the court, and his political worries vanished overnight over-night or so he thought until his klan membership was publicized. The address wasn't wanted: it was delivered by a senatorial substitute, sub-stitute, and Mr. Black didn't even listen in. He was in London. Senator Carter Glass is the most delightfully irascible personality on Capitol Hill. The . following anecdote ahows why even bis enemies en-emies love him: Last session the Virginian conceived con-ceived a fierce prejudice against his old-time friend. Frank Bane of the social security system. He thought that Mr. Bane had deliberately de-liberately aidetracked the application appli-cation of a constituent who. in Mr. Glass' opinion, was eminently qualified for an appointment. The senate committee which the senator sena-tor heads appropriations subsequently subse-quently reduced Mr. Bane's salary from 19300 to (9000. It looked like petty retaliation. Toward the end of the session, however. Mr. Glass slipped into the second deficiency bill a provi-aion provi-aion restoring the cut. His genuinely gen-uinely generous and fair impulses always have the last word or actionwith ac-tionwith him. He even admires F. D. R. personally, though detesting detest-ing his deeds and philosophy. (Copyright, 1937. for The Telegram) |