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Show I NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS Written for The Telegram By Ray Tucker WASHINGTON President Roosevelt insists publicly that there will be no more deficit spending for relief or pump priming, prim-ing, but the assurance doesn't console con-sole Messrs. Morgenthau or Jones. They are sitting tight on several financial lids; how long it will be before they are pried loose from their hidden boards of gold is problematical The Eccles - Ickes -Hopkins, spenders ar casting googoo eyes at the billions of now frosen but potentially hot assets in the Mor-genthau-Jones account books. If private industry cannot check the recession, they will have plenty of congressional help in coaxing those billions into circulation. Use of this money gold profits now in the stabilisation fund, sterilised gold, silver-backed currency cur-rency and sale of city securities held by R F C would finance another an-other new deal for several years, probably till 1939. The temptation ia too terrible to be resisted, and nobody in the know at Washington looks for resistance when the time cornea probably during the winter or spring. It would supply funds for new subsidies, permit a bal-. bal-. anced budget in 1939 and perhaps reduce the public debt which would read well in the political books. F. D. R. has not repudiated the multiple-power bill openly for fear of antagonizing the Norris-La Norris-La Follette bloc, but he has passed the word quietly to house leaders to let It languish in committee. It will probably remain there until un-til he haa concluded peace negotiations nego-tiations with the private utilities. The dilly-dallying with the measure may eventually drive the alliance between Rooseveltiana and Republican progressives on the rocks. Mr. Norris regards the bill as the climax of a career devoted de-voted to establishment o( a nationwide na-tionwide public power setup a projection of Tennessee's TVA. ' In that ambition he supposed that he had the enthusiastic support of the man in the White House. They have discussed the project as gleefully as children swap dreams about Santa Glaus. Now the senator suspects it will be whittled down into a mere planning plan-ning agency soil, forests, irrigation, irriga-tion, etc. Mr. Roosevelt's problem is to keep the old senator happy and friendly while he negotiatea with the Willkies and Carlisles, using the sleeping bill as a threat If he can wring an agreement from the utilitarians he may convince Mr. Norris that they have won a big but bloodless victory. If not, r he can always give a secret sig- ' nal to the Norris bill boys on "the hill." But it will require some smart and fast presidential stepping step-ping to satisfy both sides. Even, the weather man appears to have teamed up with political and economic forces bucking the new deal. Florida and California storms and cold weather may muss up a Roosevelt-Hopkins budget calculated down to the last penny for the fiscal year ending next June 30. W P A has approximately $900.-000.000, $900.-000.000, perhaps a little less, to finance relief costs from now until un-til that date. Ordinary monthly expenditures total $100,000,000. but they will leap to 200.000.000 for the months of January, February Feb-ruary and March or $800,000,000 in all. leaving only the normal monthly amount for April, May and June. The cupboard will be extremely bare unless every penny is spent " carefully and skimpily. ' Normally relief coats drop on the coast, in the southwest and the south during the winter time when harvesting of seasonal crops furnish private employment to thousands. Mr. Hopkins counts on those savings in trying to make both ends meet. But the destruction of crops by recent storms citrus fruits, for example threatens to upset all his calculations. cal-culations. The official long-range long-range forecaster's report of a cold winter in other sections gives the relief chief anticipatory shivers. The weather seems to be definitely defi-nitely anti-Roosevelt The striking contrast in President Presi-dent Roosevelt's treatment of railroads and power companies recalls-the utilitarian's quip that Mr. Roosevelt must have been scorched by a Mgh line in his younger days. While discussing the railroads' plight caused by physical and financial fi-nancial overexpansion, Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt was asked if it wouldn't be feasible, among other remedies, to write off some of the rail bonds not earning their keep. He himself had cited that problem as a basic evil in the transportation question. Mr. Roosevelt immediately immedi-ately countered with the remark that insurance companies holding these securities would suffer a hard blow. Then he added "and also the widows and orphans." Yet his principal demand In his present negotiations with the power companies is that they aqueeze the water out of their stock setups. Mr. Roosevelt's visitors immediately imme-diately aaw the irony in the contrast con-trast When he referred to rail- ' road "widows and orphans." a wag suggested that the utilities enjoyed a copyright on that remark, re-mark, and that it was unfair for the president to infringe upon it F. D. R. apparently didn't hear or heed the innuendo. Rooseveltiana' race for presidential presi-dential favor in 1940 becomes more comic and pathetic every day. It threatens darkly to jeopardize jeop-ardize peace in the official family. Whenever F. D. R. ahows partiality par-tiality to one cabinet member, the others wonder whether it ha permanent political significance. The prospective . appointment of Joseph P. Kennedy to the London diplomatic post has stirred a storm of speculation that he may be the fair-haired boy. despite his religion. Previously the buildup for Robert H. Jackson had aroused similar alarms. Invitations Invita-tions to a Sunday night supper or for a weekend on the Potomac always flutter the dreamers' dove cotes. Cabinet members try to hide their fears and suspicions, their emotional ups and downs. But their aids buttonhole press and politicians for the lowdown on any particular higherup's advancement, advance-ment, like Kennedy's, and aigh happily when assured it doesn't mean a thing. Usually it doesn't though you never can tell these days. Notes: Rural electrification administration has wired 150,000 farm homes at average cost of $123. ... Practical anarchy of labor conditions affecting merchant mer-chant shipping is chief stumbling block in framing new legislation. . . . Aviation interests whooping up big celebration of Aviation day, December 17, anniversary of Wright brothers' first flight . . . Motor carrier division of interstate inter-state commerce commission is 29 months behind with applicationa, which pour in at rate of 400 a month, . . . Army officers' reserve corps now numbers nearly 100,000. of whom 30,000 look after CCC camps. Pending farm bills contemplate intervention in behalf of farmers before railroad rates are revised upward. . . . Pithy remark by Chairman Jones, in charge of house farm bill: '1 wish we had some method of raising the money." . . . Although public roads bureau has eliminated 2804 grade crossings, Site new ones have been opened. There are 232,-900 232,-900 grade crossings on class 1 railroads. . . . Maritime commission commis-sion frowns on using American steamers as tramps. Copyright, 1937, for The Telegram. |