OCR Text |
Show National Topics Interpreted fimst by William Bruckart M Washington. Every so often in the National Capital, there comes a loll, a period In NRA Pro- which things seem duces Results" saf;, Sometimes Some-times it lasts only a few days, and again it has gone a week or longer. It has happened even under the "new deal." Time Is allowed, as It has been consistently consist-ently heretofore by these lulls, during dur-ing which a lot of thoughts crystalled, crys-talled, and many persons gain a different perspective,- if not a true one, at least a changed one. Senator Pat Harrison of Mississippi, Missis-sippi, one of the Democratic wheel horses, felt the situation the other day when he announced boldly and as though no one else had noted the phenomenon that "we must do something some-thing more than we have been doing." do-ing." Senator Harrison's weather eye was on the congressional elections elec-tions of next fall, but In the meantime mean-time throughout the government where somewhat less attention was and Is paid to pure politics, there were expressions In the last few days of similar import. Among that cynical lot of observers, variously described newspaper correspondents, correspond-ents, the press, journalists, etc., the result of the sag of the last ten days was a conviction that some of the high-powered recovery machinery ma-chinery had been seized with sleeping sleep-ing sickness or pernicious anemia. The point I am seeking to develop de-velop Is that both the national recovery re-covery administration and the agricultural ag-ricultural adjustment administration administra-tion appear to have passed Into that stage from which we can look back and see the crest of the wave. The public works administration Is just getting up steam, and the federal relief re-lief administration has its machinery ma-chinery whirring away In "anticipation "anticipa-tion of the hardest winter from the standpoint of relief that the depression depres-sion has brought. I have not seen the signs or portents yet that will tell whether the public works job Is going to be worthwhile, but as to General Johnson's NRA and Secretary Secre-tary Wallace's AAA, I have gathered gath-ered much opinion from keen students stu-dents to the effect that if they add much more , to the recovery movement move-ment It will have to come from the adoption of new tactics. During the sag, it seemed all at once that NRA could no longer muster mus-ter the enthusiasm within Its own corps to shout about its progress. It apparently had struck a snag. The reaction from the lull was Immediate. Imme-diate. When the ballyhoo ceased, the momentum of the effect through : the country was checked. . . .As to the AAA, the period of comparative com-parative quiet In government affairs permitted an examination of how many directions Secretary Wallace's ' corps had gone all at the same time. - This evident lack of continuity in policy is looked upon among the . observers as having begun almost with the creation of the adjustment administration, but there was plenty , of spirit and hope and brains to recovery act was so drawn that the administration could club business with the code provisions and force the "partnership" with the government, govern-ment, but omitted supplying the administration ad-ministration with a club to hold over labor. The result Is that labor "has not been such a good partner. My Inquiries have brought about the same response generally, namely, name-ly, that this thing bad to be a three-horse three-horse team. Labor has balked. Business has been made the goat. It has been unjustifiably stubborn in a lot of cases, but I submit It ought not be made to carry all of the load. Labor leaders cannot be blamed for wanting to unionize every shop, for that is their bread and butter. But from what I hear, the undercurrent of feeling among business leaders, labor may suffer a setback, because It Is attempting to exact too great tribute under such trying times. The presence In Washington of Sir Frederick Lelth-Ross as the representative rep-resentative of the Debts British govern- Up Again ment to talk about r revision of the government's $4,GOO,000,000 debt to the United States has brought the debt question to front once again. Sir Frederick has come with a commission com-mission to see how much can be lopped off and how a refunding can be arranged so that his government will find payments easier during these times of stress. Actually, what the British want . to do Is gain an eventual cancellation of the debt and in this move they are receiving no small amount of en-courngement en-courngement from the other debtor nations whose combined obligations to the United States are approximately approxi-mately SG.COO.OOO.OOO. It is obvious, of course, that If the United States grants concessions to the British, It will have to do something for the others. Hence, they are all rooting for the British team to win. The negotiations for the United States are In the hands of Dean Acheson, youthful undersecretary of the treasury, but he has been In constant touch with President Roosevelt so that after all, the Chief Executive Is guiding the foreign for-eign debt policy. The conversations with representatives of foreign governments gov-ernments In the nature of things have to be carried on more or less confidentially, and the current meetings are no exception. Besides, the subject In detail Is one of a highly technical character. The public as a whole, however, should be vitally Interested in the net result, re-sult, for it simmers down to a question ques-tion of taxation on the American people. If the foreign nations pay back the money the United States loaned them to help out in the World war, Just that amount of money will not have to be raised by taxation of American citizens. If they do not pay, the American people will have to make it up. There Is no alternative. keep all of the lines moving some months. Now, the consensus Is that some of the lines will have to be abandoned because they have been pulling In opposite directions. ... In attempting to depict the situation situa-tion as it exists at. this time, I intend in-tend no criticism. On the contrary, I believe I should reverse the words of the noble Roman and say that "I came to praise Caesar and not to bury him." For there is no doubt and . can be no doubt that NRA has 'done a 'deal of good in awak-enlng'the awak-enlng'the country. It Is equally apparent ap-parent that the agricultural administration admin-istration has done some good. It has heartened thousands of farmers by providing some asslstance.though I believe it Is a sound statement to say that It has not done anything like as much as was expected. Whether one views the NRA, hi principle, as the right course, it re-. re-. mains as a fact Authorities that something had Agree t0 be donei an(J . apparently It had to be something of the sort of the NRA. I have heard much discussion discus-sion of the principle of NRA in the recent weeks since it has appeared to be on the decline, and It was noteworthy that none of the authorities authori-ties were in disagreement as to the necessity for something, some ac-tlon.'that ac-tlon.'that would "tnke the people's minds off themselves." If NRA has caused business men to make' even a small start towards Increasing their operations. If it has caused employers to add the milli6n-or million mil-lion and a half workers to the pay rolls that Is claimed for It, or If It has done any of the various things about which so much propaganda was spread, then it ought to be ad-mltted ad-mltted that NRA has made a con- trlbutlbn' towards recovery. But it does appear to most observers here that its value Is waning. One of the reasons why NRA has reached the stage In which we now find .It, .is because of congressional short-sightedness.'- Perhaps congress ought not be blamed for all of it either, ei-ther, because it is just possible that advisers of the President did not use their Wads. At any rate, the national 1 Then, there Is the trade angle of the debt question. Our nation must export goods. The Trade There must be Angle cotjon a jwjeat and corn and flour, nnd hundreds upon hundreds of different dif-ferent kinds of manufactured goods shipped out of the country. Unless these exports are maintained, our own producing capacity must be curtailed, and when It Is curtailed, we have unemployment. It has been argued by the limited number of outright cancellations those who would wipe the debts off of the books and forget about them that so long as those debtor nations -have to tax their own people to pay back their wartime borrowings, those people are In no position to buy our surplus. It is simply that they do not have enough money to do both. They argue further, that If we can export in normal .quantities; .quan-tities; our Industries will be prosperous, pros-perous, and If they are prosperous, they do not object to paying the necessary amount of taxes to pay off the bonds our government sold In borrowing money to loan to Europe. Eu-rope. From these two views of the debt problem, it seems to me It Is plain how painfully close to all of us it Is, though apparently a thing of remote re-mote consequence to the rank and file. To show how really close It Is, however. It Is r.eressnry only to mention that Present Roosevelt Is going to accept no proposal for revision of the P.rltish. or any other, oth-er, debt that will cause a knockdown knock-down and drag-out fight In congress. con-gress. He will not risk such a course politically. He Icnows that congress Is unalterably opposed to cancellation cancella-tion and that there Is a large nnd powerful group who will resist any reduction. ' , ' It happens that I was the only Washington correspondent who reported re-ported all of the original sessions In which the foreign dehts were funded Into long-term obligations, most of which cover a period of G2 years. I thought I saw at that time signs Indicating those dehts would never be paid. I am convinced now that they will not be paid In full. . 1933. Western Newspaper Union. |