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Show National Topics Interpreted nlll by William Bruckart rfflul Washington. Topics of general discussion In Washington obviously range the whole More Critics; category of sub-Wore sub-Wore Noise Jec'ts tlint Ko to make up the "New Deal," but I have been Impressed lately with the predominant place now held by two questions In the conversations one hears about the streets, olllces, clubs and other places where men meet Largely to the exclusion of other matters, one hears people trying to figure out whether a turn has come in the Roosevelt political luck, as one topic, and growing comment on the prevalent confusion within the administration, ad-ministration, as the other subject of comment. True, they constitute questions to which the final answer an-swer is not yet apparent, but the thought I am trying to advance is that possibly the New Deal Is undergoing un-dergoing some sort of a transition after one year. Attention should be called again to the all-embracing control which President Roosevelt hitherto has exercised ex-ercised almost without effort. Anything Any-thing he said, anything he did, or anything he proposed, was accepted. There were few critics, and those who did criticize cannot be described de-scribed as highly vocal. Now, however, how-ever, it Is a fact that there are more critics and they are making noise that Is not hushed. There are open opponents of the administration administra-tion policies, not only In the Republican Repub-lican ranks where it is natural they would be found, but among the Democrats as well. As nearly as I can ascertain, the wave of criticism that has come forth Into bloom Is traceable to one of Mr. Roosevelt's acts, directly. The confusion that has followed seems, at the same time, to have been given birth as a result of the unexpected criticism. Or to state the proposition In another manner, the administration's efforts to avoid criticism are viewed by soaie observers observ-ers as having formed the basis of the confusion. I can report only that which I can ascertain to be fact and, on appearance alone, It seems Mr. Roosevelt acted hastily on the air mail contract cancellation cancella-tion and his action unloosed an issue is-sue over which individuals can take sides. It is really the first time he has provided the opposition with a peg on which they can hang their hats. : ' . ' . . While 'flie 'official' p6kesiijRB ?f a S-lnHSilstriousay there is'no connection tmtwoen -the bn'ck-flre're-' suiting frotn the: contract' cancellation cancella-tion and the several moves made by the President since, In his far flung efforts to get us out of the depression, depres-sion, I am told that these declarations declara-tions are having no effect on those who want to criticize the New Deal schemes. The NRA revision program, the substitution of a new billion-dollar program of a relief character for the CWA which Administrator Ad-ministrator Hopkins now concedes has been something of a flop, and the battles for legislation in congress, con-gress, all are accepted as showing the desire of the President to accomplish ac-complish a change in the attitude of the critics. . It Is to be observed that, for the first time, criticism of the New Deal plans ln-Hit ln-Hit at eludes a sizable Expenditures attnck on the vast expenditures being be-ing made. Mr. Roosevelt has been spending money as fast, if not faster, fast-er, than was spent during the World war, and many persons are now coming forward with the assertion as-sertion that "spending our way out of the depression" may leave the government with such a debt that our children's children will still be paying on it. But right in the face of these attacks, Mr. Roosevelt has brought forth the CWA substitute and a request that congress appropriate appro-priate $950,000,000 to pay for it. In the meantime and while the confusion has become worse confounded, con-founded, it is to be noted that orders or-ders have gone from the Executive offices to the Democratic leaders In congress to get new air mail contract con-tract legislation through In a hurry. This legislation is predicated on the theory that private air lines shall carry the air mail. Further, there Is every reason to believe now that the companies whose contracts were canceled so hastily will be allowed to bid again for the Jobs. Postmaster General Farley maintains main-tains the -President was acting In accordance with law when he ordered or-dered the mail contracts canceled. Mr. Boosevelt had said so In several sev-eral different languages. The fact remains, however, that it always has been the practice to accord an opportunity for a hearing, whether the charge be one of fraud or whether It be some other allegation. No hearing was granted the air mail contractors. Indeed, they were given less than two weeks of time before they were off the Job, and the army pilots were doing the work. According to the discussion in congress, it Is quite evident there are many influential persons throughout the country who feel the contractors were not given a fair shake by President Roosevelt. The conversations I hear are to the general elTect that if the army had been equipped to do the mall carrying Job, as some of Its general gen-eral staff members publicly announced, an-nounced, and If there had been no such deplorable loss of life among the youthful army pilots as occurred, oc-curred, Mr. Roosevelt In all likelihood likeli-hood would have had few repercussions repercus-sions to the dramatic cancellation of contracts. But the army planes were not fitted for the Job, and there was a deplorable loss of life among the youthful army pilots. And on top of that, there was open criticism of the cancellation order among a good many of the President's Presi-dent's own party In congress. If the criticism of the air mail contracts had come alone, Mr. Roosevelt, In the opinion of many competent observers, would have weathered the storm. Probably he would have been the gainer, because be-cause few people are willing to condone con-done crookedness. I mentioned confussion as one of the main topics of conversation in Washington. That Much is a correct state- Confusion ,men,t- At no time In a long acquaintance acquaint-ance with official affairs have I seen circumstances In the nation's capital in which the moves have been so swift that even trained observers ob-servers have their difficulties in keeping up. Actually, by the time one gets a thorough knowledge of changes resulting from one move, another, or several, has taken place. They have come, accurately speaking, speak-ing, "from all over town," for the numerous agencies, administrators, bureaus, departments and so forth are scattered that widely. Here is an illustration of how things change: from the various sources of Information which the administration has set up, the correspondents cor-respondents were led to believe that the Civil Works administration plan of relief was going along all hunky dory. Then, rather suddenly, there came the happening which I predicted pre-dicted some months ago, namely, a lot of petty graft. Next, Mr. Hopkins, Hop-kins, the administrator, made a rather clean breast of the thing, saying, in effect, that the CWA had flopped. But few of the correspondents were prepared for the sudden announcement.- from', the President ' that a substitute" plan hail been evolved. The President had been planning to eliminate CWA relief - with the return of warmer weather. Something had happened, however, with which the correspondents were not made acquainted. This was development de-velopment of a conclusion that industry, in-dustry, despite the NRA and other New Deal plans, was not absorbing workers as rapidly as had been expected. ex-pected. Hence, the President decided de-cided to continue the CWA program, pro-gram, but in a different form. It ought to be said here that industry in-dustry has not been entirely to blame. Industry is recovering. Of that, there can be no doubt. But the progress has been just as slow as progress made when a human being be-ing recovers from a long illness. Mr. Roosevelt outlined In his announcement an-nouncement a program of relief for : first, distressed Relief families in rural Program areas: stran(Jed families and populations pop-ulations In communities where Industries In-dustries have died, such as In workettout coal mine areas, and for unemployed populations in large cities. From this outline, It would appear that there had been a great change in the method of dealing out relief, compared with the present system. As far as I can get facts on this new program, however, there Is actually little difference. It may serve to create a feeling of new progress, and it may serve to get rid of some of the appointees whose work has not been satisfactory, satisfac-tory, without causing political strife, but I believe the end sought will be no different than the CWA plan. While this has been worked out, there have been new rulings galore respecting the Agricultural Adjustment Adjust-ment administration contracts with farmers, relating to cotton, wheat, corn and hogs ; a new policy also respecting treatment of the dairy Industry, and a new setup for handling han-dling foreign trade. The treasury, with its vast gold hoard has had to work out details slowly, but there are myriads of those details. And on top of these, there has come a ruckus In congress where 435 representatives rep-resentatives and 30-odd senators are up for re-election this fall. There Is more than a sprinkliug of these who want to restore part of the veterans' compensation that was taken away last year by the economy econ-omy act. Then, there are the soldiers' sol-diers' bonus advocates. A year ago, Mr. Roosevelt could have said a whispered "no" on any of Uiese, and his wish would have been an Irrevocable Ir-revocable order. It Is different now, however, and the breach between be-tween the President and congress Is getting no better very fast, : 1 (5 by Western Newspaper Unlon- |
