Show Bru Bra charts charls washington digest hoards good government governments 9 plea ignored by W washington ashin glon press milwaukee mayors criticism of relief administration practices ne neglected t as mayor alador L laguardia furnishes usual newspaper copy coly by WILLIAM BRUCKART service national press washington D 0 ASHINGTON TONIt it has como come to W WASHING bo be quite n halt for mayors of cities and governors of states to come rushing to washington for appearances pe arances before congressional com mit tees they appear as out of tho the blue sky rush to tho the capitol capital to testify before a committee i repair to a hotel tel suite and hold a press conference confer enco and gain a lot of publicity and go back home they usually come tor for just one thing money moncy visitations to washington therefore have become fashionable as a political game and it if as a result of tho the words of alleged wisdom dropped from tho the lips of tho the self purveyors of peoples thoughts now checks should be forthcoming from tile tho united states treasury ah 11 they say we got it tor for you the traffic in mayors and governors c specialty especially mayors has grown so heavy that it Is seldom news I 1 except tor for tile the mayors home to town wn and frankly the news writers do describe them as being worth about a almo a dozen from a strictly no news ws standpoint I 1 dont mean to neglect the governors when I 1 stress the number of mayors it Is a fact act that there are more mayors who come hat in hand and a bouquet to toss to themselves later than there are governors it Is just like tho the net fact that there are moro more fresh freshmen mn in high school than there are graduates fr from am college because hundreds of them drop by the wayside hoan flays relief spending those preliminaries ought to explain why tho the appearance hero here the other day of mayor daniel W hoan of milwaukee wis failed to got get anything like the attention it deserved from the press now mayor hoan floan is a socialist he is however an individual who thinks about city administration along many practical abines tin es thus differing from the mine run of mayors who aro are concerned berned only with reelection re election or a political promotion tho the mayor come came to testify but tho the mayor in the tha capital city just to beg for or money for milwaukee ile he saw some things around here which he believed were wrong ng as national policy and he talked about them said the milwaukee mayor in substance you fellows are spending a lot lotof of money for relief of the dertl tuto tute you are wast wasting ing a lot of that money and it ought to bo be stopped it ought to bo be stopped because you are letting the states and tho the cities get into the habit ot of coming to washington tor for money and more money they are arc therefore getting out of the habit of justifying to the people of their communities the necessity of expenditures they ate are making and money their poor are ara using in other words you ought to make the states and the cities kick in with a greater share for the support of those on relief and force them ag again aan to recognize that taxes must be paid for wasted as well as proper use of funds and more important than anything else you ought to put this relief business on a pay as a you go basis and stop getting further into debt those were not mayor boans words of course yet I 1 have presented them as substantially ly what his testimony meant and seldom in recent years have I 1 heard better sense spoken to a committee of congress to me it was alm almost oat startling testimony the more so because it was offered while another committee was looking into president Roosevel ts request for tor for relief in the next ye year ar it should be said just here that mr Roosevel ts appeal tor for tho the annual relief appropriation was or appears to be modest that Is the amount is modest it if it is nil all he will ask for there are those who expect that he will ask congress next winter for a deficiency clency appropriation when the projected sum runs out charges states shirk relief response responsibilities bili ties mayor hoan appeared to believe that some of the states were and are shirking their responsibilities li Is so easy to come to washington and tell a congressional committee that our people are destitute and we have no money to care tor for them aside from the mayors mayor a belief it ought to be observed that the mayors and the governors are prune prone to think only oje of hov much money they can pay out without having to assess their own taxpayers for it they are not to be concerned with federal policy in relief matters ond and they are all too willing to avoid references to their own responsibility they apparently have a new slogan pull uncle sams leg i another mayor was around town at the same time that mayor hoan floan was was here ho he was mayor laguardia ardla of new york nobody seems to know exactly where the little flower I 1 should be catalogued cataloguer catalo gued politically ile he once was a member of congress us a republican that thai is he a X republican when ho he come came in but he wondered wandered around into three or tour different political parties and seems now to bo be among the bell of the american labor party any way the now new york mayor la Is a great little tyer in favor avor getting nil all of tho the money tor for new york city that Is possible so long as all it comes from the federal treasury mayor laguardia ardla Is a gront great favorite among many now q correspondents cor re spon dents in washington lie Is what Is called good copy that at la Is to say any ho he always la is ready with comment on well on about any subject picture it for yourself it if you were a writer and had to havo have stories for your next edition and y you ott found tile the mayor of a great city willing to talk mayor laguardia Guardin Ln will talk a Plen tYl let thero there bo be no misunderstanding about that lagua dias statement politically I 1 expedient surely then a casual reader can understand why tho the com comparative comparan ive statements of mayors of two arc great at cities had the effect on mo me that I 1 have attempted to report one of them giving consideration to the future of the nation eta as a whole a statesman statesmanlike liko L examination Ix of a amount policy the other apparently thinking only of protecting tho the political hide of himself so I 1 say that mayor boans testimony was almost sensational while mayor laguardia was singing tho the samo same old refrain of gammo gim me and I 1 believe thoroughly that the words of the milwaukee mayor will sharpen the wits and stir the courage clarage of those men and women in congress who aro are seeking an honest solution tor for the relief problem that Is now scarcely less repulsive than a festering sore it was waa quite by coincidence of course that mayor floana observations should have como come about the time that a house subcommittee should have unearthed some evidence concerning uses of m money moncy 0 n that actually stinks I 1 do not know about tho the truth of the evidence but it Is a matter ot of official lai record now A subcommittee investigator presented statements to the effect th that at money was used to build lal lakes in tennessee without reference reverence refe tence ence to tho the need nd for recreational recreation nl facilities considered on any statewide or community basis 11 the statements were attributed to a member ot of tile tho tennessee fish and game commission and tho the investigators conclusions were that the money had been diverted in 1 tills this manner in order to increase the value of real es estate tate held by several politicians the investigator and his sources of information named ex senator george L berry and gov prentice cooper of tennessee as hold urs rs of land which bene fItted by the built lakes this Is the same senator berry who sued tho the tennessee valley authority for a million dollars or so on account of damage claimed to have been done by construction st of one or more of the TVA dams the then member of tho the united states senate charged that some of his marble quarries were under SO 50 feet of water as a result of TVA dams move started to publish S salaries As a part of this general use and mi misuse suse of millions of dol dollars lars rep joo joe martin of massachusetts has started a move to find out how much money Is being paid to those who run ile he has introduced a resolution to have the headquarters here supply the house with u complete list of salaries paid un der you know there have been many charges tossed about concerning the salaries paid out of funds and the lack of work dono done tor for them in other words mr martin wants to know some facts why only about 60 c cents out of each dollar ever gets down the line to the poor devil out of a job and with a wife and children to feed this action on the part ot of mr martin seems to link into contentions long made inada that numerous poll poli have placed their pets in top jobs where if need be bet they could be quite influential icalla mr martin tried to the th information about massachusetts but col F C harrington administrator refused to make the facts public he contended coh tended that disclosure of the salaries would be embarrassing to those who receive them mr martin told the house however that federal salaries should always be a matter open to the public and he believed there is no more right to secrecy about salaries than about tile the salary of the president or a member ot of congress it will be interesting to see 1 if the house votes the me order to make the list public but it will be more interesting to see the amounts of those thosa pay checks mele in elca aset by western newspaper union I 1 I 1 4 1 1 0 |