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Show National Topics Interpreted I by William Bruckart m. Washington. The political situation situa-tion waxes warmer. It is seldom In our history where the records disclose dis-close so much heat In the campaign fights as has already been developed. devel-oped. It may die down some, but the wiseacres in politics are predicting pre-dicting red hot battles over the Issues Is-sues and mud slinging and muck raking among individuals. There is the speech by Secretary Morgenthau of the treasury, an at-. at-. tempt to show that Campaign the New Deal has "Material" not been so costly as critics of the administration claim ; there Is the victory of the Socialist Upton Sinclair, Sin-clair, who captured the Democratic nomination for governor of California, Cali-fornia, and there Is a growing list of social reform proposals among administration advisers which provide pro-vide meat and drink for the politicians politi-cians on the opposing team. One can mention also the row among cabinet and emergency officials offi-cials over the future course of NRA and the test that is being made in the District of Columbia courts to determine whether a business firm can be made to comply with a code which It has definitely and continuously continu-ously refused to sign. There is the speakership fight among the Democrats Dem-ocrats of the house of representatives, representa-tives, and the bitter attacks that are being leveled at the treasury by some of the senators and representatives rep-resentatives from agricultural areas on account of administration management man-agement of processing taxes. Efforts Ef-forts of the American Liberty league for protection of constitutional constitu-tional rights are being expanded. All the while New Deal planners are engaged in development of new schemes such as a program designed to result In federal ownership of the railroads. To say that the situation is confusing con-fusing is to use the mildest sort of language. Observers in Washington who have watched political maneuvers maneuv-ers for a quarter of a century and more insist that at no time In their recollection have they seen anything any-thing similar to present conditions. Take the Upton Sinclair victory Itself, It-self, as an example, I am told that few times In modern polities has it occurred that a man so affiliated with another partisan group has bored his way In and seized titular control of a major political party. The observers insist that the result of. the California primaries has placed the Roosevelt administration on a decidedly hot spot unless, as It .has been charged, President Roosevelt is willing to commit the Democratic party which he heads to the Socialist doctrines publicized for a quarter of a century by Mr. Sinclair. Some political leaders here are whispering that the Sinclair victory vic-tory will strengthen the hand of the American Liberty league and enable the sponsors Al Smith, Jouett Shouse, John W. Davis, former Senator Sen-ator Wadsworth and others to go about the country and obtain recruits re-cruits for their defense of constitutional constitu-tional rights. Active efforts of this kind, of course, are likely to catalog the league as definitely antt-admin-lstration, but league leaders apparently appar-ently do not entertain such a fear at this time. The processing tax question is another an-other that political observers insist is due to cause Processing trouble for the Troubles President. They point out that heretofore such criticisms as have ! come of the processing taxes have centered on Secretary Wallace and the Agricultural Adjustment admin-, admin-, Istration. Now, however, the at-j at-j tacks are being leveled at the bu-I bu-I reau of Internal revenue, which is a part of the treasury and, therefore, the fire has swerved from one department de-partment to the other. It Is to be remembered that both Secretary Morgenthau and Commissioner Hel-vering Hel-vering of the bureau of Internal rev-' rev-' enue are personal appointments of the President Republican campaigners campaign-ers are using this as a vehicle' to carry their assault on the President himself. Whatever the political Implications Implica-tions may be, it remains a fact that such New Deal supporters as Senator Sena-tor James P. Pope of Idaho have taken Mr. Helvering to task for his administration of the processing taxes. Senator Pope has written to Mr. Helvering with particular respect re-spect to the processing tax on hogs, which he charged was being collected collect-ed from farmers who slaughtered and sold pork produced on their own farms. The Idaho senator forced a bill through congress in the closing days of the last session which he believed would free the farmer of this tax and provide a refund of tax which he claimed was illegally collected. At this writing, Senator Pope reports, the bureau of j Internal revenue has not even draft-! draft-! ed the forms upon which farmers ; may make application for refund of ' taxes already paid, and It amounts ; to approximately two and one-half j cents per pound. It takes no I stretch of the Imagination to figure I how much tax has been taken from I farmers in this way. Republican wheel-horses claim they now have ammunition In the shape of Mr. Mor- Morgenthau genthau's speech Under Fire on the cost of the New Deal, for which they long have awaited. The treasury secretary spoke over the radio. His purpose obviously was to get as wide distribution as possible pos-sible for his conclusions that the New Deal thti3 far has cost only $505,000,000, despite the fact that the treasury daily statements show an addition of approximately eight billion to the national debt The secretary was able to show, to his way of thinking, that while the public pub-lic debt has been increased by the amount stated, nearly all of these funds eventually will come baek into the government's money chest He admitted, however, that there may be losses sustained by some of the emergency agencies and that these losses naturally will affect the total as he had calculated it I talked with a Democratic senator sen-ator concerning Mr. Morgenthau's speech and he told me of his intention inten-tion later to make a similar speech on the subject. He was somewhat disturbed, however, as to how he could explain the receipt by the treasury of $2,800,000,000 which Is the amount of profit gained by the government as a result of devaluation devalua-tion of the dollar to the point where it Is worth only 59c in gold. He appeared to be afraid that opposing oppos-ing campaigners were going to say that the federal government had no way of obtaining revenue or money of any kind other than by taxation and borrowing. He suggested that the profit of devaluation could hardly hard-ly be described as money borrowed, nor could It properly be called receipts re-ceipts from taxation. When I last talked with him he had not found a term which would cover these receipts, re-ceipts, which are scheduled to include in-clude also profits from changes In the value of silver. The Republicans are using Mr. Morgenthau's own figures in an ar- -gument that the assets of wholly government owned agencies such as the Reconstruction Finance corporation cor-poration are so far only bookkeeping bookkeep-ing items. It appears to be Irrefutable Irre-futable that no one can foretell what the value of these assets are going to be one, two or three years hence. Therefore, without discussing discuss-ing the merits of the argument on either side, it can be said definitely that the Republicans will be doing a lot of figuring just as Mr. Morgenthau Mor-genthau did figuring to reach the conclusions he wanted to reach and disseminate among the voters. In some quarters I hear expressions expres-sions of commendation for the pro- . nouncement by Mr. Morgenthau. Strangely these commendations do not relate to the total which he con, - tended the New Deal had cost thus far, but to the fact that the administration admin-istration was going to remain faithful faith-ful to its pledge that the deficit would not exceed eight billion dollars dol-lars In the period covered. Washington Wash-ington has received numerous reactions reac-tions from business interests regarding re-garding this particular phrase of the Morgenthau speech, and business seems to regard that much of It as reassuring. As regards the controversy that is raging in the administration it- s e 1 f, observers Real Battle believe there Is in Offing every reason to expect an eventual event-ual explosion. General Johnson, the NRA administrator, on the one hand, and Miss Perkins, the secretary secre-tary of labor, and Donald Richberg, secretary of the President's executive execu-tive council, on the other, are all individuals in-dividuals of the temperamental makeup required as requisite to a real battle. Their differences grow out of the plans as to the future of the NRA, which, the President has said. Is to continue as a permanent rart of the New Deal structure. Washington has not quite made up Its mind concerning the delimitations delimita-tions laid down by the two factions, but It Is apparent even now that Miss Perkins and Mr. Richberg contend for expansion of the NRA control beyond the limits to which the bombastic bom-bastic General Johnson Is willing to go. Also it Is made to appear that Miss Perkins and Mr. Richberg prefer pre-fer to see NRA under the domination domina-tion of an Individual whose mental slants are In line with their own, which Is to say, In the opinion of most observers, that they favor a radical tendency beyond General Johnson's program. The general, having been a business executive, seems to realize that it is better to proceed cautiously in expanding NRA supervision, and is holding out for that course. The differences between these Individuals In-dividuals are the first to reach proportions pro-portions requiring White House Intervention. In-tervention. Whether Mr. Roosevelt has salved the feelings of each Is not completely established, althongs. It seems now that General Johnson will continue to manage NRA and that Miss Perkins will, in effect, be sent back to her Department of La bor to give her attention to that Job, . Western Kmnw Union |
