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Show ECONOMIC j I HIGHLIGHTS -5 During the last six months. It has been a prevalent criticism of the Administration made by friends as well as opponents that the President and his official circle apparently greatly underestimated underes-timated the importance and the severity of the slump in business that. began last October. i Whether or not the- President actually took this attitude, it is obvious that he now views the recession as a major crisis which has endangered all the gains made since the depths of 1932. Two dramatic dra-matic events occurring recently, vividly illustrate this. First, his last "fireside chat" was almost startling different in tone and attitude from most of its predecessors. As one anti-Administration newspaper, the Portland Port-land Oregonian, described it, "There was no baiting of business, no hatefulness of phrase, nor any appeal to class consciousness. Instead In-stead there was gratefully evident the recognition of all" classes of Americans in a common Americanism, Ameri-canism, confronted by identical questions to be solved by fraternal frater-nal solution." In other words, the talk was highly conciliatory. Whether Whe-ther the President will continue to hold such an attitude cannot be said but it is a reasonable deduction deduc-tion that at the present time the Administration has reached the conclusion that it Is essential to extend a friendly hand to all elements ele-ments in our national life, to dispel distrust and bitterness, to cement so far as possible the warring war-ring factions, and to precede "reform" "re-form" with an attempt at "recovery." "re-covery." Second, the Presdent's message to Congress shows how seriously he regards present condition. And thi message will continue to be the subject of a tremendous amount' of debate and difference of opinion. Briefly, the Administration Adminis-tration proposes to fight bad times now with the same weapon it used to fight bad times before a pump-priming program of a size unprecedented before 1932. It has three phases: 1, Direct gov- OTiment spending, through the W PA, the Farm Security Administration, Adminis-tration, the National Youth Administration, Ad-ministration, and the CCC. 2, The release of about $2,000,000,000 in new credit through changes in the ?old and federal reserve policies. J, The creation of new jobs thru slum clearance, highways, flood antral and other public works. Ct was also suggested that the 3ECI relax its regulations some- publicans to gain control of the House but no one thinks that can happen. It is mathematically impossible im-possible for them to gain control of the Senate. As a result, more attention will be fixed on the Democratic primaries pri-maries to see how anti-New Deal candidates fare against pro-New Deal candidates. what in order to make it easier for small busufess t get new money. The entire program would result re-sult in the government spending $4,500,000,000 more than it is spending now. Yet, while no provision pro-vision is made for increasing revenue, re-venue, it is said that this will increase in-crease the national debt by only a third of that sum. That seeming-ingly seeming-ingly magical trick would be accomplished ac-complished by de-sterilizing part of our vast gold reserve against which no gold certificates exist. The former spending program, which began almost as soon as the President took office, was approved ap-proved almost unanimously by Congress and by the nation as a whole. The present program will not meet so enthusiastic a reception. recep-tion. One bloc believes that the former spending program failed, and that another will fail, too. Another bloc, even though it favors fa-vors increased spending, will be unwilling to approve it unless some means of raising the money Is found, so as to not further boost the debt. A third bloc thinks that tax and labor troubles should be corrected before we try anything else and believes that if business were aided in this manner it .would go ahead and spend on its own hook, thus obviating or lessening les-sening the need for government spending on a larger scale. AH such blocs are important and influential in-fluential and are manned by Democrats as well as Republicans. It is the members of the President's Presi-dent's own party, not the opposition, opposi-tion, that have made the present session of Congress, culminating in the startling defeat of the reorganization re-organization measure, a stormy one for the White House. There is the situation as it exists ex-ists today. We are in a period of lethargic business and, while the consensus of expert opinion does not anticipate further declines, de-clines, it does not anticipate substantial sub-stantial betterment in the near future, either. The Congress is in a rebellious mood. The President has taken a more conciliatory stand, and it is believed that he will suggest no new "unusual" legislation le-gislation this year. What that all adds up to is anybody's guess. One good guess is that we will have greater spending, and a mild shot of inflation but not on as big a scale as the President suggests. sug-gests. The Republicans will gain about 100 seats in the House next November No-vember going by a recent survey made by the Institute of Publ.c Cpimcn. They will gain some '"ts in th? Senate. But both banchjs will remain Democratic by heavy majorities. It is math-B math-B atica'ly pcssitle fcr the Re- |