Show 0 national topics interpreted by william bruckart 1 nuil building ding WaA wellington hington D C washington As the campaign gets more heated it becomes increasingly rea crea singly gly evident C call 11 spade p that the political a spade battle this year will result more times in a spade being called a spade men being named ed names than has happened in a bodd odd many prelim previous years when this stage is reached it invariably means that party workers as well as party leaders are thoroughly roughly iho imbued with the sense of battle and it means further that no phase of either party policy or personal affairs of the candidates themselves escapes the attention of the opposition that probably esthe reason why mr roosevelt lately has fo found und himself being kidded to a greater extent than usually occurs about his non political call visits to various sections of the country the opportunity has not yet come tor for governor landon the republican nominee to be made the butt of such jokes or the subject of such personal attacks but bit undoubtedly it will arrive long before november 3 to refer again to the presidents non political trips the corre spon dents here have been having a great deal of fun about the dents determination to learn first hand about the flood areas of pennsylvania e and new engla england nd and the dr drouth auth areas of the middle western plains this is significant it shows an important change of attitude on the paa pa t of the washington observers who seldom find themselves in a position where they can tell everything they know it is significant also from this standpoint that it shows chows mr roosevelt to have lost the loyalty of a great number of those writers time ws wis when 95 per pel cent of the washington correspondents spon dents were with mr roosevelt on everything he said or did and when they found vulnerable spots or weaknesses in his statements or actions they were inclined to overlook them such is not the case now however and I 1 think it may be added with candor that the presidents programs and policies his speeches and statements in press conferences are examined with utmost scrutiny from the democrat standpoint this is es mgt ibm the e republican a standpoint anapo t is a highly valuable change ange in circumstance the reason is that as long as the president had a completely friendly press he did not need to be so careful nor did he ever need to fear that interpretations would be placed upon his statements or his actions other than the interpretation which he desired it takes no stretch of the imagination to realize forthwith that any time he says or does anything to which exception cianne can be tak e eu some of those correspondents will point out the other possibilities i find generally speaking that the writing corps doubted that the presidents pennsylvania and new england visits were based solely on his desire to know what the federal government should do to prevent floods one correspondent was so extremely frank as to write in his metropolitan newspaper mr roosevelt foresaw not a flood of water but a flood of republican votes of if course this is an exaggerated position for any unbiased writer to take but there were vere any number a 0 those correspondents who laughingly inquired why it was s sc urgently necessary lor for the president defit to visit the flood flood areas at this time considering that there was no congress in session and no dem definite pr provision onite for the framing of flood relief plans now as to the presidents visit to the drouth stricken drea aria the drouth was pres learned ent in the dust I 1 little bowl as the brilliant youna strategists of the new deal organization have named the middle western plains there can be no doubt likewise that relief was needed and that a thoroughgoing thorough going understanding of the situation by those responsible in washington should be obtained yet I 1 believe it was the consensus coi isenus of the writers accompanying th president dent on that whirlwind tour of the dust storms that mr roosevelt personally gained no knowle knowledge oge of conditions that was not already available to him in reports from his subordinates indeed lam I 1 am told on very good authority that re lief representatives who had gone into the drouth area already had written th their ear reports to the president and made their blons conc concerning conceding eming policies to deal with that relief situation before he left washington on that trip it must be quite obvious however eve that mr roosevelt desired to see eee conditions about which so much was being written in the newspapers I 1 think he cannot be blamed for desiring the opportunity to witness things as they actually were before the rains came but some of his speeches from the rear end of his hij Ob clil train evidenced something more than a hint that he be desired to see not on only y the e drouth stricken iaea area but the voters who ue there more recently the has made a nonpolitical non political trip into certain areas of the south southland lana where it Is suspected by chairman parleys farley representatives that a goodly number of republican votes exist in fairness to the president P 1 must be said with respect to his southern trip however that he did little actual speechmaking speech making it is true that i he gave the pump handle handshake wherever people desired to greet him but his campaigning was much less evident in the minds of the reporters than obtained in his visit to the north and to the central west and referring to his trip to the central west I 1 am reminded of the hysteria has soil 50 arisen over soil erosion erosion undoubtedly soil erosion Is a problem worthy of general attention but the thing that disturbs disturb s mi mc as a washington observer is that soil erosion like a lot of other problems suddenly has become mixed up in politics when it is not a political question the conservation of sol of natural resources has been a matter to which farmers of the nation have addressed themselves tor for more than a hundred years who Is iq it among farming community that has not attempted at one time or another to stop washes has not planted some willow trees or some kinds of bush to lo prevent ditches being cut through the middle of fertile and arable land lana and may I 1 further what farmer is there who has not given consideration to crop rotation to the planting ing of types of clover or hay or grasses that would of themselves enrich the soil all of these things are commonplace all of them have been done from the time to which the demor memory y not to the contra contrady j but now we find a perfect hullabaloo a hysteria as I 1 said at th the e beginning about a thing with mith which farmers long have been familiar it comes almost into the category of nonsense one needs only to visit the oldest comm unitie in the nation to find soils that have been producing for two centuries and that have continued to show increased pro production duclion through all ot of that time the reason Is that those farmers knew about soil e oslon and they sought to prevent it those farmers and nearly all farmers recognize that soil sod must be fertilized that it cannot be p planted anted to the same crop eternally without destroying ying its fertility and th know the necessity and the method for solving the problem they have acted on that necessity and knowl edge cd notwithstanding all olt of hete facts acts we are auito due to 1 senja se in the next session of congress and probably tor for a considerable number ot of sessions thereafter a bunch of politicians who will te be prating about soil conservation long after the far farmers ners have become thoroughly sick at the stomach aboaf about the idea it is just another one of those things upon which hungry p poetical demagogues will leap and continue to use at ai a vehicle on which to ride into office I 1 was born on a farm and grew up there I 1 know the problem inside out because the farm upon which I 1 was born was susceptible to erosion t washl washing ng as my father called it to a greater extent than is usual in hi farm lands it I 1 is no particular credit joany one to boast about preventing soil erosion because it is a thing that any farmer will want to do if he w wants a ants to continue to make his iri farm pay him a return it I 1 is ju jut 4 as much a part of farm management as it is to see that the work stock does not develop sore shoulders but the point of all of this as far as I 1 am concer neds that political capital is being made butof a condition with which politicians ought not to be concerned at all some may accuse me of ignoring the drouth condition I 1 do not do so we have had several years 1 of df bad drouth conditions I 1 find it difficult to associate political control over the weather however because the cl claims a imi of politicians have yet apt to reach very far above their beads i announcement Is made at last that former president I 1 herbert he abert hoover is going to hoover take fake the stump in to behalf of governor landon and the republican ticket though it was long delayed it probably has come before the country became convinced that an irreparable breach e existed between governor landon and mr hoover rumors were just beginning to hy fly and gossip tongues were just beginning ing w to w wag 9 that mr hoover would remain out of the republican picture this year so it is extremely fortunate that he and governor landon at lait hive have been brought together as fat far as republicans are concerned I 1 ini art not inform informed edas as to the rea sons tor fai this delay it ii is evident that somebody slipped because it ls Is unnatural tor for politicians to de literately libera tely decline to take advantage of strength when it is proffered proff pred ered them 0 western newspaper |