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Show ,.T.w..tv-.. --,-....J..-h.r i. h fMWfclWI I W ifr HM MMMM 'Washington. Many times, I have written in these columns about the confused state of "Big Shots" affairs in the fed-Cor.sulted fed-Cor.sulted eral government and the Roosevelt administration. I wish I were possessed pos-sessed of sufficient wisdom to undertake un-dertake an analysis of them, as they exist now, for it probably would be helpful to all. But having no such vast wisdom, I shall have to content con-tent myself with the service of reporting re-porting on several circumstances of recent development and let it go at that. For several weeks now, we have witnessed a steady stream of callers call-ers at the White House. There have been some labor leaders but mostly the list of callers whom the President Presi-dent invited were the greatest of American industrialists, the "economic "eco-nomic royalists" whom Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt has so roundly denounced from time to time, or whenever it served political purposes to attack them publicly. The purposes of having these men visit the President, as announced at the White House, were to consult and try to find ways and means of checking the current depression. de-pression. As I said, these White House visitors vis-itors were the very "economic royalists" roy-alists" whom Mr. Roosevelt has attacked at-tacked with such apparent satisfaction satisfac-tion throughout the last five years. Indeed, among their number were some of the "sixty families" upon whom Secretary Ickes of the Interior Inte-rior department, and Robert H. Jackson, trust busting assistant at torney general, have been heaping abuse as the folks who "control" America. Anyone who will take the trouble to review the President's speeches and the more recent barrage bar-rage of attacks by Messrs. Ickes and Jackson cannot help wondering if those men are crooks and if they crush the "common pee-pul," as charged, why their advice can be any good now. Nextly, it is hard to understand why or how anything is to be gained by consulting with men of that type in a serious effort to solve the problems prob-lems of the current depression and set off dynamite under them at the same time. That is what happened. Mr. Roosevelt announced with vehemence ve-hemence at a press interview that all holding companies "must go." They must be eliminated from American economic life and at once; there can be no toleration of corporations that are organized to hold the stock of other corporations, etc., etc. He has taken a definite position on that before as regards power companies and drove a bill through congress to eliminate them. This time, he wants to go much further. Which is proper, if that be his policy. Eut here is the peculiar thing. Two hours after he made his announcement, he had a dozen men in conference who represented the very thing he was denouncing and was seeking their advice. It seems paradoxical, to say the least. On top of these conferences that have brought scores of prominent industrial captains to Washington at the President's invitation, there is to be noted an entire absence of any administration action looking to release re-lease of business to do its part in taking on unemployed workers. I have talked to men in congress of every shade of opinion and they are all awaiting some word as to the President's views. Their position is that the President wants to take the lead in mapping a program and most of them, I believe, will help him carry it out. They feel also that for them to start development of a program of their own makes them subject to White House criticism criti-cism if the legislation fails to meet New Deal specifications. So they simply wait! In tha meantime, the depression has sunk deeper and deeper. I frankly believe that in some localities locali-ties it is right now as bad as anything any-thing we saw in 1932. Business men are frightened to death and will not expand their businesses because of the danger that they will lose everything every-thing they have, and individuals are frightened and will not spend more money than is absolutely necessary. In other words, there is again a lack of confidence that is appalling. It seems to center on Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt as it centered on Mr. Hoover in 19-0 and 1931. I can judge the whole situation only by attempting to compose the observations that I gather from countless conversations. If this consensus con-sensus be accurate, then it would appear that current fears result from an inability of anyone to know what Mr. Roosevelt will do next. That is to say, the expressions stressed statements that his policies poli-cies "lack continuity;" that he changes "overnight;" that he "attacks "at-tacks burliness with one hand and kicks it in the pants with one f ;ot and asks it to take the load off of the government at the same time;" that he takes advice "of a lot of nincompoops on finances who can't even balance their own household budgets;" that he "won't let private pri-vate Initiative do anything without hiving a flock of government spies on our trails," and so on. I could supply fifty more from my notes, but they would be of the same tenor. ten-or. And mind youl a large percentage per-centage of these came from representatives repre-sentatives and senators in congress. Democrats and Republicans alike. Another phase of the general situation: situ-ation: There has been a tremendous drive against monopoly. This was . lead largely by Drive on Assistant Attorney Monopoly General Jackson, but Mr. Ickes and lesser lights have helped carry the ball The attacks have been general. gen-eral. There has been no distinction distinc-tion between good business and bad business. The result has been that every man who has some money tied up in business is wondering whether he is going to have to defend de-fend himself in some way, however how-ever careful he has been about complying with the federal laws. The fact was called to my attention atten-tion also that many of the businesses busi-nesses charged with monopoly are doing just what the government forced them to do. The unlamented NRA can be recalled without effort. ef-fort. Under the NRA, every unit or every line of business was told what to do and how to do it Codes of business practice were laid down for them, bearing the approval of the President Since NRA was relegated rele-gated to the ashcan, we find a dozen suits being prosecuted against businesses busi-nesses for continuing to do the things they were forced to do when NRA was the law of the land. Then, I would like to ask what is wrong that real trusts are not being broken up. The Department of Justice Jus-tice has some able lawyers who have been assisting Attorney General Gen-eral Cummings since the inception of the New Deal. It appears to a layman like me that five years ought to be ample time in which to make some headway against trusts and monopolies. I am moved to ask, therefore, can this new outburst against monopoly be a bit of politics? poli-tics? But the turning of the New Deal wheel has brought one magnificent appointment to Praise the Supreme court for Reed of the United States. I refer to the nomination of Stanley Reed to succeed the retiring Justice Sutherland. Suther-land. Mr. Reed has been solicitor general of the United States and as such has directed the nation's legal affairs under Attorney General Cummings. His service there, and before that with the reconstruction finance corporation, has been meritorious. meri-torious. There has been nothing but praise of his ability and of his character. char-acter. He stands out as a great lawyer and fine personality. The appointment is worthy of considering con-sidering from two standpoints. Justice Jus-tice Sutherland's resignation and the subsequent appointment gives the present President control of the court. That is to say, the known division of the court between conservative con-servative and liberal thought has been switched from the conservative conserva-tive side to the liberal side by the appointment of two men. Actually, Actu-ally, it accomplishes for Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt the very purpose he sought to accomplish by demanding of congress con-gress that it pass the so-called court reform bill a year ago, a piece of legislation on which the President received the worst licking of his political career. The second important consideration considera-tion in the appointment is the high type of man named by the President. Presi-dent. Mr. Reed is progressive in thought. The New Dealers always have counted him as one of their number, but I find many people who contend that Stanley Reed believes first in the law of the land and in obeying it, rather than indulge in wishful thinking on a lot of silly, untried schemes. The country is fortunate, for-tunate, indeed, to have a man like Mr. Reed on the court. And, continuing the theme of unusual un-usual circumstances, I think reference refer-ence ought to be Take a made to the ter-Beating ter-Beating Tli"'c beating that is being handed the southern Democratic members of the senate. They have been making mak-ing a brave fight against passage of a piece of utterly ossinine legislation legisla-tion the so-called anti-lynching bill. Men like Harrison of Mississippi, Eyrnes of South Carolina, Connolly of Texas, and others, have been holding the fort against this vicious legislation. They ought to win, but they probably won't. I have seen something of the race problem in the South, and I can understand un-derstand 7hat the basis of southern south-ern objection is. On the other hand, there is only one basis fur the pressure pres-sure which Senator Wagner, New York Democrat, is putting on the bill and the reason why the senate was tied up in a deadlock of the filibuster type for days. That reason rea-son is that Senator Wagner Is trying try-ing to get control of the negro votes in New York city's Harlem area. & Wf Atom NvWRPiipor Ufiloa |