| Show 0 w national topi topics interpreted by william bruckart national press Dul laing washington 1 P C washington out of president roosevelt s eight billion dollar et Is developing a budget starts very real contro I 1 controversy versy which runs to the heart of the new deal true this controversy like nearly all of the others will not result in changing the pres ident s plans but it seems to me to be a matter which justifies consid aeration even though the roosevelt will in the end must prevail included in the budget was pro vision for an appropriation of four billion dollars and as stated by the president resident to be supplied in one sum subject to allocation by the executive principally for giving work to those unemployed on the relief rolls beyond that there was no exposition of its intended use nor a has there been any detailed statement of the plan As a result there Is a considerable body of opinion in the halls of congress which Is saying in effect that mr roosevelt ought to define hia his worl work relief program lie he has not done so and the best information I 1 can obtain Is that no explanation may be he expected in the near future he intends to proceed as he has in the past by developing a program piecemeal and using tb the e funds as the oc caslon requires in the critical days of 1933 when mr roosevelt took office I 1 believe it was generally conceded that the emergency was so serious as to war rant delegation by congress of a al most any power even remotely desired by the president lie he used that power during 1933 and 1934 1034 now many members of the bouse house and senate believe that the time has arrived for congress to become more inquisitive about the expenditure of taxpayers money and to avoid fol lowing in blind trust however the president may direct while it Is probable that congress will not be told how the president intends to use the money and while it Is also probable that the requested appropriation pria tion of four billion dollars will be rubber stamped the fact remains that at no time during the new deal has there been such a buzz of dis content in the presidents own list of wheel horses senator byrnes the south carolina democrat who hag has been looked upon consistently as mr roosevelt Roosevel ts s spokesman on financial affairs in the senate has informed that body that it Is imps sible to be more specific at this time on the work relief program senator byrnes will go no further lie ile has given no interviews respect ing his own thoughts on the matter and apparently has elected to wait at bat until the president tosses him the ball nevertheless there are some senators who think they detect just a trace of concern in the attitude ofa of k this administration spokesman and they are wondering how long he will continue to re press his own energies presentation of the budget was expected in many quarters to dis close the means critics chide by which the pres president ident t hoped to get employment go ing again in private industry it showed nothing tangible in this dl di lon consequently critics of the administration who have had lo 10 speak in the house and senate have begun to chide the ad ministration on its third expert ment in three years Re presenta tive snell of new york republican leader in the house has called at to the situation something in this minner the president tried out one plan in 1933 he tried out a second plan in 1934 and now he Is trying a third experiment the first two were found to be all wet and the republicans it seems are con vinced that the current effort has two strikes on it before it gets started they are predicting failure for it in every way except the sue cess that Is assured in getting rid of money which the treasury Is bor rowing their conversations all have the same theme song namely that the country Is seeing activity but they are not predicting how long this action can continue until the nation goes broke 1 whether the business leaders who met at white sulphur springs W va a month ago were right or wrong in proposing the use of a dole instead of the more expensive work relief plan or whether they were correct in any of the other rec ree commendations they made the truth Is the administration has rejected without comment every single one of the recommendations made by that thit group mr poosevelt made no mention in his budget message or in his annual message to congress of plans for balancing the budget and this fact at last has sunk in the result Is additional tear fear on the part of many business leaders who can see in the future only inflation and economic chaos for the country privately I 1 have heard many ex pres indicating that men of wealth are putting their money into tangible property something that will not dry up and blow away that Is always the refuge of andl visuals who fear that the tho currency which their government go eminent controls Is I 1 losing its worth these men will be criticized for that course nat aurally enough by blind followers ot of inflation plans from all of the signs now visible and from the undercurrent of mum bling that I 1 hear it certainly Is made to appear that mr roosevelt Is confronted with a necessity for some definite outline of his plans and an assurance that be he will ad here to those plans without such the situation assuredly Is that he will not have the confidence ot of the business structure it seems 11 logical even to suppose that he can gain the operation cooperation of business tn in expanding its activities thereby re employing workers unless he tabes takes a different tack than his pronouncements thus far indicate at least such Is the conclusion of a vast number of thinking people I 1 heard a visitor to washington say the other day that he would like to ride air night planes but the flying nying confounded things fly most of their schedules at night I 1 the individual Is a man of great wealth and his time Is of great value he insisted he be was sincere in his statement that he would much rather save time by flying it the planes were on daylight sched ule the statement aroused my en cu to the extent that I 1 conduct ed some inquiry into the situation I 1 found the night schedules of the air lines to be due to the fact that they are fixed by the post ot of flee fice department it if a line desires to carry mall mail it haa has to subject it self to the dictates of big jim farley the postmaster general ills 18 office can and does say to an air line that it will fly a ship leaving new york at 9 p rn or else it does not get the mall mail contract the result Is that the plane leaves new york at 9 p in or it leaves chi cago or washington or any other city on a time stated by the post office department many persons feel that such a policy Is taking undue advantage of private industry it Is true that the post office department la Is pay ing for or carrying the malls at a rate probably well above the rate it receives in postage on that mall it Is therefore a subsidy but this thi government has for years main talked a policy of subsidizing new industries and that course Is 1 responsible for the success attained by the development of the transportation port por tation atlon systems of this country the presidents special commission named to study the airplane problems of this country and tomake recommendations heard much testimony and received much data showing that the airplane industry Indu atry in the united states had placed this country in the number one position in the air among nations the administration Is deter mined to control oil production it it cannot do so the oil by executive or case der and the sn so preme court of the united states has decreed it cannot do so in that manner there will be laws predicated upon the interstate commerce clause of the constitution which will permit J the executive branch of the govern ment to keep its hand on the valve of oil wells president roosevelt apparently was not much concerned over the supreme court decision which in validated that part of the recovery act giving the chief executive tiu dhority to allow or prohibit inter state movement of oil as it decided best the president appeared to feel in responding to questions by news correspondents that the rebuff was only temporary lie ile an bounced at that time a determine tion to control oil production in one way or another to avoid what he describes as a criminal waste of a great natural resource the oil case the supreme court decided had its origin in ln regula eions and executive orders issued under what the administration be lieven to be authority accorded by the recovery act those regulations and orders prescribed quotas al at lowed to be shipped from each of the several producing states the motivating spirit was a desire to avoid accumulation of a vast sur plus ot of crude oil with the consi cons ok quent depressing of prices until crude oil was worth little or noth ing but like many other prohibitory laws and rules of conduct individuals resent being told ther could not do a certain thing and im med mediately lately began to devise ways bv which it could be done a charac te that was developed to if fullest during the bootleg days of or national prohibition the oil that was moved surreptitiously came to be known as hot oil and the con troverse tro versy over the validity of the regulations and executive e order con was called the hot oil case j sl western newspaper Newe paper union |
