Show n n r SIC washington many times I 1 have written in these columns about the confused state of r big shots affairs in the fed consulted eral government and the roosevelt administration I 1 wish I 1 were pos hessed of sufficient wisdom to undertake an analysis of them as they exist now for it probably would be helpful to all but having no such vast wisdom I 1 shall have to con tent myself with the service of 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 call ers at the white house there have been some labor leaders but mostly the list of callers whom the dent invited were the greatest of american industrialists the economic royalists whom mr boose 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 de tie As I 1 said these white house vis igors were the very economic roy alises whom mr roosevelt Hoo sevelt has at tacked with such apparent satis fac tion throughout the last five years indeed among their number were some of the sixty families upon whom secretary ickes of the inte nor 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 presidents s speeches and the more recent bar rage of attacks by ickes and jackson cannot help wondering if those men are crooks and if they crush the common pee pul as Is charged why their advice can be any good now 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 lems of the current depression and set off dynamite under them at the same time that is what happened mr roosevelt announced with ve hermence 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 but 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 presidents s invitation there is to be noted an entire absence of any administration action looking to re lease of business to do its part in taking on unemployed workers I 1 have talked to men in congress of every shade of opinion and they are all awaiting some word as to the president presidents s views theu their position is that the president wants to take the lead in mapping a program and most of them I 1 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 crit cism if the legislation fails falls to meet new deal specifications so they simply wait in the meantime the depression has sunk deeper and deeper I 1 frankly believe that in some lacall ties it is right now as bad as 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 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 roose velt as it centered on mr hoover m 1930 and 1931 I 1 can judge the whole situate situation on only by attempting to compose t the he observations that I 1 gather from countless conversations if this con census 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 poll cies lack continuity that he changes overnight that he at tacks business with one hand and kicks it in the pants with one foot 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 wont won t let vate initiative do anything without having a flock of government spies on our trails and so on I 1 could supply fifty more from my notes but they would be of the same ten or and mind youl you a large percentage of these came from representatives senta tives and senators in congress democrats and republicans alike a a another phase of the general situation 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 gen eral there has been no distine 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 de fend himself in some way how ever careful he has been about complying with the federal laws the fact was called to my atten tion also that many of the busi bust nesses charged with monopoly lv are doing just what the government forced them to do the unlamented can be recalled without ef fort under the 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 was rele gated to the ashcan we find a dozen suits being prosecuted against busi bust nesses for continuing to do the things they were forced to do when was the law of the land then I 1 would like to ask what is wrong that real trusts are not being broken up the department of jus tice has some able lawyers who have been assisting attorney 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 1 am moved to ask therefore can this new outburst against be a bit of poll tics bics but the turning of the new deal wheel has brought one magnificent appointment t 0 praise the supreme court for reed of the united states I 1 refer to the nomination of stanley reed to succeed the retiring justice suther slither 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 men inert there has been nothing but praise of his ability and of his char acter he stands out as a great lawyer and fine personality the appointment is worthy of con si dering from two standpoints ju jus S 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 con serva tive and liberal thought has been switched from the conserva tive side to the liberal side by the appointment of two men actu ally it accomplishes for mr roose velt the very purpose he sought to accomplish by demanding of 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 considers con sidera tion in the appointment is the high type of man named by the dent mr reed is progressive in thought the new dealers always have counted him as one of their number but I 1 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 for dunate indeed to have a man like mr reed on the court and continuing the theme of un usual circumstances I 1 think refer ence ought to be take a made to the ter beating beating that is being handed the southern democratic members of the senate they have been mak ing a brave fight against passage of a piece of utterly assi cassmine nine legisla tion the so called anti lynching bill men like harrison of mississippi byrnes of south carolina connally of texas and others have been holding the fort against this vicious legislation they ought to win but they probably won t I 1 have seen something of the race problem in the south and I 1 can un der stand what the basis of south ern objection is on the other hand there is only one basis for the 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 rea son is that senator wagner is try ing to get control of the negro votes in new york city s harlem area c western newspaper Newe paper union |