Show 0 national topics interpreted by william bruckart national press building washington D C washington air pilots use an expression that I 1 want to appropriate in connection with a 3 low lov discussion of t the h e visibility count rys economic situation and its relation to the administration policies and plans the pilots refer to low visibility and low ceiling when they want to say that they cannot see far in the distance it seems to me that the clarity or lack of itt it with respect to current economic conditions warrants the use of the term low visibility if any credence whatsoever Is to be placed in the statements and activities tivi tivit ties les of 0 business leaders government agencies by the dozen have been issuing rapid fire are reports in recent weeks showing how industrial production Is improved how the price level has shown signs pleasing to industry it if not cot to the consumers and how the volume of bank clearings Is progressing upward bank deposits were seven billion dollars higher at the end of 1034 1934 than at the end of 1933 the reconstruction finance corporation Is having difficulty in keeping its borrowers from paying back the loans and the securities and exchange commission recently was made very happy by application of a great packing company to list forty alve million dollars in new securities the treasury has been pursuing what Is regarded as orthodox financial policies and a good many other agencies appear to be veering away from the leftists course that so long dominated roosevelt policies all of these it seems ought to be reassuring to business whether that business be the great corporations or the little tradesmen in the corner groceries but there has been a fly in the ointment and that seems to be the reason why masses of capital and a goodly percentage of the count rys population shares uncertainty about the future economic condl condition I 1 have sought answers to this puzzle in many quarters and I 1 have had many different explanations it Is made to appear however from the weight of opinion that I 1 have gathered that th the relief rolls are the cause of tills this lack of faith it lias has been recorded previously that approximately awen ty two million persons about one sixth of our population are living on relief this staggering total the highest ever known obviously represents a basic weakness somewhere and the administration Is seeking to locate that weakness this total has been reached by a steady growth it has not come suddenly the circumstance therefore has led many individuals to the conviction that mr Roosevel ts reform measures are failures perhaps it Is a lack of understanding on the part of business that prompts it to keep its pen in its pocket and its checkbook check book closed under these conditions it may be that business leaders have failed to read the possibilities ties represented by increased production and the other signs of an improved economy nevertheless bustness business apparently has found it difficult to see far or clearly into the future it seems to look upon the economic condition as having a low ceiling and low visibility a washington correspondents were startled in the presidents press conference the 0 other day more when he he to let t it be messages known that he be plans four additional messages to congress this session not including his recent bitter dejunc denunciation ia of the holding companies when he asked that action be had on that bill it was not the number dumber of messages that surprised the correspondents it was the fact that the president said alth ith some frankness that he did not know what subject would bf b treated in them ahm to most of the observers it seemed wholly reasonable that the president should be unwilling to outline those messages but it was incomprehensible that he should admit his bis inability to say what subjects would be handled after that information came out of the white house there was a noticeable sinking in the optimism of a great many men who count tor for something in the count rys business structure most of thern them said aid iril frankly y that they ild did not know which way to turn among their numbers number were more who believed sincerely that eliat the president was giving up some borne of his bis numerous new deal experiments and was proceeding on ground which the conservative thought lit considers to be solid the reaction to work of this kind always has been and always will be bad from the standpoint of the political party in power added to the circumstances I 1 have last just mentioned one should remember how congress normally Is unpopular with the business community in many years past I 1 have heard the plaint of business representatives in washington asking or urging for adjournment business men normally feel that the less work congress gets done and the sooner it leaves the halls balls of the file capitol the better conditions will be the same Is true now only more so go it way may as well be admitted that the current session of congress Is here tor for i a considerable number of weeks this is s true tor for several reasons in the first I 1 instance nt tance many of the ln members feel that they want to be legislators and not cot rubber stamps any longer there la Is no DO longer the overwhelming fear ear among congressmen of the presidents power they have shown this several times lately including the forty nine day battle over the public works bill feeling their independence again members ot of the house and senate have begun to press for action on legislation carrying out their own ideas much of this runs counter to administration ideas on legislation further clashes are inevitable when there are con of plans in congress you can expect to see a long drawn out session and since this Is not an election year there Is no need for the members to rush home to mend their political fences it Is not strange therefore that business as a whole Is worried about congress the business leaders themselves insist that it Is not strange that they are worried about the secrecy which surrounds the presidents plans the two circumstances taken together obviously serve as a brake on the wheels of industry because now as always in the past business will not risk the last vestige of its capital resources unless it can be assured ot of stability while the democrats the party in power are floundering the republicans lie wholly dor useless tsei esa maul mant seldom in my opposition experience in washington has the opposition party been as useless its as the republicans public ans now seem to be they are making no effort at all to gather funds for use by chairman henry P pletcher fletcher of the republican national committee in taking advantage of vulnerable spots in the democratic armor in fact they have left mr fletcher rather high and dry and when he attempts to do anything one faction or another shoots harder at him than aban at its natural rivals the democrats I 1 have heard expressions lately to the effect that mr fletcher has a golden opportunity at hand he Is 13 in the enviable position of being able every time he la Is criticized by his own partisans to point out that the help they are giving him Is worse than nil and that criticism under such a circumstance does not become them the thought Is that mr air fletcher by taking the bull by the horns becoming militant and mapping out a program with which his wide knowledge of politics equips him could become actually the dominant republican force in ili this country thus far mr pletcher fletcher has sat back in his easy chair and has taken all the darts some observers are asking how bow long that can continue and the republican party remain alive early in the roosevelt administration the republican policy was to avoid criticism of the democratic leadership at all times they declared and openly announced their views that if they criticized sir mr roosevelt and his new deal they would be characterized as obstructionists it if the new deal failed the democrats surely would place the blame on the republican opposition but political writers here tell me that mr Roosevel ts political honeymoon has been over quite a while and that there abere Is in their opinion no need for the republicans longer to stick their heads in the sand after the manner of the ostrich and see nothing As the administration feta ets its hands on fresh supplies of 0 money a stron strong 9 demand has hag set up concrete for more concrete highways highways there seems to be almost a propaganda in favor of constructing concrete highways here there and everywhere including two or three or tour four transcontinental high speed roadways the new public works bill carries a considerable sum for highway construction st and it Is quite natural that dealers in road materials and equipment want to get hold bold of it my inquiries among road building authorities lead me to elleve believe however that the use of these funds ought to be examined closely and any program that Is mapped out should be the result of careful study around the department of agriculture there Is a chronic complaint that too many through highways and not enough farm to market roads have been constructed it if that be correct the authorities tell me then the concrete road building program will have to be revamped or else there will be hundreds of miles of concrete roadway constructed at an expense so great that it can be called reckless waste some years ago ago the bureau of public roads made a statistical study which indicated that a concrete roadway as distinguished from other hard surface highways was unjustified ull unless the dally daily volume of automobile traffic approximated fifteen hundred cars it Is to be remembered that a concrete roadway costs several times as much as when other materials are used in hard surface construction so the public roads statistician figur figured etl out the life of a roadway built of tea les expensive materials would be of if siiri clent length to warrant use of th cheaper material where the olumn ului iu 0 travel was low a wester buton i |