Show 0 national topics interpreted I 1 by william bruckart washington the extra session of congress Is starting olt off with many millions of 0 people what can figuratively pound congress do leg ing on its doors and demanding that if it do something or other about the bank ing situation and the economic panic demands are being made that it fix things up the demands and appeals the ar arguments u and the advice that Is being laid on the threshold of 0 every office door in the capitol carry every known scheme tried and untried for dealing with the disturbance in the delicate balance of our economic and financial machinery freak le legislation Ls latton panaceas cure alls and patent remedies that would put a quack doctor to shame are offered few of them appear to have been thought through as to the ultimate result and I 1 gather from the private conversations of senators and representatives that they are becoming just a little bit hardened and calloused about them that people everywhere are suffering Is known that the people have a right to demand that their government do what it can Is not to be denied but seeing the problem from the viewpoint of washington your observer Is inclined to pause and ask what can congress do how can con congress ress fix things up what sort of magic agic can president roosevelt employ that will start the country back to conditions that will provide employment for the unemployed food for the hungry markets for the products of 0 the factory and farm and stability tor for banks the last congress and the last administration tried to solve the problem and accomplished nothing no sooner had the seventy second congress expired than we heard assertions from those who saw their pet legislation die that things would have been better it if only their particular bills had been enacted but the saner heads beads among them know and admit that enactment of 0 all of the freak bills in the world would not change human nature nor amend the age old law of supply and demand whether president roosevelt is developing ve an economic program that will restore the confidence of the country in its established institutions and traditions time alone will tell it will be a slow process A sifting down of views of many of those upon whom responsibility rests seems to indicate that it may have strength because it Is slow in n the making the effects of anything sensational are generally not lasting it Is agreed a 0 from what many republicans as well as democrats have told me there is some ground for starts with belief that the mere wide support change of control of the government may result in some revival of confidence look at the thing this way mr I 1 r roosevelt convinced a good many liun h undred thousand persons throughout the country in his campaign that he could do a better job of running the government than mr hoover had done in convincing them he de developed eloped their confidence in h him in it Is considered therefore that mr roosevelt is starting out with wide support it Is claimed that the people will believe in him and in his policies at least until the error of his way Is shown in other words according to the argument as it Is advanced from this standpoint the bulk of the people will be trying to help the melves when they respond to the appeal of their president there has been an all gone feeling a feeling of exhaustion evident ideria in the months since the november election to put it in another form many persons showed their lack of backbone by asking the use it is held among many government officials that this condition was directly responsible for further declines in general conditions so the hope Is as I 1 see it not so much in what congress can do but in whether mr roosevelt can conserve or increase the confidence he built among the people it if he be succeeds things will slowly straighten themselves out if he makes some bad mistakes or it if congress gets out of control many here believe we may as well permit the depression to wear itself out depressions have done that in years gone by history gives no do basis to expect that the present disturbance will be any different in that respect the president undoubtedly has bas started off in the right direction in holding confidence by the selection of 0 his cabinet members ile he picked a group which Is generally conceded to be well balanced between conservatives and liberals that fact is made the more apparent from conversations which one hears bears among the conserva thes and the liberals of the presidents party in congress the con serva tives claim there are more conservatives serva tives in the cabinet than there are liberals and the liberals claim they hold a majority even some of the breast beatina radicals lay claim to roosevelt recognition of their philosophy in the off iclal family such a cabinet therefore must be described as well balanced and on the same basis it Is to be assumed all of those factions will stick with theares the president for awhile in the meantime however there to 13 that sickening cry of the suffering the plea of at wen who are losing their barms farms the wall of those whose savings are being wiped out by falling banks it gives the rise athe to the question will congress keep its head and try to enact sound legislation or will it yield to the clamor to fix things up and attempt to do so by undermining the currency by voting out additional billions in loans to corporations with incurable diseases and to states to spend every which way and cause additional burdens of taxes to be saddled on OD those who carry the load there appears to be a very real danger of this situation further there appears to be a very real danger that congress will go too tar far in harassing big business I 1 believe it la Is generally conceded that some big bustness business ought to be harassed but there must be legitimate business somewhere I 1 know that m many any of the democratic wheel horses are a little bit alarmed they think the confidence upon which the president Is depending can be undermined in this direction 0 As republican office holders file out from their jobs throughout the country and the demo new things tangs brats march up to transpiring the pie counter under the mandate of the november election things are transpiring here in washington that appear to the observers to be something new even in id this hub of the political universe the regulars in both major parties are becom becoming tn concerned about it ordinarily when a change in administration has taken place such as we have just experienced the ins stick together and seize all of the spoils and the outs cuts sit back awhile and suffer it takes a few months for those who were licked to establish their poise as the minority to the extent that the ins are seizing the spoils the recent change in control of the government has presented nothing new gut but the outs are not sitting silently awaiting better luck they have begun to build battle lines in the meantime within each of the two major parties other movements are taking place within the ranks of the republicans that Is the old line party men and women there Is a concerted effort to rid the party of the individuals who failed to stand hitched to the republican platform and candidates within the ranks of the democrats there Is a very definite effort just as concerted as exists among the republicans whereby the conservative wing of the party in power will have its feathers clipped in other words the regular republicans are fighting to retain control of their party and the liberal and radical democrats are struggling with a mighty effort to capture control of 0 their party the new democrats apparently feel their oats they want recognition it Is a problem with which the old tim ers haie hae not been compelled to deal before frankly they are puzzled 0 while this was going on senator norris of nebraska who was elected as republican but norris plans who always has new bloc been the bell sheep of the progressive floe flock was going forward with some ideas of his own about establishing a new bloc ile he proposed that those of liberal tendencies band together and organize ft a group which cougil maintain a headquarters in washington to operate freely and without affiliation with either major party nud and to wield the power which he insisted they had available to them the norris proposition seemed to be a direct answer to the blast by senator reed the pennsylvania republican who often has been described as probably the most regular of all regular republicans senator reed need makes no bones about the situation ile he says the time has come to kick out those who have been wearing a republican label at election times when they are candidates and who ho then jump the reservation but when senator norris announced his ideas about the progressive bloc the teed reed declaration assumed now new significance to the observers on the surface it may seem to be just on an ordinary party fight yet the undercurrent of gossip contains suggestions that here actually may be the beginning 0 of a new alignment in politics in every campaign each major party has fired blank shells at the opponents about their reactionary tendencies each party has entered the claim to being the better equipped to adapt the federal government to the new condl eions it has happened year after year yen r now however as a result of the reed declaration of principles the norris command to the progressives progress ives iveR the movement among the younger members of the house and the generally disturbed conditions some folks actually are looking for the segregation of 0 conservatives in one party and aad the radicals in the other 0 IH western newspaper union |