Show aeo 0 nm aih HF national topics interpreted by william bruckart washington the that we receive here in washington andl indicates that the coun up to the try at large Is rath president er CT sitting e on the edge of its chair waiting to see how president roosevelt Is going to play the hand band he has received in his new deal which he asked equipped as he Is with the greatest powers ever accorded a president of the united states the situation surely Is up to the president upon his hi administration his playing of 0 the cards depends the result the success or the failure ot of the program it te is quite apparent since the smoke alom of battle cleared and congress closed up shop that the president suffered considerably from the riotous outbreak in the senate and the house bouse over the veterans compensation question I 1 mean that personally the president lost some of his prestige and his program bramso gr amso so well planned was somewhat disrupted it must be explained however that the general principles which mr roosevelt laid down as the new deal have come through unscathed nence hence I 1 repeat that the chief executive Is confronted now only with the problem of making things move in accordance cor dance with the promises pledged in his campaign and to which he tried to adhere with all of the solemnity of an oath the president Is wholly mindful of the responsibility he assumed in asking congress in effect to make him general manager of about everything lo in the nation ile he showed that quite unmistakably when lie he affixed his signature to the last grist of bills ground out by a none non too to congress in a statement at that time mr roosevelt described the national recovery public construction bill as the most important and far reaching legislation ever enacted by an american congress but he added that if it were to succeed it demands the wholehearted operation cooperation co of industry labor and every citizen of the nation the president counseled patience as well as asked operation cooperation co and how better could he show that a superhuman job lay ahead in two pieces of legislation particularly has the president been given powers as wide as any ever accorded in Nar wartime time lie he has been made master of our agricultural destiny in one and under the terms of the other he has assumed the job as he described it of putting the government in partnership with industry instead of the necessities of the situation in wartime however we find the work to be done Is that of encouraging consumption of foods and other commodities instead of rationing of foods and clothing and materials that might be needed for the forces at the front instead of speeded up production we find the president with almost dictatorial powers to reduce production of agriculture the depression seems to have made things run backward As the several agencies to administer the new powers are set up under the he presidents dents guld possible Poss ble ance it appears diff difficulties ies mote more and more as though he be Is going to meet with difficulty of a serious character the president cannot keep his hand on the steering of everyone of the various machines that is beyond human comprehension i lie ile must delegate the work to ot others liers there are going to be many any many mistakes these always occur it cannot be avoided cut but the president Js as going to have to shoulder the blame tor for all of it what I 1 have been trying to present Is a picture of a situation in which the president Is the pivotal point let us pursue one or two of the possibilities the congress at the request of the president voted some in federal money as outright gifts to the states for relief when the president had the relief rep of the states here recently he told them that the federal gov would not countenance the building of a lot of useless projects under the guise of relief mr roosevelt was emphatic in his declaration but the question one heard around here was how many of the state office holders and politicians will see that such a policy is enforced 7 another salient the industrial recovery section of the bill putting government into partnership with industry entails organized operation cooperation co of each of the numerous industries leaders in the individual lines or of commercial endeavor have been co coming ming in ID here for conferences on codes of practice outwardly every one of them Is sincere and be it said to their credit most of them are inwardly sincere in their effort to find some means to accomplish com economic recovery but among those who are visiting washington for these conferences are some entirely willing to take advantage of circumstances or situations that will give their own fir firm or plant or factory an edge over their competitors it wo would old seem difficult for that end to be attained where the conferences are above board and there Is s a free discussion cus sion but the trouble Is that the reason some firms are larger than others othera Is that they have knowledge of a competitors weakness and dont be aleve for one moment that these as same me men will not watch for such guch appo opportunities atu in framing the codes ot of practice codes of ethics really for the conduct of 0 business that are to be employed in this new partnership arrangement ran gement I 1 1 As a third example permit me to cite possibilities in the new farm arm mortgage arrangement that the president worked out to help debt ridden farmers and congress enacted into law it provides that holders ot of farm mortgages may under certain conditions exchange them for bonds ot of the federal land banks and allows farmers under prescribed conditions to borrow for re financing their debts aside from the mortgage no one doubts the sincerity of this program nor dor does anyone question but that it Is needed and that it will be of immense help to farmers yet let attention was called during the debate in congress to loop holes boles through which a team and wagon can be driven according to these arguments gu ments if the federal land banks do not accumulate some mortgages having a face value of hundreds of 0 thousands of dollars but actually little more than your cats and dogs it will be a miracle As I 1 said earlier observers here are convinced that mr roosevelt can check malfeasance in rely on any of the numer roosavelt acts ous us directions if he be acts in time and with firmness ills his loyal supporters insist he can and will sense any tendencies dennies of that kind as they develop but his opponents or rather opponents of his programs claim he will be unable to discover them until the infection has become a festering sore I 1 do not propose to ret et down a conclusion respecting these arguments nor the probability or possibility that any of the conditions may eventuate my purpose solely Is to suggest what can happen and where we would be headed beaded should the dangers become real rather than theoretical I 1 called attention above to the tact fact that congress had somewhat disrupted the presidents program but that all in all it bad given the president the widest powers ever accorded in peace time the reason there was a breaking of party lines in congress was because some senators and representatives awakened toward the end of the extra session to the fact that they had voted away almost all of the powers they were supposed to exercise they grew fearful of what would happen the feelings of the doubtful ones were not becalmed either by the prodding they were receiving from lobbies of powerful groups such as the veterans mr roosevelt was not entirely victorious in this battle lie ile succeeded tar far beyond expectations of many washington analysts but sore spots were created that are going to be hard to lical heal so it probably Is just as well that there will not be any meeting of congress again until january 1934 1034 the president can proceed to carry out the program he has in mind under authority which congress rave him upon his own responsibility the roosevelt administration being now about four months old has disclosed strong keep public atles in the direction informed ot of publicity tor for itself it seems to have adopted the title of a well known show of thee I 1 sing and the pee pul are gol going ng to be told in considerable detail of what Is being done nearly all of the important branches of the government have taken capable newspaper men into their organizations that the proper supply of information may be made available to those writers who continue at their regular means of livelihood it has helped the unemployment si situation tuition among the writers anyway for where the government has hired men their places have been filled from among others whose salary checks have been small or have been missing altogether as a result of slack black business for the newspapers administration leaders justify the policy on the ground that correspondents cannot be familiar with every phase of government and particularly now that we me have so many new laws and new activities resulting from the new deal the public Is entitled to have the facts the leaders explain and the use of high class newspaper men in publicity jobs in the government therefore constitutes a service to the public this attitude of course has a basis in fact and there Is merit in I 1 the be argument but there Is another side to the proposition it has been the record of other administrations that employed an array of writing talent that a considerable amount of plain unadulterated propaganda somehow managed to creep into official statements and information released through these cb channels anDels it Is the average writers function to report the news dews ile ie or she cannot openly question the truth or the accuracy of an official statement consequently if the statement be of the propaganda sort there is s little the writer can do about it the decision has to be left to the editor of the paper 0 1931 western union |