Show 0 national topics interpreted by william bruckart washington the patronage dam at last has broken with congress butof out of the way the admonis at the trailor has begun to pie pt c counter serve the pie in a bl big way but washington Washingto observers have noted something new in the pie dispensing system now dow being employed the breaking of the dam that held up appointments while congress was made to do the bidding of the president and that created such a terrible traffic jam around the pie counter has shown that being a democrat in the government service means little more than being a republican insofar as priority tor for reappointment Is concerned the flood that came after the dam broke has washed out about as many democrats as republicans it Is always to be expected that the winning political party will put its own men in I 1 have heard no complaint about that course because it has happened so many times in our history that it is taken for granted from what I 1 have been able to see and to hear president roosevelt cannot be blamed for the ruthless character of the dismissals except indirectly ne ile has gone so far even as to say that some three or four thousand postmasters now serving under commissions by president hoover will be allowed to remain on their jobs until their commissions expire this has caused a howl among the clique that appears to be bent on grinding its own axes because they want those jobs and unless the president stands firm they are going to get them the treasury seems to be affected allec ted less than other departments secretary woodin has picked most of his people according to well informed individuals but he lias has had to accept one or two men to whom senators were indebted the treasury secretary has run into some difficulties I 1 am told because he insists on having investigations made of men whose appointments are recommended to him ile he was reported to have made a democratic senator very angry because he would not cot name the senators candidate as an internal revenue collector in one state without the prerequisite of an investigation but the investigation was made just the same the president and his advisers have played a brilliant hand in the new deal in their maneuvers at creating new jobs out of old ones take the farm legislation put into the hands of secretary wallace of the department of agriculture it Is made to appear that the handling of the so called price parity law which Is the old domestic allotment plan in a new sult suit and the other new farm aid laws will require something like staff workers throughout the country the farm loan and the home loan machinery two separate organizations will provide jobs running into the thousands the legislation that is supposed to prevent bluesky blue sky sly securities from being sold to an unsuspecting public likewise will enable the appointment of many more and last but not least the public construction administration and the industrial recovery administration are two more agencies offering berths by the score to deserving supporters of the roosevelt Koo sevelt ticket it Is fair to say that many of the underlings the clerks and supporting cast in the several new agencies are being named from lists of those who have lost their jobs in the face fac e of economy which lewis douglas director of uie the budget Is taking so seriously but as far as I 1 have been able to learn there Is no dearth of jobs that can be and are being filled purely on a political basis the hardest job the politicians have it appears la Is in sorting out the right applicants to recommend among those thousands they have been rec receiving elVing while le mr roosevelt kept the pie closet locked without wasting any dime time the administration has opened the spigot on the tank of mil speeding lions ons to speed indus recovery trial recovery through use of public money in construction the last congress voted a total of ow for public construction it will be recalled and now the machinery to use these funds has been set in motion it takes time to get government machinery ready even to spend money but the haste with which the operations have bare been started Is looked upon here as commendable alt although bough only public highway building and the fixing up of army posts and national cemeteries are involved in the first moves out of the gigantic fund S las been set aside and allocated to the use of the various states in the building of roads and lias has been marked for use in reconditioning army posts and national cemeteries expenditure pend iture of those funds of course will wake make jobs which Is the prime purpose of the program but there are men in high places who are unable to reconcile the cour course obligation of these funds was permitted after july 1 so that there ought to be a considerable era ble boom in road construction throughout the country in the next few months in making the funds available to the states the federal government laid down several conditions to insure that they would not be used to overbuild one section while another part ot of the state remained without new highways further the states are required to spend at least GO 50 per cent ot of their total share hare within the confines ot of cities and towns for there Is where the greatest amount of unemployment exists another requirement Is that secondary roads farra farm to market systems and highways highway i of 0 that character may be constructed with 25 per cent of the states total while the other 25 23 per cent rany may be expended upon completion of the federal highway system the point of all of this Is that the federal government Is determined to enforce a distribution of the funds to as many areas as possible this serves the purpose of providing the work as near as may be to the unemployed and prevents hogging of available construction by any section the government also put its finger on the methods to be used it Is saying to each of the states that no convict labor may be used that the contractors must pay wages that permit of a decent and comfortable living standard and that workers may not be kept on the job longer than SO 30 hours per week in order that the maximum number of 0 workers may have jobs this principle Is regarded as especially important because it establishes the six hour day and the five day week for the first time on a large scale how long it can be maintained la Is now a matter of pure conjecture but it will remain as the principle on all federal grants to states for highway building during the expenditure of these funds 0 0 0 the alloe atlon of the fund by states Is as follows alabama arizona allocation arkan by states sas 3 california 1 colorado connecticut delaware florida georgia idaho illinois indiana iowa 5 GW CCO kansas kentucky louisiana maine maryland massachusetts michigan minnesota mississippi missouri 12 montana ko nevada new hampshire 1 new jersey new I 1 new york north ca carolina rolina north dakota ohio oklahoma oregon pennsylvania rhode island south carolina south dakota tennessee SS texas utah vermont virginia washington west virginia wisconsin wyoming 17 district of columbia and hawaii while most of us believe there has been a depression on throughout the tha count would tour Tours tourists ests ts believe it to be true swarm capital lf if the sole yardstick for measuring business busl conditions was the tourist travel through the national capitol building in washington although accurate figures are not available the corps ot of guides who lead visitors through the great building on capitol hill tell that they have lind what they call a big year thus far to the uninitiated it Is plain to see that thousands of persons are making a visit to washington this year for there hns has been a steady stream of visitors passing through those long corridors day after day in an almost unending procession the same 1 Is true of the washington monument that tall obelisk ranging feet in the air us as a mark of the reverence held for the father of ills his country passing by the monument almost any time during the day one can see a familiar sight a queue of tourists awaiting their turn torn to ride to the top in the slow moving elevator within the square walls of the structure A few nights ago some of 0 the folks in the treasury had occasion to work late and in the course of the evening one of the colored messengers was asked to visit an office for a file of 0 papers the regular occupant of that office having gone home the messenger went but came back soon saying he could not get in an investigation revealed the office was unlocked some further inquiry elicited the information from the messenger that two years ago an official had died at ills deck and the messenger he had since observed ghosts in the office 0 1913 1933 western newspaper union |