Show 00 1 0 national topics interpreted by william bruckart washington As the political pot betins begins to reach the boiling stage throughout the country it Is red hot apparent that in campaign stead ot of a dearth of 0 issues over which candidates can harangue there will actually be many of them A few short weeks ago political leaders here either boasted or moaned about the lack of issues for the campaign according as the boaster or the moaner was wag a democrat or a republican the democrats felt president roosevelt had bad been such a huge success that republicans public ans could not find a vital or vulnerable spot to attack republicans whether they said so out loud or not felt much the same way in the interim however all of this has been changed and there surely will be a red hot campaign during the coming summer and tall fall months looking over the situation one sees as probable points of controversy such things as the air mall mail contract cancellation cel lation the charges that the new deal has overridden the constitution of the united states the devaluation of the dollar and the profit taking in which the treasury thereafter engaged through seizure of all gold the encroachment croach ment of the federal government upon business itself through and the scores of administrations and commissions that have been set up the proposal to revise the method of electing the president and the use of taxpayers p money in development of such plans plan as the tennessee valley authority to mention a few of them but it seems to me that the most important issue of all Is only now coming to the surface succinctly it Is whether the voters desire to have the various new me deal items made a permanent part of our national governmental ern mental structure it Is to be recalled that virtually all of the items of the new deal have been put through congress as emergency legislation some of them have been tested in courts on a constitutional basis and have been upheld as emergency laws but it Is necessary to think of the pronouncements by president roosevelt almost directly asserting his intention to make them permanent otherwise they would expire in june 1935 a little more than a year from now the expiration date furnishes the basis for the issue that appears to be so important the members of the house of representatives and the 35 senators who ore are up for election this fall will have been reelected elected re or defeated eight months in advance of the time when the decision must be made on continuation of the new deal items that were vere enacted as emergency laws congress made up of the reelected elected re or new members will convene in the first week of january 1935 that will be the congress to decide what the course shall be it cannot dodge the question it if the president requests that the emergency laws be made permanent and he says he will the new congress congress either will do his bidding and reenact re enact the laws he be desires or it will kill them off by its refusal to act so the candidates this summer and fall must be prepared to answer whether they will support a continuation of the new deal or will work against it IL that puts the question up to the voters it Is closely akin to a referendum for the farmers for example it will require a decision whether the they want to go on into the future with a centralized functionary in washington like AAA telling them how much corn or wheat or cotton they can grow how bow much milk or eggs or fruit or cows or sheep or hogs they can produce for the manufacturer the issue will require a decision whether he wishes to go on with production under the codes likewise directed from washington for all taxpayers it will require a decision on the question of the type of expenditures that have been and are now going on out of the federal treasury it strikes me as about the most important set of questions presented to american voters in many years upon their decision rests the future policy of this nation 0 0 0 I 1 have frequently expressed the opinion in these columns that things have happened so pace Is rapidly under the too swift new deal deaf that talat most of us here cannot keep up with them frankly as an unbiased observer without political affiliation of any kind I 1 have been unable sometimes to reach it a conclusion for myself regarding many of the new deal projects they have been thrust upon us as at such speed that it has been utterly impossible to study all 0 of f th them M and that Is the unfortunate part of the forthcoming campaign it if we who are in the front rows of the theater are puzzled what then must be the state of mind of those who are far removed from the stage and can judge only by the few favorable or adverse effects affects that reach them as individual citizens there ther will be quite a bit of water go over the dara dam before the votes are cast in november it may be therefore that a better understanding of the plot of the play can be disseminated to the country at large I 1 hope no BO because the decision to be made Is women momentous tous I 1 hope too that the earn cam paige will be the hottest we have had in generations generation otherwise the questions the issues will not be thoroughly debated it they are not thoroughly debated thousands upon thousands of voters are going to cast cart their ballots as ag democrats or republicans just because they have always been democrats or republicans the coming campaign Is not of that structure the best beat indication I 1 have seen ot of a probability that all phases of the economic policies evolved from the new deal will be thoroughly discussed Is the greater freedom of debate in congress all of us remember how bow bills were wera sent to the capitol a year ago and earlier in ID the present session ot of congress and passed without debate or with very little there Is still too little debate on much of the legislation but that which Is going on serves to enlighten the public on the subject matter proposed this ought to be after all congress and the administration are only representatives of the people who pay the bill and whose citizenship make up our nation 0 0 figures have just been released here showing that the federal government has h a a approximately U S payroll officials and at peak employees on its payrolls that Is the highest point reached since the post war days of 1920 0 it represents a good many hundreds of millions in dollars for salaries of wages and the increase has been brought about despite the economy laws that were forced through congress last year some of the increase having occurred since january 1 tle the figures I 1 have given do not include the members of the house and senate nor their employees nor do they include the scores of workers that make up the staff of the house and senate and the employees of the capitol the count rys federal judges and their staffs are counted in the totals but the army navy and marine officers and enlisted men axe are not included almost men who are enlisted in the civilian conservation corps also alsa are omitted if one figures the average family as four persons the federal payroll provides a livelihood tor for at least persons although I 1 am assured by the civil service commission that five persons Is a better average than tour four in which event government pay checks sustain about I 1 do not make these statements in criticism ours is a vast country and a population of perhaps but it seems important to me that there should be such a vast number of persons living on government pay checks I 1 mentioned in an earlier paragraph in this letter that one of the issues about which norris merit ment Is likely to be election plan heard ln in every state this fall is the proposal to revise the method of electing the president it Is proposed in effect to amend the constitution of the united states so that the method of electing a president of the united states would be accomplished by a division of electoral vote in each state proportionately with the division of political party strength as shown by individual ballots for example and as a better way of explaining what Is proposed a state may be allowed twenty votes in the electoral college at present all of those electoral votes are cast for the presidential candidate who he receives the majority of the individual ballots it Is a unit rule now the constitutional amendment that Is projected would force a division of those electoral votes so that assuming the party votes were so divided eight of the electoral votes would be cast tor for one candidate and twelve for the other the authors of the proposed amendment are sena senator tor norris of nebraska and representative lea of california it Is the charge of the republicans that the move Is designed to give the democrats perpetual control of the presidency they are not making that charge out loud yet they want congress to pass the resolution proposing the amendment to the states so the tha republican speakers can argue about it all over the country this summer the point the tha republicans are making Is that the so caned called solid south will continue condone to vote nearly all of its electoral ballots for the democratic candidate the case of mississippi Is cited it has nine line electoral votes the republican party Is virtually nonexistent there the result would be that certainly eight and maybe all of the nine totes lotes would be cast for the democrat just as they are each four our years under the present system add to the electoral votes of the south the gains that would come from such normally two party states as new york and the republicans assert the result would be permanent control of 0 the government machinery by the dens dem Ite lea says how however ever that he thinks a virulent two party fight would develop in every state in the union representative martin a massachusetts republican argues that tho the republicans wont have a chance and there is 3 your issue 0 by wegern Now union |