Show am national topics interpreted by william bruckart washington the farm leaders leaden are on the neck of congress again and they are causing the farm leaders leaden politicians no end of irk congress grief el and worry pecullar too the current struggle was wag brought on by the politicians themselves who failed to see a year or so ago where they were headed they are now face to face with a problem that involves not only the demands of the farm leaders but directly and forcefully streets affects the ability of the federal government to borrow money the situation Is this the farm credit administration originally had a fund of which it could use rather in its own way for relief in desperate farm mortgage cases it could determine appraisals for itself and do a number of other things in order to get relief to distressed farm owners without regard for ordinary federal mortgage laws but that fund has been exhausted indeed it has been far overdrawn and the farm credit administration has had to borrow money from the reconstruction finance corporation in order to carry on that phase of its work now the farm credit tion must sell bonds it has authority to sell them to obtain funds but it Is confronted with exceeding difficulty in their sale investors are not particularly ticul arly anxious to take them just here Is where the politicians find themselves in a quandary farm leaders are demanding that the federal government guarantee the interest on those bonds so they may be sold and if a guarantee of interest wont suffice then the farm leaders say the interest and principal of the bonds ought to be guaranteed in either event congress has to enact the legislation necessary Off offhand bandt it would seem that congress should be willing to guarantee the interest and principal without any argument it Is a situation however not so BO easily solved because of the he effect elsewhere if the farm mortgage bonds are guaranteed as t to 0 interest and principal then the owners of homes will vill and do want the same thing it if one gets it the other must have it or the bonds that are not guaranteed cannot be sold that Is the whole story if both of the agencies dealing with mortgages farm and home are accorded a government guarantee then the whole structure of farm and home loan bond issues running into billions of dollars in which the government has an interest becomes a part of the national debt the national debt now Is around it can go somewhat higher without causing the values of those bonds outstanding to become depreciated prec precia ted yet there Is a limit when that limit Is reached investors everywhere will suffer banks will suffer to the extent that they have government bonds life insurance companies that have in invested your premium payments and mine in bonds to earn I 1 terest interest n will suffer in short an overloading of the national debt will wreak havoc and in the end taxpayers tax layers will pay and pay so that point where the politicians find themselves now Is at the crossroads they can not yield all of the demands of the farm leaders that would result in the things I 1 have described bed cut but they started the farm leaders on their present course by a lot of promises designed to win elections all the farm leaders are demanding now Is that the politicians ma make k e good 0 the e early arly weeks of congress already have demonstrated that the session Is going to be devoted political to a considerable horse t e nt to the lunding building trading of campaign fences although the votes will not be cast until november there is dissatisfaction with sitting members of the house and senate in many a bailiwick and there are ambitious citizens in every one of them who are willing to serve the district or the state consequently the job of building campaign laign fences Is under way and fit the blen biennial nial horse trading of the politicians has begun the horse trading of the current session however hoever Is going to be considerably sider ably different than in most sessions of congress one of the reasons why the trading will be different Is that man who sits in the white house ordinarily maneuvers are carried out on the floors of the house or senate that are designed to enable this or that individual to obtain reelection election re and they are accomplished with little r no interference from the president president roosevelt has his program lo to wever and unless the boys and girls up the ibe members membership bip of congress line up correctly they wont get any mlle anille from the chief executive when such a smile and some kind words would win the election it Is a tough spot for the candidates it might be well to explain how the trading Is done just so the whole thin thing is on the record I 1 have watched them from the eminence of the press jal g al berles so many times that the byril bons t ona no longer prove entertaining those things however never seem to appear in the reprinted speeches the senators and representatives mall mail out to their constituents but the th trading goes on just the tame same 0 0 As AB an example of the way the trading goes goe on consider this one A western m member ember how lee its fought and made worked speeches and demanded roll calls and did n all 11 of the other things n necessary ec essary to attract attention to a bill pulling some money out of the federal treasury for use in his district he w wanted anted the bill put through to insure his reelection but he received little or no consideration presently another bill seeking some particular plums for other sections of the country appeared on the tha scene supporters of that bill fought and made speeches and did all of the other things to attract attention to their bill they ran into a stone wall also when that happened the two groups began to talk turkey among themselves they joined hand bands and they served notice botlee on several other groups fostering particular legislation that they would block anything and everything until they received permission from the powers that be to get their bills before the house they forced an agreement it was the action of a bloc and congress Is just filled with them the traders get what they want in most instances because enough strength can be mustered among disgruntled groups to prevent affirmative action in the current session however mr Roosevel ts program Is the first consideration and it if the democratic majority does not perform as an the president says gays well it may be too bad next november I 1 am reminded in this connection of an incident involving postmaster general jim parley farley the administrations trat ions lons political guide A certain senator wanted to see jim about a job for a powerful constituent jim did not want to see the senator but the senator insisted and jim received him ne he requested and urged and finally demanded appointment of his man or else I 1 will be licked in the election well replied the political boss farley 11 1 I am not responsible for that I 1 see by the record here where on seven major votes in the senate you voted against the administration on five that record may not cot warrant your reelection election re anyway that ended the incident and it also serves to show how the president and all of his advisors engage in horse trading too the turn of the year with the fresh start that always accompanies a new year has given rise see better to conviction among times ahead a y observers that conditions economically and financially are improving underlying factors surely give every indication of better times we here who are meeting men of consequence from every part of the country week after week get rather definite expressions that conditions are going along at a rate of improvement that warrants real optimism it Is the first period in tour four years that the gentl sentiment brought to washington has been uniformly of that kind I 1 am constrained to believe however that most people are going to be discouraged because recovery will be slow the spring undoubtedly Is going to see more industry at work than since the depression began and the summer will carry on with some expansion cut but it takes so long for the improvement to beco become in e apparent to most of us insofar as it affects us personally that we get down in the dumps with waiting one of the things about which I 1 have heard that sounds worthwhile Is the total of advance orders that are going in from manufacturing establishments lish ments advance orders for february march and april delivery are recorded in some lines to be the largest in four years that statement does not dot apply to all lines of commercial endeavor there are some exceedingly bad spots even dangerous spots these w will III be slower than the others in getting on their feet again yet the tha picture of business as a whole can be said to be far better now thin than it has been since the beginning of 1930 although secretary said that his censorship rule against treasury officials als was withdrawn and that subordinates could talk with newspaper correspondents who wan wanted ted only factual data many of the less lesser er light around the treasury still are scared stiff about talking with alth a correspond ent witness this A few days ago clarence T ellis bills of st louis mo was named assistant solicitor 0 of f the treasury ft a promotion from a job Rs a nn an attorney in the department that he had held for many years A corre spond called him by telephone to inquire whether his home was in st louis mr bills replied that the cor respondent would have to see mr air gaton for any information herbert B n gaston Is the treas publicity rw utan the inquiring r report ile whether mr ga gaston ston could coula of wh where ere mr ellis eills gifted but bul he went to see mr gaston because lie he get the information anywhere else ele 0 by t western newspaper union |