Show wag 0 L national topics interpreted by william bruckart washington the political situation waxes warmer it Is seldom in our history where the records disclose so much heat in the campaign fights as has already been developed it may dle die down some but the wiseacres wise acres in politics are predicting red hot battles over the issues and mud slinging and muck mack raking among individuals there Is the speech by secretary of 0 the treasury an at tempt to show that campaign the new deal has material not been so costly as critics of the administration claim there Is the victory of 0 the socialist upton sinclair who captured the democratic nomination for governor of california and there Is a growing list of social reform proposals among administration advisers which provide meat and drink for the politicians on the opposing team there is the accomplished tact fact in this connection of the pension legislation which the railroads claim Is going to cost them almost one hundred million dollars a year one can mention also the row among cabinet and emergency officials over the future course of and the test that Is being made in the district of columbia courts to determine whether a business firm can be made to comply with a code which it has definitely and continuously refused to sign there Is the fight among the democrats of the house of representatives and the bitter attacks that are being leveled at the treasury by some of the senators and representatives senta tives from agricultural areas on account of administration management of processing taxes efforts of the american liberty league for protection of constitutional rights are being expanded all the while new deal planners are engaged in development of new schemes such as a program designed sl ned to result in federal ownership of the railroads to say that the situation Is confusing Is to use the mildest sort of language observers in washington who have watched political maneuvers for a quarter of a century and more insist that at no time in their recollection have they seen anything similar to present conditions take the upton sinclair victory itself as an example I 1 am told that few times in modern politics has it occurred that a man so long affiliated with another partisan group has bored his way in and seized titular control of a major political party the observers insist that the result of the california primaries has placed the roosevelt administration on a decidedly lot hot spot unless as it has been charged president roosevelt Is willing to commit the democratic party chich alch he heads to the socialist doctrines publicized for a quarter of a century by mr air sinclair some political leaders here are whispering that the sinclair victory will strengthen the hand band of the amerlean american liberty league and enable the sponsors al AI smith jouett shouse john W davis former senator wadsworth and others to go about the country and obtain recruits for their defense of constitutional rights ac active ive efforts of this kind of course are I 1 likely te to catalog the league as definitely deficit ely antl anti administration but league lea leaders ers apparently do not entertain such bucl a fear at tills this time the processing tax question Is another that political observers insist Is due to cause trouble processing for the president troubles they point out that heretofore such criticisms i as have come of the processing taxes have centered on secretary wallace find and the agricultural adjustment administration now however the attacks are being leveled at the bureau of internal revenue which Is a part of the treasury and therefore the fire has swerved from one department to the other it Is to be remembered that both secretary and commissioner mIss loner helvering of the bureau of internal revenue are arc personal appointments of the president republican campaigners are using this ps as a vehicle to carry their assault on the president tilt himself whatever the political implications may be it remains a fact that such new deal supporters as senator james P pope of idaho have taken mr air helvering to task tor for his bis administration of the processing taxes senator pope has written to sir mr helvering with particular respect to the processing tax on hogs which he charged was being collected from farmers farmers who slaughtered and sold pork produced on their own farms the idaho senator forced a bill through congress in the closing days of the last session which he believed would free the farmer of this tax and provide a refund of tax which he be claimed was illegally collected at this writing senator pope reports the bureau of internal revenue has not even drafted the forms upon which farmers may male make application for refund of taxes already paid and it amounts to approximately two and one half cents per pound it takes no stretch of the imagination to figure how nuch much tax has been taken from farmers in this way there are other complaints about the processing taxes as well these include a complaint that has become I 1 country wide among users of products as well as the producers of products that compote compete with coconut oil it will be recalled that there was something of 0 a battle in congress when an import tax was laid on coconut oil the industry felt it had gained a great victory developments since have shown just how wrong individuals can be republican wheel horses claim they now have bare ammunition in ohp shape of nt mr air Morgen thaus speech on the cost under fire ot of the new deal for which they long iong have awaited the treasury secretary spoke over the radio ills purpose obviously was to get as wide distribution as possible for his conclusions that the new deal thus far has bag cost only despite the fact that the treasury dally daily statements sho show W an a n a addition d di of approximately eight billion to the national debt the secretary was able to show to his way of thinking that while the public debt has been increased by the amount stated nearly all of these funds eventually will come back into the governments money chest lie ile admitted however that there may be losses sustained by some of the emergency agencies an and d that these losses naturally will affect the total as he had calculated it it I 1 talked with a democratic senator concerning mr speech and he told me of his intention later to make a similar speech on the subject lie ile was somewhat disturbed however as to how he could explain the receipt by the treasury of 2800 which is the amount of profit gained by the government as a result of devaluation of the dollar to the point where it Is worth only in gold ile he appeared to be afraid that opposing campaigners were going to say that the federal government had no way of obtaining revenue or money of any kind other than by taxation and borrowing ue he suggested that the profit of devaluation could hardly be described as money borrowed nor could it properly be called receipts from taxation the republicans are using mr mor gelthaus gen thaus own figures in an argument that the assets of wholly government owned agencies such as the reconstruction finance corporation are so far only bookkeeping items it appears to be irrefutable that no one can foretell what the value of these assets are going tor be one t two to o or three years hence therefore without discussing the merits of the argument on either side it can be said definitely that the republicans will be doing a lot of figuring just as ur mr did figuring to reach the conclusions he be wanted to reach and disseminate among the voters in some quarters I 1 hear expressions of commendation tor for the pronouncements by mr strangely these commendations do not relate to the total which he contended the new deal had cost thus far but to the fact that the administration was going to remain falth faithful ful to its pledge that tiie the deficit would not exceed eight billion dollars in the period covered washington has received numerous reactions from business interests regard beyard ing this particular phase of the speech and business seems seeing to regard that ouch much of it as reassuring a 4 As regards the controversy that Is raging in the administration itself observers s believe there real battle Is g every reason to in t n offing expect an eventual explosion general johnson the administrator on the one hand and miss perkins ns the secretary of labor and donald secretary of the presidents executive council on the other are all individuals of the temperamental makeup required as requisite to a real battle their differences grow out of the plans as to the future of the which the president lias has said ts Is to continue as a permanent part of the new deal structure washington has not quite made up its mind concerning the de limitations laid down by the two factions but it Is apparent even now that miss perkins and sir Rl chberg contend tor for expansion of the control beyond the limits to which the bombastic general johnson Is willing to go also it Is made to appear that miss perkins and mr prefer to see under the domination ot of an individual whose mental slants are in line with their own which Is to say in the opinion of most observers that they favor a radical tendency beyond general johnsons program the general having been a business executive seems to realize that it Is better to proceed cautiously in expanding NIZA NISA supervision and Is holding out for that course the differences between these individuals divi duals are the first to reach proportions requiring white louse house intervention ven rent tion lon whether mr air roosevelt has salved calved the feelings of each Is not completely established although it seems now that general johnson Jo linson will continue to manage and that miss perkins will in effect be sent back to her department of labor to give her attention to that job nevertheless there Is a growing belief here that this controversy Is 1 not dad but sleeping I 1 a 0 western union |