Show a y I 1 digest 7 7 1 topics qs interpreted t DID is aogi WASHING TOMO washington by now the smoke of battle has cleared away and a proper appraisal rebuke D i i for t can be made of roosevelt elt the greatest political defeat president roosevelt has had since he entered the white house perhaps indeed by killing the government reorganization bill the house of representatives administered to mr roosevelt the most stern rebuke he ever has had since he entered politics that licking has been given now and we are or ought to be concerned with its meaning because the story contains valuable information first I 1 think it ought to be said that mr roosevelt was made a victim of his own brand of politics it is quite absurd to say that the bill to reorganize the federal government would have given him dictatorial powers it did add to his powers but he has powers now which would let him be a dictator if he felt that he dared to use them so we can dismiss that dictatorship phase of the he controversy insofar as its merit is concerned we can not dismiss it however as a factor indeed the factor that brought about the presidents crushing defeat there is no use in hemming and hawing about the real issue that was decided in the house vote which was by the narrow margin of to that issue was the combined fear and dislike of mr roosevelt against confidence in and blind following of mr roosevelt in other words it was the climax of a fight that has been going on since mr roosevelt attempted to force legislation granting him six additional appointments to the supreme court of the united states an accumulation of undercurrent bitterness the real importance of the reorganization bill therefore lay in the fact that it was a political football a vehicle it was being carried by mr Roosevel ts faction in congress and eventually was booted off of the field by those who dislike or distrust him the reason I 1 feel so certain about the real issue in the case is that a democratic congress only a few short years ago almost gave the then president herbert hoover the same powers sought by mr roosevelt now further an overwhelmingly democratic new deal congress did give mr roosevelt virtually the same powers in 1933 and he neglected to use them the question therefore strikes me as being clear cut in fact it is made to app appear ear that there is no question A majority of congress representatives and senators were looking for a chance to show the president they again want to be congress and not a rubber stamp the strangest thing about this battle was that a mistake by the president provided the basis for a new courage on the part of congress I 1 said above that it was absurd for anyone to believe the reorganization bill would make mr roosevelt dictator it would have done some dangerous things which I 1 shall discuss later in this article but the dictator phase was rather silly yet it was the conviction of hundreds of thousands of persons that the legislation would make mr roosevelt dictator that licked the bill and paradoxically mr roosevelt caused them to believe that his own act was responsible for that conviction it will be remembered that mr roosevelt was in warm springs ga on vacation when the bill was passed by the senate it was obvious from the close call it had in the sena senate teeven even after certain concessions ces had been made that it was confronted with trouble in the house mr roosevelt told newspaper correspondents at warm springs of his gratification that the senate could not be purchased by misrepresentation that provoked a row in the senate sen hiram johnson of california told the senate he would be wanting in courage if he did not resent such statements others spoke as frankly 0 is a the congressional record for that day cont contains atris several emphatic observations ions to the then the effect that mr storm broke roosevelt was treading closely to the edge of constitutional rights the constitution it will be recalled assures the right of petition it says that congress must make no law that will interfere with the right of petitioning the government that was just a flurry however when compared with that storm which was to break next day according to authenticated reports mr roosevelt informed the correspondents spon dents in his party at warm springs that he would have an important announcement to make very late that night they were enjoined to say nothing they were not to let their home offices know that an important announcement was coming in the middle of the night between midnight and one the correspondents were given the imbor tant announcement of which they had been advised it was a letter lette r or a copy of a letter to a friend who was not identified in the press release it praised the purposes and plans of the reorganization bill and then said in these words 1 I do not want to be a dictator 1 I have none of the qualifications to be ba a successful dictator and I 1 have too much historical background and too much knowledge of existing dictatorships tor ships to make me desire any form of dictatorship for america publication of that statement convinced hundreds of thousands of persons that mr roosevelt could be a dictator under it they deluged house fenbers mern bers with telegrams letters telephone calls personal cans calls the pressure was terrific although in the morning of the day the biu bill was killed I 1 doubt there were twenty men in the house who believed the measure would be sent back to committee for burial they hoped to emasculate it but they did not believe they could destroy it completely ely now as to a further reason why I 1 believe the presidents denial of a dictatorship desire proved his own undoing I 1 quote here a paragraph of a statement made on the floor of the house by representative barton of new york an advertising executive in private life mr speaker one of the first lessons I 1 learned in advertising was taught me by the head of a great concern manufacturing radiators he said to me never advertise that our radiators do not leak I 1 do not want the word leak or the idea of leaking associated in the public mind with our product in any way mr speaker night before last a certain gentleman got up in the middle of the night to associate the words dictator and dictatorship ship with his name thereby putting 0 those words into the minds of people many of whom may never have thought of them before I 1 do not know much about political strategy but I 1 do know that this national advertisement of an idea of dictatorship like his use of the word purchase and his use of the word feudalism was bad ad ver practice and there you have the complete answer it was the greatest political mistake mr roosevelt has made greater even than submission of the bill to appoint six new members of the supreme court when he i mentioned dictatorship millions of americans proud of america its traditions and its heritages suddenly understood and said no mr tl 0 0 0 0 earlier I 1 mentioned some dangerous phases of the bill those phases concern money and federal money and patronage federal patronage patronage pap and projects as the thing is now broadcast at the outset the bill contained provisions for placing the interstate commerce commission under political control that would provide political control of the railroads and railroad rates politicians have wanted to get fingers in that pie f for or half a century outbursts against that were terrific and it was eliminated provisions which would have permitted political control of the securities e curi ties and exchange commission a also ISO were sidetracked but there remained provisions which would have destroyed the general accounting office and the civil service commission the first named agency decides whether congressional appropriations have been spent or are being spent according to law the second has been the defender of the merit system in government it has fought oil off political spoils men successfully until recent years had these two provisions remained in the bill and it if it had passed congress mr roosevelt or any succeeding president would have had direct control of spending billions of dollars ordinary government expenses relief public works grants to cities and states all of the money and reference must be made to political appointments for the spending of this money because they go hand in hand there you have executive control that could perpetuate any kind of a political machine in K kansas an sas city or the kelly nash machine in chicago or guffey in pennsylvania had to be in league with the white house in washington or sink if the president had the control that was proposed in summation then it seems proper to say that democrats are breaking away from the new deal faction in a more definite manner than ever before I 1 firmly believe we shall see reprisals against many of them I 1 believe too we will see some who voted against the reorganization bill come crawling back for presidential favors in order to gain reelection election re and I 1 think we saw in the reorganization bill defeat the beginning of the end of the new deal in control of american na dional policies ft western newspaper union |