Show is utilities 0 national v topics interpreted by william bruckart washington D C aress bullying Bull ding washington dear editor I 1 wish I 1 could dodge writing a column this week the whole on our way washington pic where ture is so disturbed the course Is so uncertain the future is so indefinite that I 1 must confess my inability in to properly appraise and report on the situation you will remember president roosevelt once wrote a book which bore the title on our way I 1 guess that is correct as it applies t to 0 the national government now only I 1 can not figure out what the way is or where we are going to explain in some detail what my personal problem is let me say that before I 1 write each week I 1 have canvassed many many peoples opinions and have obtained the facts that are necessary for the discussion which I 1 undertake there has been no change in my method of work yet I 1 find myself ten days after mr roosevelt has announced his new and larger spending program totally unable to get heads or tails of the story that is to say I 1 have found both the heads and the tails but none of the heads or the tails seem to be from the same carcasses they dont fit so therefore I 1 must write that I 1 have found nobody who has been able to tell me where we are going I 1 listened to mr Roosevel ts radio speech and read his message to congress about the which he proposes to spend to stop the depression I 1 talked with officials of the treasury and members of the federal reserve board of governors about the billion and a half of idle gold that is is to be made active again and I 1 have looked into the program by the reconstruction finance corporation which is prepared to loan almost two billions to commerce and industry there is so much activity about it among the executive departments that it seems something must come of it there is activity at the capitol too but it is in the nature of a row over the question whether all of this spending will do any good the one tangible thing evident around the capitol is that perhaps 40 per cent of the representatives and senators have been left rather cold by the idea of a great new spending program somehow they look back on the previous pump priming operations and they tell me that the pump was primed by a total of about eight billion dollars without causing the water to flow freely as a good streamlined new deal pump ought to work these things they are saying in committee consideration of the various phases of the new program by which the president expects to bring back prosperity or at least by which he hopes to check the depression there is a depression now that may not be news particularly but it is now official it was a recession for some seven or eight months according to all official pronouncements noun cements but now that soft word has grown claws and it has become a bold bad depression it is too bad that the depression had to come just when congressional elections lay ahead of course there can be no connection between the spending campaign and the elections not being able to analyze the situation a fact admitted at the start I 1 naturally would be the last to say that retention of house or senate seats is as important as providing funds for relief of the destitute loans or grants to states cities coun counties titis or businesses that might otherwise find votes against new deal candidates we must torget forget that phase now obviously being one who is unable to understand what is going on what the plans T 11 f pa will it are if it is planned work now that way I 1 should wait and see what will come out of 0 the pump this time but I 1 am impatient I 1 am rather cynical too whenever these things have failed to work once I 1 naturally have to be shown why they failed once and will work the second or j the third or the fourth time the they Y are tried around many of the new deal propaganda bureaus however I 1 have been assured that the vast spending plan will work this time indeed it was intimated to me t that hat I 1 was rather stupid just plain dumb because I 1 tailed failed to understand really the assurances given me by the press agents has had much more conviction than mr roosevelt Roosevel ts S speech one reader of my column wrote in the other day to inquire whether I 1 believed au all of this spending meant we are headed into inflation at the moment I 1 am not much alarmed about that AU all of the makings for a fine inflationary period are available I 1 mean that if congress were to be stampeded by the confusion that I 1 have mentioned there could be a regular flood of printing pre press ss money congress however is not going to be stampeded the sentiment is too evenly divided for and against the idea of spending our way back to prosperity there are individuals in congress who ac actually tu think that the public debt of the nation is already too large arg e they think really that the new nev spending ought to be limited just to caring for the distressed un unemployed em of all things they would refuse to vote out more money unless that money were to be used tor for feeding and clothing people I 1 think I 1 should mention also that there are a goodly number of persons at the capitol who have lowered themselves to the level of playing politics they are even ridiculing ng our president they are saying that most businesses little as well as big have lost confidence in mr roosevelt and that it does not matter whether the new deal spends one billion or ten it will fall fail to restore that confidence being a sim ale minded soul I 1 just stand by and listen to that on the other hand the heads of three important magazine publishing houses have told me lately that their advertising contracts are being cancelled right and left the national advertisers have told the publishers they have to conserve what money they have because they dont know what is going to happen I 1 do not understand why they are so frightened you will remember mr roosevelt said he had urged congress to enact only four laws that would affect business that is four this session one of these is the bill as described by the president to put a floor under wages and a ceiling over the hours of labor all that legislation would do of course is bankrupt businesses here and there but those cant be successful anyway they made any money in several years and why worry about them the message of the president did not make any mention of the laws las that hold the coun A sup slip try back it is to in in plans be assumed he did not want to disturb business by calling attention to them matters of taxation for instance I 1 am told in this connection that the tax rates must go higher next year there is going to be a much larger deficit in the treasury than was anticipated in january when I 1 wrote in these columns how the budget was going to be balanced next year under plans outlined by the president something slipped in those plans now they dont know at the treasury when the budget can be balanced surely not next year because here is something more than three billions to be spent out of next years money supplies that had not been counted on this hateful depression is is causing so much trouble I 1 hope I 1 have not made this washington situation appear too mixed up the circumstance has me quite puzzled as I 1 have plainly tried to say there has been a story a rumor in circulation in washington about a tiff between mr roosevelt and vice president garner not that I 1 believe in recording mere rumor but more because of a sentence that was re pott edly used by mr garner I 1 want to write about it the vice president is a lovable soul kind and amiable he has a number of texas expressions that appeal to m me e because they say so much in so few words well according to the rumor mr garner and a group of congressional leaders were in conference with the president they were talking about the depression or maybe the recession what to do about it how to meet it and what the causes were the president it seems has been sold the idea of this spending program as an aid to business a priming of the pump rumor has it that mr garner was asked what he thought could be done his reply a typical garner answer was why dont you let the cattle put on some fat chief the president was reportedly quite displeased with the idea con keyed an idea president that the govern displeased ment had better quit harr assing business quit trying to rem remake ake the country and reform human nature mr roosevelt subsequently y denied the report vehemently even rather angrily there has been no denial or confirmation from mr garner lie he has been so silent about the thing that it is positively thunderous As I 1 said I 1 know of it only as rumor but I 1 do know that mr garners silence has convinced thousands of persons that there is some basis in fa fact ct for the report in any event the astute vice prebi president dent if he made the r remark emark certainly s said a id a couf full so mr editor if you are still with me let me say that the new spending program is going to be no more successful in restoring the country to prosperity than the ear earlier if attempts the nation can spend in constructing new public buildings suppliers of material will sell that brick and stone and cement and plumbing supplies etc but after the job Is done da darkness akness falls again and the men are out of work C Z western New newspaper union ulu |