Show 4 V washington about this time every fall the president calls the director of the budget to the I 1 in n huddle white house a and n d on budget they go C into a buddle about the finances of the government about the needs for money of the various governmental agencies who must pay their employees and the other expenses to which they are put and in addition they hey discuss general questions of policy it Is as I 1 said an annual affair that presages a new tempo in the movement of activities tivi ties in washington because it occurs some weeks in advance of the reconvening of congress congress under the constitution must appropriate the money which Is spent by all branches of government well the annual anT huddle has just been held by president roosevelt and daniel W cell bell acting director of the bureau of the budget and air dell bell has gone back to MIS his office in the treasury with instructions to begin formulation of budget estimates for submission to congress of course budget making goes on throughout the year the huge staff of experts and accountants who work under mr bells direction are busy the year round examining the proposed requirements quire ments of the various agencies and arriving at conclusions as to what their needs reasonably should be the white house conference therefore represents the second step because those were the figures that formed the basis of the discussion between the president and his budget director in drafting the budget for submission to the next session of congress the administration Is con problems fronted with a varlo vario to 0 soye solve ety y of problems not the least of which la 19 the political phase it Is to be remembered that the budget now under tinder consideration covers money that will be appropriated for use nse after july 1 1930 and the succeeding 12 month period therefore half of the presidential campaign next nest year indeed the heated part of that campaign will take place after governmental agencies have be beun begun un to use the new appropriations it la is easy to see there therefore fore that polities politics can hardly be kept out of tb the forthcoming budget in some gome form or other even though every president says politics does not influence budget making nevertheless new deal spending and future taxation constitute questions which the president cannot overlook and Is not overlooking becaj because ise those things are vital to every man in an woman and child in the nation it seems to be pretty well settled now that the republicans are going to make spending and taxation their major ammunition against mr roosevelt and his new deal in fact it seems reasonably sure that the republican slogan will be throw the spendthrifts out that being the caw cage mr air roosevelt obviously must have in the mck back of ills his head considerable concern over the current budget making knowing danny bell as I 1 have known him for nearly 20 years during which time he has grown up in the treasury service I 1 think it ought to be said in his favor that politics Is farthest from his thoughts lie he Is as nearly a human figuring machine as any man I 1 have known in my wash ington career except possibly poi sibly the man under whom he was trained namely the late robert hand ills chief con corn Is and always alvnes has been a determination mi nation to have accurate statistics accurate conclusions and recommendations based as nearly nearl y as may be upon sound judgment but in saying these things about mr air bell I 1 am not saying that bu budgetary dge plans are not subject to manipulation it has been true in previous administrations a and nd it Is true in this one the vast totals of figures with their minima of explanations are nev never er easy to understand this Is one way of saying that they can be made to conceal a great deal more than they reveal I 1 mentioned the issues of spending a and nd taxation the american liberty league beag u e which has spending consistently warned taxation about the possibility of future heavy taxa taxation has not been silent since the president some weeks ago made public a budgetary pre summation the league insists that while present tax rates soon will provide enough money to mat meet what the president terms as ordinary expenditures of the government the rates are insufficient to meet the spending which mr roosevelt calls extraordinary in that it covers relief further the league in the other day asserted its belief that the present tax level was hig high ill enough to meet legitimate relief it 1 present unsound spending policies are abandoned but it Is emphasized by the league that even if unsound spending policies are abandoned the present pr e sent tax tar levels are insufficient to make possible any appreciable retirement of the gigantic gantle I debt that has been built up lip through the new deal relief program so go it Is 18 easy to see bee that a headon head on oil coill lon o two to schools of thought Is inevitable mr roosevelt and ills his brain tr t rasters usters have contended and will continue to contend that federal spending in the volume that has taken place was the only means by which the nation could be carried over this period of depression on the other hand there will mill ile be the vicious attacks of republican campaigners the sa s1 shots k by such men as lewis leils douglas for former mer director of the bureau of the budget who nho broke with mr air roosevelt over reckless reek less spending and all of those groups or of which the liberty league Is typical these have plenty of campaign material and you can make sure that they flioy will use it my experience aa ati an observer of politics and government prompts me to say thit there Is nothing that strikes the heart of the average taxpayer quite so fundamentally as displays of waste with the accompaniment of forecasts of greater taxation thus thug it if the new deal opposition goes ahead on the course coure that eliat appears to be charted for thern them actually it Is made to order for them they can cause the administration many anxious moments I 1 say this knowing full well that the tion has much argument on its side and that it Is equipped with the finest layout of machinery for influencing public opinion that any administration ever has had it has at its command all of the machinery used in crop production control the thousands of persons on the federal pay roll and the millions who believe mr air roosevelt Is earnestly seeking to make this a bettor country in which to live it Is therefore no small task for the new deal opposition it if it Is to succeed even in turning the new deal strength in the house of representatives to anything near an even distribution of the seats 0 0 4 apparently new deal opposition will be concentrated as much in the congressional disnew deal tricks as against the opposition resident president himself the reasons are simple simpie first the senate Is going to re main democratic whether mr roosevelt Is reelected elected re or defeated only one third of the OG 90 senators come up for reelection election re next year and the bulk of these are from normally democratic states unless a cataclysm follows the democratic party the senate majority for the democrats will continue to be ample such Is not the case in the house of representatives where the entire membership must seek election every two years there are in the house membership probably as many as 75 democrats who can be called pure political accidents that is they were elected from districts which are normally republican during the landslide that swept mr roosevelt into office A considerable sid erable number of these naturally will be retired by the voters just as a considerable number of republicans were retired after they had held house seats in the early by virtue of election in the harding landslide consequently changes may be expected in the house new deal strength jn in concentrating cent rating the fight in congressional districts the new deal opposition is battling for position it if the new deal majority in the house can be whittled down it will then become impossible for the president to drive through his program of legislation as lie he has done in the last three sessions from the republican standpoint this would be important since it would place sir air roosevelt in much the same position that president hoover found folind himself in the last half of ills his administration when he had an adverse congress on his hands bands no political leader I 1 likes that situation when the new deal opposition jumps onto the questions of spending and taxation therefore and when it goes back to the grass roots of congressional districts it takes no stretch of the imagination to see that a real political fight lies ahead developments between now and the nominating conventions next nest june may change the general perspective while mille several of the federal courts including the supreme court of the united states are washington considering questions on rights revolving a around r 0 u n d president Roosevel ts program for development of muscle shoals in the tennessee river as 03 an electrical power project government owned a newly discovered letter written by president george washington takes on unusual interest it seems that tha t even in 1791 there was argument ment about the development of muscle shoals the letter which was addressed to the attorney general of the united states at that time call called L d attention to the efforts being made by individuals I 1 to effet effect trades frades with indians and suggested the necessity for federal laws that would afford some protection for the indians in their dealings with tho the white men it will be remembered of course that the tennessee river valley in those days daya was populated by indians but the problem that existed then exists today namely protection of the rights of the individual 0 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