Show Bruc karts washington digest P president re aident outlines his policies in hi annual message messa 9 e to congress gives no assurance of pros prospect P act of balanced budget necessity for armed preparedness stressed con linued spending makes some democrats see red by WILLIAM BRUCKART service national press washington D 0 washington it Is always expected that the annual message to congress from the president of the united states will outline his policies the message is presumed to reflect in a broad general formula what the chief executive regards regard sai as the major problems and what should be done about them moreover the annual message on the state of the union is a document that usually embraces some political considerations and frequently therefore constitutes utes the basis for a test of its authors leadership either from what is proposed or because of things which were omitted president Roosevel ts recent message meets each of the phases just described he outlined the general policies 1 the necessity tor for armed preparedness in protection of our oar religion our liberty and our form of government democracy 2 he disclosed that he has no intention of retreating from his new deal social policies and that to buttress them and accomplish national protection against dictatorship he proposes to keep on with his policies of spending he likewise omitted to give one bit of assurance that there is any prospect of a balanced budget or any means by which the business of the country small as well as large can look forward to less governmental messing thus there seems little reason to doubt that what mr roosevelt proposed as well as what lie he omitted saying places his current annual message in a position to provide a test of his leadership there are those among the legislators who do not want larger armed forces there are those who think an armed america will invite trouble there are those wanting business recovery here much more than wholesale reform of our national business practices and social relations and there are those who think there will be no reduction of unemployment until the government itself quits its wild orgy of spending and borrowing they want a balanced budget message most temperate roosevelt has delivered any presidents message is greeted with hurrahs by his party supporters and hisses from the minority this one was no exception these shouts of praise and denunciation respectively do not always go to the merits frequently they are more than half political and if I 1 were asked to evaluate those that I 1 have heard in the last 10 days I 1 should say that each side was about 50 per cent right in the first place mr Roosevel ts message this time was the most temperate he has ever delivered or so it impressed me there was an evidence of greater sincerity in in it than has characterized most of his messages to congress lie he spoke out boldly against dictatorships and supported our form of government with an emphasis that belongs with the office of president of the united states in the matter of armament he told why he believes it Is needed he may have gone too far he may be inviting another battle on a subject akin to the longtime long time league of nations controversy by pro proposing asing protection of democracies yet fundamentally I 1 think it must be agreed that we in the western world must be able to snarl as well 11 as to smile in the matter of social reforms there can and will be violent differences of opinion it appears that mr roosevelt had not listened very closely to the election returns of november 8 because instead of a mandate which he believed he received in 1930 1936 the last election was a distinct brake on the machinery of social reform in the matter of continued spending mr Roosevel ts message must be regarded as having its greatest weakness there was less justification in his words tor for the conclusions he reached than in any other phase of the document even a substantial number of his own partisans could not swallow his assertions that the spending of some 20 billions of borrowed money was an investment people wondering when dividends can be expected it is pretty difficult for one to accept these piling deficits and increasing totals of the national debt as belig being anything except an extremely dangerous condition when mr Roosevel ts argument about the investment Is followed by a budget message that fixes next years deficit in excess of and a probable national debt of in 1940 well a good many people are wondering when dividends can be expected three years ago mr roosevelt defended the growth of the national debt saying there was no need to fear it he held that it could go to before it became a real burden upon the nation it Is only six billions short of that total now and many members are arc getting fidgety about it it especially as I 1 mentioned earlier since no mention was made of a balanced budget this question of debt therefore can be expected to provide some divergence of opinion among th the e legislators and there will be other other bases upon which disagreement with the chief executive will rest I 1 am wondering tor for example whether senator borah of idaho and senator johnson of california will smell something of a league of nations aroma about the program of defending any and all democracies friendly interpreters of the presidents message believe his program contemplates only a strengthened support of the monroe doctrine but the other sides views envision national policy going beyond that point it may not happen but wa what bat it if the borah johnson school of thought decides to breathe fire about new alliances under the expanded defense of democracies continued spending makes some democrats see red there are prospects of opposition to his arms program confronting the president therefore among the borah johnson school of thought as well as among those representatives and senators from inland areas where there never has been much fear from attacks by other nations there will wili be ridicule of his arms program too on the basis of his indication that it will provide work that ridicule will be justified work can not start on ships for a year and a half or two years after they are authorized and supplies for the army even an expanded army will not call so many men back to factories proposals for continued spending as outlined by the president made a number of strong democrats see red again men of the type of senator byrd of virginia and bailey of north carolina and others in the senate and house they can not be recon reconciled cilea to such a program and they will have the republican minority backing them up wherever and whenever they attack continued spending of government funds the proposal to continue spending of course is linked like a tangle of yarn with the whole question of relief administration and there is no telling what may come of that row senator king utah democrat and anti new dealer already has a bill in the hopper to eliminate the entire federal relief set setup u p ile he would turn it back to the states providing only for grants of federal money when the states cant meet their obligations on top and alongside of the democrats who for one reason or another will differ with mr air roose noose belts program will be found almost a solid republican phalanx there are of them in the house now and 28 26 in the senate this is f far r from enough to control but when that number is coupled with any defections from the democratic ranks the answer spoils spells out into the words trouble for mr roosevelt use of subject of religion causes some comment from the standpoint of political considerations there were numerous published comments after the message was delivered in which members of the house and senate openly chided mr roosevelt for attempting to capitalize politically upon sentiment among the church people I 1 relate that because it I 1 illustrates lu how no political leader can be quite sure when he makes a statement whether it will be received favorably or not it Is so easy and every politician knows it to make a perfectly sincere statement only to learn two days later that it was being held up to ridicule as bunk or being torn to pieces as being unsound fundamentally those who have been razzing ratzing mr Roosevel ts use of the subject of religion recognize of course that destruction of tree free religion has been one of the keystones of dictatorship they recognize further that the actions of hitler and stalin and mussolini in this regard have been responsible as much as any other one thing in creating bitter resentment in the united states obviously then they look upon the roosevelt appeal in this legard as being good politics but they are unwilling to let him get away with it la in summary then it seems proper to cati catalogue logue mr Roosevel ts 1939 message to congress as one of his best state papers but it must be added that it stands to create greater difficulties tor for him than any other annual message he has delivered whether one agrees with all or only a part or n none 0 ne of ct its proposals it is a great imp improvement ro over the intemperate character of some of his ear earlier 1 ier efforts 0 western W rn N newspaper e union |