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Show Atonal Topics Interpreted JJ t10 by William Bruckart 0$M .,,,1 W """" Washington, D. C. ggr 'pulet Roosevelt be Wing a considerable 1 amount of trouble a. for as his plans move I'tU forward for ad- hoseveii njinistration of 000,000 work-relief fund. tS nities confronting the Pres-' Pres-' of two kinds, each likely : ' embarrassing. At this writ-, writ-, .possible to forecast what ( ff,n be but the circum- of the situation that has f 'towing some weeks seem to f.: 3t a recital of the facts. f ' .,, be remembered that dur-; dur-; ' '''long drawn out congression-v congression-v ,:, preceding passage of the ; 'VoOOO appropriation there ! ""numerous open accusations ,:!,,n, more mumblings under- ."lint the fund would be used administration to some ex-l ex-l MSt for political purposes. t:.'flWrv?r3 thought at that time . ie accusations were simply f Mutative of boiling political J was felt also that opponents president were fomenting '"'wt and defections In his ' in order to establish a record . '2ttr political campaigning. ' .', however, a different aspect .',,'s. The patronage question tlbbed up. It Is coupled with .ijljls in many states against , -. encroachment upon states' So, it Is made to appear Nr. Roosevelt Is faced with a - "alned element which Is bat- - af-'ulnst his policies not so "' because he is a New Dealer riiuse they believe federal pow-,!! pow-,!! been extended to a new : jrj and this breeds a fear of r subordination and subjuga- sttylng that he himself would direct the spending, and his promises are regarded as having saved the day. When the new set-up was announced, an-nounced, however, Mr. Ickes was found to be a part of It. It Is true that theoretically his position Is of less consequence Chan that of Relief Re-lief Administrator Hopkins arid that he is also subordinate In a way to Prank C. Walker, who was brought In as a new co-ordinating element. As the program develops Mr. Hopkins Hop-kins appears more and more to be the big shot. His Influence predominates. pre-dominates. It must be added, however, how-ever, that his policies and those enumerated by Mr. Ickes are not in accord. The divergence of views between Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Ickes was shown In Illuminating fashion the other day when these two officials held press conferences the same day. Mr. Ickes, who believes the administration ad-ministration never has made a real try at "pump priming" by use of Its public works program, argued the impossibility of conducting real public works on any substantial scale under the present Roosevelt program of spending. Mr. Hopkins, on the other hand, discoursed at length on his favorite theme, the necessity of planning projects from the standpoint of potentials In providing pro-viding employment. The Hopkins policy takes no account of the question ques-tion of permanence on the projects. It contemplates only the factors Involved In-volved In getting immediate work. Mr. Ickes takes the position that recovery re-covery cannot be gained unless public pub-lic works projects serve not only to give jobs but to Induce other lines of businesses to commence operation. opera-tion. Mr. Hopkins points to previous pre-vious experiences In the present administration with these attempts at priming the pump and causing related jobs to prosper, while Mr. Ickes inferentially, at least, holds that it is better to continue trying to prime the pump than to give up the job or use the money In the Hopkins fashion. While this little difference of opinion between the two high ranking officials may not seem important, the consensus of opinion Is that It had the effect of slowing up the work of spending the vast sums of money. Most folks believe it will take much longer than a year In which to spend the $5,000,000,000 anyway so that any additional delay puts further back the ultimate consummation of the works relief program. There Is another element of this situation deserving of consideration. considera-tion. It is Mr. Hopkins who is picking the President's representatives represent-atives in the various states where the federal government has taken over the management of relief expenditures. ex-penditures. Mr. Hopkins Is not a politician, has never had experience in that field and gives every appearance appear-ance of being wholly unconcerned about political advices. The result naturally is that Mr. Roosevelt is being "placed on the spot" in a number num-ber of Instances through Mr. Hopkins' Hop-kins' appointments. The sleepy Republicans show 6 of slate authorities. The re-i re-i nerting of the governors' con-..fe con-..fe at Biloxl, Miss., constitutes e proof, if further evidence be -d, of the uprising out In the i against encroachment on affairs by the Washington adoration. ad-oration. History records nu-; nu-; as Instances where heretofore i Washington government has .it to extend the scope of Its srln one way or another, usual-3 usual-3 minor matters. In every in-this in-this move has been met by a Iphalnnx of state officials and leaders who have promptly . if federal government back in s '(institutional place. As far as nrth discloses, however, the ml fovernors' conference Is the st Instance in which the chief Hires of states have come out 'liciily with their declarations a the federal government had 'i wo far. r oilier phase of the difficulties ! by Mr. Roosevelt links possibly possi-bly more directly Political with the politics Phase 1 t'ie situation than does that ' I have just discussed. While suites' rights question and the "lialities of a further subor- of shite authorities to the 1 ff the federal government ties 'wily with the President's ex-' ex-' -fi desire for constitutional re-"'e re-"'e second factor carries illties of important political t'ions In the ra'jks of the Dem-Sille Dem-Sille party, 1:'ln, the governors' conference "! 8 clue. State officials must !1!Id their own political organi-1 organi-1 Unless they do so they r- quickly into oblivion. During ' 'N fifteen years the office of rni'r In a good mnny states has looked upon as a stepping ''to the senate or to the Presi-' Presi-' Consequently, unless the ;,"n' who has political nmlil-; nmlil-; ' ""Ids his own lines fast his ,l,psare gone. Since the federal -rninont has so much money to In each one of the states it obvious that the governors longing eyes at the cash. 'f control the expenditure they (jan urinous power. ( ' "r('.v Willlnmg, assistant emer-T emer-T relief administrator here, let , f;,lo"t of the bag In his speech l;e Rnvernors at Biloxl. Few ' ords could have been than were used by Mr. W7il-Imparting W7il-Imparting to the governors' the Information thnt He-; He-; , All"nlstrntor Hopkins and Administrator Ickes were , ;- 10 Pick their own men in n"t all, states. Naturally, "rrmrs hegan to wonder what , ' 1 'r them. When thev dis-""'.v dis-""'.v were holding nn omp-c"".'',"lng omp-c"".'',"lng no checks which tJ" siRn, Ulcir wr(Uh knew u there are further complicate complica-te work relief spending Ofier PrKnini. It will 0. f be recalled thnt 'Cities a good mnny sen-' sen-' i'lt ntnrs and repre- !: 'm f ' not con"onI their an- N , TQm ""I was before U , ' , (l' son,e of them laid t..,hir revocable potion rie-i" rie-i" "Ml Mr. Ickes. public rvr sn"n Mratnr under the old .h ""In have nothing to do f'flcnt f"nt1, whereupon the snthed their hurts by signs of arousing. The administration administra-tion has been try-Republicana try-Republicana ing to ignore the Awaking Springfield conference con-ference of "Grass Roots" Republicans and has succeeded suc-ceeded except for Spokesman Farley, who, ns head of the Democratic national na-tional committee and postmaster general and political patronage dispenser, dis-penser, had to shoot back In his characteristic fashion. Other than his outburst, silent treatment has been the medicine prescribed respecting re-specting the Republican uprising. If Mr. Roosevelt kept his radio tuned on while the Springfield meeting of Republicans was In session, ses-sion, he must have barkened back to a similar circumstance Involving Involv-ing his predecessor, Herbert Hoover. Of course, every one knew then that Mr. Hoover was too thin-skinned politically to stand up under such machine gun fire. Few of us suspected suspect-ed thnt Mr. Roosevelt hud the same characteristic because he had been under political gun fire much more than Mr. Hoover. Notwithstanding White House silence on the Springfield Spring-field meeting, however, the word leaks out that the President hai been some irked, if not disgusted, by the attack on fundamentals of the New Deal. It will be remembered remem-bered that for the first time the Republican Re-publican opposition singled out what the opponents believe to be eighteen vulnerable spots In the New Peal program. Here In Washington observers are watching closely to discover how the President intends to offset the Republican criticism. If and when he fights back, it Is believed his general tactical plan for l!)"f will be disclosed. Republicans also are watching. There are to be more of these so-called "Grass Roots" conferences con-ferences and if by any chance the President tips his hand before these other meetings are held, insiders among the Republicans Insist they are prepared to take full advantage of the disclosures. Western Newspaper Union. |