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Show National Topics Interpreted JL yii by William Bruckart rOUE Washington. As I look back on events that transpired when 'res! dent Roosevelt New Deal took ollice a year "Digging In" ag0- u is striking to note the similarity sim-ilarity of action then and in the two weeks subsequent to the open I lug of his second year In ollice. The "New Deal" opened Its second year in the midst of a series of events that were comparable. In my opinion, opin-ion, with those of the historic in auguial week of 1032. And as the "New Deal" was all-embracing as regards our economic and social structure, just so were the events which I am reporting now definitely linked with the very fundamentals of our Individual and national existence. ex-istence. We became accustomed, during the dark days of the World war, to reading about this army or that "digging in" to hold the ground gained. It appears to me that the outstanding fact with relation to the opening of the New Deal's second sec-ond year is the digging in process represented by the latest developments. develop-ments. Let us examine them. First, there was President Roose volt's momentous speech in which he calmly told the country that the principles of the NRA were here to stay ; second, there was a decision by the Supreme court of the United States beyond which none can go for legal adjudication, by which the New York milk licensing law was held constitutional, and a few days later the congress gave approval to the so-called big navy bill which can be construed no other way than a reflection of solid nationalistic national-istic feeling. Mr. Roosevelt's speech, of course, stood out, but had the Supreme court ruled that the state of New York had no right to fix a mimi- ffllira Price for milk there ran ho Ration of the treaties mentioned. But the navy's strength respecting destroyers and submarines is far below the total that is allowed. Before the senate passed the bill, it included an amendment that reduces re-duces profiteering on construction Jobs, to some extent. I have a hunch that the big shipbuilding corporations corpora-tions will find a way to get around part of the provision, but obviously they will not be able to gain the profits out of the construction work that might otherwise obtain. Succinctly, Suc-cinctly, the provision requires that no contractor can gain more than 10 per cent profit for his risk and investment, but enforcement of such a rule Is not as simple as it sounds, it will be recalled that there were "cost-plus" contracts used during the World war construction, and It also Is a matter of general knowledge knowl-edge that the government paid dearly as a result. The contractors were willing to pay any kind of wages and hire any number of workers they could get, because when the costs were totaled, they simply added their 10 per cent, and collected. From some of the letters I have received from readers, I gather that they felt I was a bit jingoistic a few weeks ago when I predicted that there is war brewing and that it is likely to engulf some parts of the world before the end of this year. I was reporting at that time just what authorities in Washington knew of world conditions and signs they could read. While our own congress was authorizing au-thorizing construction of a treaty-size treaty-size navy, consider the developments develop-ments that same week abroad. They Include: the French chamber of deputies dep-uties naval committee approved a project for construction of a 20,000-ton 20,000-ton man-of-war, to be a sister ship of the gigantic Dunkerque that Is now being built. It also ordered construction of two new submarines and a destroyer. The British admiralty ad-miralty presented 1934 estimates for four more cruisers and twenty other ships, and an Increase in naval personnel of 2,000 men. In addition to these moves by the British and the French, the Italians took quick cognizance of the action of their rivals, the French. While It was not officially communicated to Washington, my understanding Is that the Italians are making plans to build a 25,000-ton battleship. This, of course, would offset the new Dunkerque that the French government gov-ernment will commission soon. Over In Japan, war plans go on apace. And Japan is making faces at Russia. For example, the Japanese Jap-anese war ministry sent a note to Russia the other day, telling the Soviets, In effect, to stay on their own side of the international border. bor-der. It seems the Soviet planes had been doing a little flying over Man-chukuo, Man-chukuo, the new state set up by Japan out of territory taken from China, and the Japanese apparently didn't want the Russians playing in their back yard. no doubt that the basis of much of the New Deal would begin to crumble. crum-ble. Had the congress turned away from the big navy idea that is, ordering or-dering construction of our navy to the limits of treaty agreement-it agreement-it would have dented that nationalistic nation-alistic policy seriously, although the New Deal schemes generally have not touched on the question of defense. de-fense. Rejection of the big navy plan necessarily would have had the effect of raising some doubt as to the President's control, and one hears about Washington the suggestion that Mr. Roosevelt will have plenty of trouble If congress gets too independent. As a part and parcel of the President's Pres-ident's enunciation in the speech, General Johnson, "We Are Not of NRA, called Going Back" uPn industry to reduce hours and raise wages further. The militant "crack down" Johnson was not as suave in his statements as was. Mr. Roosevelt and words of protest boiled right out of the meeting where he spoke. But whether the industries represented in the conference con-ference with General Johnson are Now, concerning General Johnson's John-son's demands on industry, It certainly cer-tainly can be sabl Johnson's that I1I3 theme Warning sonS. as tlley sav of the movies, was burdened with a threat. He did come down off his high horse long enough to say "we cannot succeed suc-ceed without public support." Thai was quite a condescension by the general. Yet, he had previously said to the folks, who are the personnel of the code supervision, that they were going to compel industry to cut the hours of labor and increase wages at the same time. "Of course," said General Johnson, John-son, "we cannot succeed without public support of what we are trying try-ing to do, and I want to warn non-compliers non-compliers that we are not only going to revive public sentiment for the Blue Eagle Insignia, but under specific spe-cific orders from President Roosevelt Roose-velt we are reorganizing to enforce the penal sections of the recovery act." The administrator went on to say that he had been "too gentle." He feels, apparently, that he has not cracked down sufficiently hard. So, he is going to see that more employment em-ployment Is made by compelling industry in-dustry to take on more workers, and the whole import of his attitude atti-tude appears to this observer as being be-ing one that will enforce that employment em-ployment whether the particular industry in-dustry needs the added workers, or whether it can pay them if It hire them, or whether it will bankrupf the firm if it obeys. From this position, po-sition, it appears to many with whom I have talked that General Johnson has put industry right between be-tween tlie devil and the deep blue sea, and there is little choice leTt. The general obviously was moved to go the distance he did by the definite character of Mr. Roosevelt's assertions which were that "we are not going back," and tlie recovery principles are here to stay. All of which Is strong language. It Is different language than the Amer lean nation ever has heard from Washington. by Western Newspaper Unlom willing or able to do as he declared was necessary, every one in Washington Wash-ington is convinced that Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt meant exactly what he said when he solemnly declared : "One thing Is very certain. We are not going back." Tlie President was equally unequivocal un-equivocal In his assertion that the principles of recovery, embodied in NRA, must move forward. Industry can well take notice of that, If Washington opinion may be taken as a criterion. The President holds that the NRA principles provide for. a balanced recovery and that without with-out a balance, there can be no permanent per-manent good times. So it is the proposition that Mr. Roosevelt has determined to go on, that a majority major-ity of the highest court in the land has found one of his basic ideas, although embodied in a state statute, stat-ute, to be In accordance with the Constitution, and he has a congress con-gress that is thus far under his control for enactment of the bulk of his New Deal legislation. The effect? .As far as I know, there is no person of super-intelligence now living, and that would be the only human being capable of foretelling what the results will be. The changes made under the New Deal are brand new, different than anything economists have ever seen, and time alone will reveal which of them holds the things that fit our country's normal life. The "big navy" bill Is a five-year proposition. It contemplates that the American navy "Big Navy" will be expanded Program by the construction construc-tion of sufficient ships of the various types to place the totals just inside the limitation of the London and Washington treaties by which tonnage was limited. lim-ited. So, according to naval authorities, au-thorities, our government will soon set out on construction of about 100 new destroyers and submarines, something like 1,000 airplanes and one aircraft carrier, the airplane's mother ship. We have nearly all of the heavier gunboats now that are permitted under the arms lim- |