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Show In.,.,'.n. iMi-irnrnwiMi'iTi'' ' " " " Washington. It has been exceed- lngly interesting to watch the progress prog-ress of the Demo-Campalgn Demo-Campalgn cratic and Repub-Issaes Repub-Issaes lican campaign tommi ttees in their efforts to shape and join the issues upon which the electorate will choose the next occupant of the White House. There has been a tremendous amount of hauling and filling, each side coming forth with trial balloons in an effort to find out what it is that will attract the most interest among the voters and to determine de-termine what particular matters afford af-ford the best vehicle on which they can ride into office. From the beginning of this year, President Roosevelt has been trying to shape his issue on the basis of a single question whether the Ameri- General Cummings. The Attorney General made some public threats that he would seek to indict those who were responsible for distribution distribu-tion of this information, claiming that a federal law had been violated violat-ed Being attorney general of the United States, any statement from him got wide distribution. But the Republicans, recognizing the potentialities of this situation, issued a challenge to Mr. Cummings Cum-mings to proceed with his threat of indictments. Their publicity statement state-ment on the point was just as virulent viru-lent as that of any red-blooded American boy who says to his playmate, play-mate, "I dare you to!" Well, the rejoinder of the Republicans Repub-licans rather put Mr. Cummings on the spot. I presume probably the threat can people in dollars and cents are better off then they were when he took office. I think admittedly that if Mr. Roosevelt could force that question into the center of the stage and make it the real issue, he would have very little campaigning to do. But the trouble is Mr. Roosevelt has begn unable to accomplish his purpose and no little credit for his threat to force a joinder of issues on this point is due to the Republican Republi-can leadership. The Republican managers simply will not be led into that trap. Thus, we must look elsewhere to see what the real issues is-sues are, or are likely to be. in this campaign decision. It has nearly always been true that the issues prominent early in the campaign have proved not to be the issues at all near the end of a political battle. This year promises prom-ises to be no exception. Political leaders attempt to figure out the proposition upon which their opponents oppo-nents are most vulnerable and obviously ob-viously this figuring takes place in advance. It has to happen that way in order that methods of attack can be arranged in advance. The New Dealers thought they could smoke out the Republicans by shouting far and wide that the people peo-ple as a whole are better off than they were when Mr. Roosevelt took office. But, again, it was a case where political strategy did not and the resulting challenge suu would have amounted to nothing except that the method employed by the Republicans capitalized on that threat by accusing the attorney attor-ney general of seeking to prevent free speech and to prohibit discussion discus-sion of campaign issues. If there is one think that the American peo- 1 pie resent, it is any attempt by a governmental agency of whatever character it may be that seeks to stifle discussion. They look upon it as a sign of dictatorship. Somewhere Some-where in their veins still courses the virus that overthrew King George in the birth of this nation. President Roosevelt announced the other day that he is preparing to start reorgani-Too reorgani-Too Many zation of the fed-Agencies fed-Agencies eral administrative administra-tive agencies. He said he had arrived at the conclusion conclu-sion that such a course was necessary neces-sary because there has been overlapping over-lapping in function and jurisdiction among the many agencies created by the New Deal. It is the second time that the President has proposed pro-posed reorganization of the governmental govern-mental units and his new announcement announce-ment promises to attract as much attention as did his original announcement an-nouncement which was made when he was a candidate during the 1932 presidential campaign. .work. Even though many hundred thousands of people are better off, the fact remains that there are some twenty million persons receiving receiv-ing relief in one form or another and the further fact remains that there are somewhere between nine million and ten million workers without jobs. Consequently, Mr. Roosevelt's question whether people were better off in dollars and cents did not quite click. In the meantime, the Republicans have found what they beiieve to be a very vulnerable spot in the New Deal armor and they are shooting at it with machine-gun rapidity. This question, this spot, centers around taxation. The Republicans apparently thought at the start of the fight that Democratic waste of federal money and the vast debt that was piled up would force i. revulsion re-vulsion of feeling against New Deal policies. So they started out on that campaign horse. But they found that the question of . taxation over-shadowed the other, even though the taxation about which the Republicans are talking has been an offspring of the alleged waste of the party in power. I doubt that the taxation issue would have been as important as it . is proving to be Err in had not the New Strategy Dealers made a mistake in political politi-cal strategy. This mistake, it may be said in passing, illustrates how very minor things influence the ulti- For a long time, it has been plainly plain-ly evident to observers in Washington Washing-ton that New Deal agencies were literally falling over one another and that many of them were constantly con-stantly in conflict with others because be-cause the laws or executive orders, chiefly the executive orders, by which these agencies were created, did not clarify their jurisdiction or their function. A good deal of this trouble pb-viously pb-viously had its origin in the haste that characterized the early efforts of the Roosevelt administration to establish machinery by which problems prob-lems of the depression could be-solved be-solved or alleviated. It always happens hap-pens that when governmental agencies agen-cies are created in such haste, ridiculous ri-diculous situations result. It was the case during the World war and it has been the case during the New Deal's efforts to solve depression problems under the emergency powers pow-ers granted by congress. The truth seems to be that there is more overlapping, over-lapping, more conflict, now than there was during the World war. I have known of numerous instances in-stances where one agency, under authority given it Much by the President, Confusion nas promulgated rules and regulations regula-tions having the force of law that did not conform to rules and regulations regu-lations dealing with the same matters mat-ters but commj from another unit of government. In addition, I have seen different interpretations placed on the same statute or the same regulation by two different r.gencies. In consequence, the citizen whose business practices or personal affairs af-fairs were touched by government edict found himself prohibited from doing a particular thing on the one hand and ordered to do it on the other. Thus, it would seem that it is high time for something to be done about re-organization. It would seem equally to be high time for elimination elimina-tion of some of the extra red tape of government which has been wound about the private lives of American citizens by the New Deal. Goodness knows, there was plenty of red tape before the New Deal; it certainly is worse now than it was before. The thing that seemed to interest most of the writing fraternity in Washington, however, was not so much the alleviation of the conditions condi-tions which I have mentioned, but the political aspects of the presidential presi-dential announcement that new reorganization re-organization plans were under consideration. con-sideration. Some of these writers who are critical of the New Deal went back to the 1932 campaign records and dragged out to public view Mr. Roosevelt's promises respecting re-specting governmental complexities. complexi-ties. Wcatern Newspaper Union. mate result in politics to a greater extent perhaps than in any other activity of American national life. The mistake vhich 1 refer to was made by Attorney General Cummings. Cum-mings. The story of the circumstance chronologically is something like this: The Republicans from their headquarters in Chicago began calling call-ing attention to increased tax burdens bur-dens in connection with their exposure ex-posure of the increase of more than thirteen billion dollars in the country's coun-try's debt. They pointed out how, if the Roosevelt administration had not wasted money, preparations would not have to be made for raising rais-ing the taxes and how, if this waste had not occurred, tax Increases which we already have had would not have taken place. As a part of the demonstration of increased taxation the Republicans issued campaign literature itemizing item-izing the amount of taxes each and every one of us pays on the common com-mon every-day necessities of life. They showed how each loaf of bread, each pair of shoes, each pork-chop, among other things, bears so much tax which all of us pay in buying those necessities of life. Probably the distribution of this campaign literature by the Republicans Repub-licans would not have stirred up so much fuss in and of itself had it not been for the action of Attorney |