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Show National Topics Interpreted J by William Bruckart ffpHll National Press Building Washington. D. C. yXtrDJiTljT Washington. A week or ten days ugo, the name of Frank O. Lowden was scarcely whis-Draft whis-Draft pered around Lowden" where politicians foregathered. They talked about the forthcoming Republican Re-publican National convention and they mentioned Governor Landon of Kansas ; Col. Frank Knox . of Illinois; Illi-nois; Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan; and others, but never was the name a(. iowden mentioned. men-tioned. In the short space of a fortnight, there has come first a whisper of the name of Lowden, then a mention men-tion of him as a possible Republican Repub-lican nominee and finally a full voice that approximates a "draft Lowden" movement, A few weeks ago I reported to you In these columns that the prospects pros-pects were very good for the Republican Re-publican National convention to turn to a dark horse. There was no name at that time upon which anyone could pin a prediction but there were circumstances, undercurrent under-current in character, that seemed to point the way to the nomination of a man not then In the forefront fore-front of political prognostication. Of course, with the Republican convention delegates pledged and unpledged here, there, and everywhere, every-where, It Is possible for almost anything any-thing to happen but my Information Informa-tion Is that the leaders desire most of all to avoid a bitter battle. They wish to avoid the very thing which New Deal political strategists have been , seeking to foment. Only the final ' ballot will tell the story, of course, but It does appear at this time that the Republican leadership leader-ship may display some good horse sense and seek to accomplish a nomination without splitting their party wide open. This "draft Lowden" movement has come on with almost startling suddenness, as I have Indicated above. It has resulted from the fact, apparently, that Mr. Lowden, while he was governor of Illinois a number of years ago and since that time, has built up for himself a record as a friend of agriculture. Thus, the strategy would seem to be that the Republican leadership Is turning to a man who can give President Roosevelt a run for his money In the farm belt states. As far as I know, Mr. Lowden has not been consulted respecting the nomination. It would seem, however, that if he were nominated he would accept despite the fact that he has not sought the nomination nomina-tion in any way nor has he been very active in politics since he sought the nomination for President In 1920. It was on that occasion, It will be remembered, that he and the late Gen. Leonard Wood fought through Into a convention deadlock and Warren G. Harding of Ohio was nominated as a compromise candidate. It Is difficult to see how the conservative con-servative element in the Republican Republi-can party could refuse to back Mr. Lowden and It is equally difficult to see how the farm representation and the liberals in the party could withhold their support when the Lowden farm record Is considered. But all of this represents subject matter that must await convention action because, after all, there are still other candidates who have blocks of delegates behind them and they may be unwilling to withdraw with-draw unless they are satisfied with the dark horse that finally trots out onto the convention platform. One hears more and more discussion discus-sion in Washington these days of the tax muddle in Tax which President Muddle Roosevelt has found himself. I think it is fair to say that his prestige has suffered considerably from the way his proposed tax Increase In-crease was handled and I think It Is the general consensus that this year's tax bill was a, proposition to which the President gave too Uttle thought Sometime in the future, the history his-tory of the New Deal will be written writ-ten In a clear aixi comprehensive manner. The story then will show In retrospect that which we can hardly understand now the good and the bad In the bewildering adventures ad-ventures attempted under the poll-j poll-j cies of reform and recovery. I be-j be-j lieve those who write that history ; will dwell upon the 19.0 tax legis-! legis-! latlon as one of the important po- litical weaknesses developed by j Mr. Roosevelt. ! As far as I know, there has ! never been a public official who has 1 been entirely consistent at all times In his methods and policies. Mr. Roosevelt, being human, has been Inconsistent like all of the rest and there was no reason to expect that he would be the one exception despite de-spite the f:iet tlirit some of his followers fol-lowers maintain' that he cannot make ro!s!fc'-s. r.'it to llr.k the tax legislation with the fact tbiit Mr. Itoos-velt Is human, let me call stntion to the furl!. or fact that he h::s brv-n bold, even dariv.i'. In many of his moves. Where his quick decisions have been sound, the country has been benefited. Where he has made mistakes by acting too quickly, his spokesmen have sought to deny that there were errors. Now, the point Is this: if Mr. Roosevelt had done as he has done on numerous oc-Here oc-Here s casions, he could the Point have avoided the situation that has reacted unfavorably to him. It will be recalled that several times the President has tried out his theories theo-ries on various governmental problems prob-lems and has studied the popular reaction to his trial balloons. He did not do this with the tax bill. He left the job of drafting the legislation leg-islation to the treasury and the treasury, being populated with a number of men who have no conception con-ception whatsoever of business practices and care little for American Amer-ican traditions, produced a piece of legislation that would have forever for-ever prevented . any business unit from saving funds to carry it through times of depression, the proverbial rainy day. In the discussions around Washington, Wash-ington, It is frequently stated that had Mr. Roosevelt taken his so-called so-called tax experts into a room and made them explain the character of the bill they were presenting, much of the difficulty would have been averted. But he did not use this foresight and the result is now history. He has alienated a considerable con-siderable amount of congressional support that he ordinarily could have for the mere asking. As the tax legislation stands, It Is nothing more nor less than a makeshift boost in rates. It has added nothing at all to strengthen the nation's general taxation policies. poli-cies. It seems to me that the time is ripe for a general study of the tax structure with the idea In mind that a wholesale revision should take place and that scientific methods meth-ods should be employed. We must not forget that we have a national debt of more than thirty-one billions bil-lions and that several other billions In securities are really to be counted count-ed in since those obligations are guaranteed by the United States. That debt must be paid eventually. It may be that all of the twenty-one twenty-one billions in tax payments and borrowed money which Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt has expended can be justified In every respect. It may be that In future years the nation will be grateful that this era of extravagance extrava-gance is a part of our history, but the fact still remains that when a government or an Individual borrows bor-rows money, that money must be returned to those who hold the evidence evi-dence of the debt. The civil service commission lately late-ly has compiled some statistics indicating in-dicating that the U. S. Pay merit system In Roll Grows the federal government gov-ernment is being pushed aside at an alarming rate. The commission's figures show how every President since Arthur In 18S3 has expanded the scope of the classified clas-sified civil service during his administration ad-ministration until the administration administra-tion of President Roosevelt. It would be a list much too long to record here how the number of employees of the federal government govern-ment has Increased each year as the government has expanded but as a matter of history it struck me as interesting to see how 41.5 per cent of employees of the federal fed-eral government under President McKinley held their Jobs under the civil service system and laws and how this percentage increased to 61.5 per cent under President Taft; to 72 per cent under President Wilson Wil-son ; to 79.8 per cent under Presidents Presi-dents Harding and Coolidge, and to S0.1 per cent under President Hoover. By the end of June, 1935, the number of civil service employees in the federal government amounted amount-ed to only 63.3 per cent of the total number and, while the civil service serv-ice commission has not tabulated the record for this year, I understand under-stand reliably that the ratio will be about 57 per cent of the total. The total number of employees of tiie federal government has grown consistently since the turn of the century when it stood at 256,000. In Taft's administration, the total was 370,000. President Wilson's first administration employed 438,-0X) 438,-0X) and then wllh the advent of tho World war the government expanded expand-ed its personnel to Its highest point, 017XiO. A3 the war agencies were liquidated, liqui-dated, the number of employees declined de-clined obviously until during the Harding arul Coolidge administrations administra-tions the highest point reached was 510.HOO. The Hoover ad'ninislraiion numbered 5C",00 on the pay rolls but tlie election of President Roosevelt Roose-velt Immediately brought on greater great-er numbers and by June 30, !).".5, there were 719.000 on the federal pay roll and this number w'S further fur-ther Increased to s'lO.'fHj at the end of M.irch this year. ft. Western New -:;,ar''-T Union. |
