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Show "1 Washington. As the political campaign waxes warmer, it becomes be-comes painfully Mud Slinging evident that the Ahead fight in 1936 for the suffrage of the people is going to be very dirty. It is going to be bitter and there is no way now apparent that such a cha.acteristic can be avoided. I do not believe that either Governor Gov-ernor Landon, the Republican candidate, can-didate, or President Roosevelt, seeking re-election as a Democrat, can prevent the hurling of invectives invec-tives that are going to be very had he been alive and serving as the President's closest political advisor ad-visor as he did for a quarter of a century. There is a situation in the federal fed-eral government that threatens to be quite nasty. I Probe refer to the row G-Men that has developed devel-oped between the Department of Justice bureau of investigation (the G-men) and the Treasury's secret service corps. It is all very much under cover, quite secret, but the row has come to the surface sufficiently to result in a rfpmntinn of two lone-time mem- close to mud-slinging. Naturally the President of the Unite-! States seldom sel-dom makes a mud-slinging speech and Governor Landon personally is a mild-mannered man who believes in discussing issues- rather than individuals, in-dividuals, but the intentions or the desires of these two candidates cannot can-not control the bitterness that is, to my mind, certain to be found in this campaign in a large measure. As typical of the sort of thing to which I have referred is the recent speech of Secretary Ickes who, in a national radio broadcast, became quite ill-tempered in his attack on Governor Landon. Mr. Ickes is not known for his composure any way and when he gets heated up on any subject he is likely to be guilty of remarks that are not becoming to an official of our government or bers of the secret service. J. Edgar Hoover has been well press-agented as chief of the G-men. Joseph E. Murphy has had almost no advertising as assistant chief of the Treasury secret service in which he has served for more than a quarter of a century. Mr. Murphy Mur-phy and one of his subordinates have been reduced in rank, their record stained for life. The two departments have kept the facts well covered up. It seems that something was going on among the G-men that the Treasury secret service thought they ought to know about. They conducted their own inquiry, their own investigation into the other staff of investigators. That is as much as has been made public except Secretary Morgenthau's an- nouncement of the demotion order. I have known each of these men equally twenty years. Each is entitled en-titled to the utmost respect. But each operates along an entirely different dif-ferent line Hoover with some willingness will-ingness for publicity; Murphy with an absolute policy of never letting his name get into the papers. It is unfortunate that Joe Murphy was the goat. any otner. I have not the slightest doubt that before the campaign has proceeded much further there will be similar speeches attacking Mr. Roosevelt personally and that, while Governor Landon may not approve, there will be unworthy charges hurled at the President. Mr. Ickes skated pretty close to the line in his attack on Governor Landon by various adroit phrases which were designed to create the impression that the Republican candidate can-didate was either ignorant or dishonest. dis-honest. I do not know Governor Landon personally but I can offer this thought: No maa is going to be nominated by any politica' party in a national convention, nominated by acclamation, unless his record is pretty clear. For Mr. Ickes to say, therefore, in effect, that Governor Gov-ernor Landon had sold out to "Wall ' Street" was not the sort of cam-! cam-! paign discussion likely to produce j confidence among all the people in their government. It is compara- ... The board of governors of the Federal Reserve system took an action ac-tion recently that Action probably is quite Mystifies mystifying to the average person. They ordered -all of the banks of the country which are members of the Federal Reserve system to keep a deposit reserve with the Federal Reserve banks 15 per oent greater than ever has been required before. With the technical phases of reserve re-serve requirements and the mechanical me-chanical operation of this particular ble, in my opinion, to a charge that the President of the United States, who advertises himself continually as a friend of the common man, was guilty of increasing his own personal per-sonal fortune through presidential acts and every one knows this is not true. But to get back to the theme song of the Ickes' speech, it seems tr me that the tragedy of his radio pronouncement ties in the fact order, I think we need not be very much concerned. But with the principle prin-ciple upon which this action is taken tak-en I think every one with a bank account, however small, ought to be vitally interested. They ought to be interested for the very simple reason that this action illustrates better than any words I can write how far the centralization of control of the banking structure has gone. This action was taken under the National Banking act of 1935, a statute that has ' been frequently criticised as a "politica! bankinj act.". In the instance I have just reported, re-ported, the change in the reserve requirements probably wili have no serious reaction on us as individuals. individu-als. It probably will not h irt the banks because few banks in the country have had calls for loans in any quantity since business is at tl.roughout his discussion he was preaching class hatred. Every one knows, of course, attacks on "Wall Street" are very commo;.' in any political campaign. The demagogues dema-gogues use it every hour of every day everywhere they can find any one to listen to them. It is ridiculous, ridicu-lous, but it has happened for a good many years. So when Mr. Ickes made the charge that Governor Landon was either unwittingly or knowingly leading a "rich man's fight" against President Roosevelt he was descending to a rather low level of campaigning. I have seen indications oi a reaction re-action against the Ickes' speech in another way. John May Cause Hamilton, the Re-Showdown Re-Showdown publican national chairman, on his recent organization tour of the west- such a low level. But r'.ie point is that under this law, the Federal Reserve board of governors can alter banking conditions over night. It can issue ne v rutes and regulations regula-tions that are whol) impossible of understanding by the average individual, indi-vidual, but which are almost riotous riot-ous in their effect upon the management manage-ment of iridivid'ial banks throughout through-out the country ern states, propounded the inquiry that seeks to identify the "economic "econom-ic royalists" about which President Roosevelt spoke several weeks ago. If the Roosevelt campaigners continue con-tinue this class hatred propaganda, I rather , suspect from what Mr. Hamilton said in his speeches there will be a perfect barrage of demands de-mands to know the names of these economic royalists. It may not seem important; indeed, it seems like it probably is inconsequential, but if the Republicans let down a barrage on the President of the United States, he is likely to be put in a bad corner. To state thif proposition in another anoth-er way, may I describe it in the terms of a private business enterprise. enter-prise. If a storekeeper in a small town were subjected to regulation from Washington and the regulatory power in the federal government had such discretionary authority as the Fed jral Reserve board of governors, gov-ernors, could that storekeeper ever feel that he was managing his own businossf I think not. Then, in the case of the Federal Reserve board of governors, it must be added that the president of the board is Marri-ner Marri-ner S. Eccles who is known far and wide for his radical .dea? about Without attempting to forecast what the Republican opposition is likely to say, I can recall as an observer close to the wheels of government gov-ernment during the Roosevelt regime re-gime that Mr. Roosevelt frequently was a guest on the Astor yacht and that one of his chief advisors for many months was the multimil-ionaire, multimil-ionaire, Bernard M. Baruch. It seems also that a very rich m- n, iuenry L. Doherty, was in charg'.- of the nation-wide dance program held on the President's birthday and I Mr. Doherty, be it said, is head of one of the great utility chains. These are just samples. It may be good politics for the President to encourage these attacks without approving them, but those &l us who 1 knew the late Louis McHenry Howe, are convinced that he never would have agreed to that sort of attack, banking. It can be further said that Mr. Eccles has the ear of President Roosevelt. This has been criticised many times of course where oppo- nents of the Roosevelt banking policies poli-cies have contended that the banks can be utilized in any way the administration ad-ministration desires to use them. As an illustration of this, the federal government has been borrowing billions. bil-lions. Most banks are chock full of government securities. While I do not say it has happened, yet because be-cause I do not believe it has happened hap-pened yet, nevertheless there is a possibility .that government borrowings bor-rowings can be forced on the banks under uch conditions. That is the course of action that has ruined the currency in half a dozen European nations. Western Newspaper Union. |