Show 0 0 0 b 0 1 washington the capital city has returned normalcy it is not the n normalcy ormal c y of jahu back k to ary 1935 the normalcy years years immedi immediately atily preceding but the normalcy of the year in which that thai quadrennial spectacle an inauguration of a president takes place 1 but normalcy is a con edition that comes in cycles and it matters not how the wheel ot of life turns those who are resident here get used to it and of necessity they take aikle the condition in regular stride that sounds like Washing washington toh resi dents dent sare blase and they ire are to a greater extent than residents of most citie cie s it may seem native washingtonians Washington ians and a certain percentage of those in the political field boome om eso so e excited c that teat they lo sense of proportion on occasions such ai as an in cere morly the answer tei seems ernal to be personal onal vanity a desiro 10 to lo be out lafront ini ln front and to show off by having important places in parades and having their names and pictures bathe in the newspapers Z vat but there Ss Is another side of 0 this thid washington normalcy it is the side ot of the political powers who have liftee concern about the district of columbia ai as such or what goes on therein unless tho those se iff affairs airs strength tr th i ena en the position these political pow ars ernhold hold among their constituencies back home hence under the iho dome of the great capitol building there is all the activity of a bee hive the i old timers among the legislators have learned to proceed with caution and to develop their plans slowly but the newer members of of the the t house and senate are all agog each one with his own pet idea tor for saving the each one ofie with a varying con about aboul his own im portana e as it of the na le legislature vis latre and each one d de ea ednot to overlook a single opportunity to sho show the folks back home that their representative or senator has become a n national figure then i through the corridors the hall halls committee rooms and offices officio es abe ere are the hurrying f feet ot of news 1 paper correspondents represents tives ot of this interest 0 that thes messengers and lowly member s atthe capitols vast staff of caipen carpenters teri cleaners acleane r s lind and chorea chore workers 1 they are of course important only is as they make the capitol habitable but they are an inescapable part of the picture of washington normalcy f downtown washington has another picture in the executive de apartments part ments in the all Is is bureaus coromis activity and agen j cles cies of which w h i c h scores have come into being under the roosevelt new deal there is intense activity policy makers of these various units make plans study confer propose or reject ideas for consideration of the new congress and the adminis administration travion heads beads these fellows are less can concerned about the folks back home the legislators their achl chief af 4 concern usually is perpetuation of their jobs development of their units or itgen agencies cies into places place of such importance that the country cannot do 60 theirs 1 is zi a personal interest hardly less to be condemned than that of the self seeking politician on top ot of all of these the governmental ern erli mental activities of the government in en t there is still another normalcy in washington it is the social side of course all washington society springs and has its being in white house reflection from the great mansion at IWO pennsylvania ava avenue ue there radiates eairy every kind and condition of a social engagement ga outstanding among these obviously after the inauguration of a president is the chief executives dinner to his cabinet A reception to the supreme court of the united states and the other members of the judiciary follows in rapid order come receptions to the legislators to the army navy and marine corps to the foreign diplomats resident here and all of these are interspersed with smaller official dinners in the great state dining room at the white house in various sections of the city and in inthe th hotels dinners dinner sp receptions cocktail parties pd stieg continue in ceaseless chains and it if the brutal statement must be made the truth Is that ri nearly arky everyone of them has a purpose above and beyond personal enjoyment but the selfish interest is quite frequently so deeply concealed that who are being cultivated may not realize what the objective Is 1 thesie these random observations have been presented chiefly to show the gloss and the deoss gloss and that is self imposed upon I 1 tho the hundreds of persons who combine to make up what we know as government they play as they have a right to play 1 they must have alv diversion arsion frequently this diversion serves useful purposes for the country as a whale because through personal contact those charged with responsibility many times throes kain gain information understanding of t the h e problems with which they must deal in official positions and so it is that as washington returah to normalcy we have a congress the seventy fifth beginning its labors with perhaps a confusion as great as any in recent years with the exception of that which oben opened ed the first term of the ro roosevelt ose V elt administration in my own I 1 doubt that the confusion of 1933 was ais as great as it is now because in that period of emergency the important wheel horses ses of government were concerned with ohlyne only ono thing namely quick enactment of policies that would beav help in bringing brigine order out of the economic chaos in which we found ourselves the current congress gets down to work however r in a different atmosphere mosberg mo mos sphere bere agencies of the government time after time have held lately that the emergency is over that policies considered now must be considered on a permanent basis and that if there Is to be a new order th the makeup make up the consistency of atiat lat new order must be examined with ditl the idea of fitting the various pieces into a compact and workable whole it is in this atmosphere therefore and under the circumstances of an overwhelm time to ing landslide of take T he stock votes by which president roosevelt was returned to office that the administration must take stock of what has happened in the last four years and must m analyze the prospects as far a as s the future discloses them probably the most serious long range problem confronting the country involves the relationship of government and business for weeks I 1 have sought information and views i I 1 of individuals condemning con derning the real crux cruc of f this problem because it has so many different different phases from all of this research I 1 am inclined to the opinion that the fundamental question to be answered is that peril that faces the portion of our people that have passed the age of forty five it may selem seem like a broad statement to pin down the relationship of governmental business to that one question of what to io do with workers above a j ove forty five but I 1 verily believe that is the crux it will have io to be treated briefly in these columns but nevertheless it it seems to me that all bt bf the growing ln howl abo about I 1 ut s social caal security centers on this one point it centers there because politicians and starry eyed wishers have ma made so much noise about the govern government me nt looking after the aged that a natural reaction has taken place in industry and in consequence there is a growing disinclination among employers to take on workers past forty five under the whip of competition I 1 and in an effort to offset the costs of the present social security p program to manufacturers everywhere have have been looking for methods by which which they can substitute machines for human workers where that was impossible impassible they have turned to younger workers so that the increase creasa in protection per worker according to the best calculations is n all due to the use ol of machinery efficiency has come from the empl employment dment of people able t to 0 go at high speed throughout the working wording period this develop development meni has been in progress in the manufacturing industries dus tries for at least 20 years but it has las received its greatest impetus in the last three or four years since i it became evident that the fe federal deral government was going to force upon commerce and industry protection to fo the older employees federal reserve board figures reveal that 16 years a ago 0 nearly 70 per cent ot of all gainfully employed workers vor kers were in the basic industries tries while 30 per cent were employed in the professions and service ice g groups mentioned above five years ago CO per cent were in the basic industries and 40 per cent in the professions and service industries while at the beginning of about 57 per cent were in basic industries and the professions and service groups embraced about 43 per cent F from rom this it will be seen that an enormous transformation has been taking place in the type of work that people do it represents of course changes in our national life practices and traditions but who is there to say when and where Us this trend will halt equally what government authority can bs be able to say that social security laws enacted now will be applicable and workable by the time the roosevelt administration ends Q western newspaper union |