| Show 0 national topics interpreted by willeata Will iata bruckart national press pre building washington D C WASU washington INGTON some years ago when reed snoot smoot of utah was a member of the senate smoots smoot where he enjoyed a prophecy long ia nil and meritorious service he ventured a prophecy it was this the cost of government has increased every year and it will continue to increase I 1 care not what party Is in power that result will obtain As I 1 recall senator snoots smoots statement was made about eight years ago and it was made at a time when the whom the he utah senator was one were nere in control lo in the senate ills statement came as a result of an immense amount of jibes I 1 that lot were being hurled at the republican republic an majority the democrats were hav ing a grand time kidding the bearis who were then in complete control of the government senator smoot recognized that which few in responsible positions in the government recognized or if they did recognize the fact they chose not to lo admit it nevertheless the lie senators statement Is true today as it was true when he made it II and for many years before the smoot prophecy comes to mind now inow because of the sudden acceleration of moves to cu curtail artall government expenses to reorganize the sends of new deal and emergency agencies to eliminate overlapping functions among KD these ngen agencies cles and in general to put the house of government in order two such efforts tire are underway one of them was initiated by senator narry harry F byrd virginia democrat who sue suc ceded in obtaining senate recognition of his charges that there was tremendous waste that there were useless agencies and that in addition governmental functions were being generally messed merged up because none except the old established units of government knew what hot they were doing the virginia senator obtained adoption of n resolution providing for a general survey and recommendations for the cleanup clean up it was a situation in which even the most ardent new dealers could not find an excuse for objecting to it so the senator took the lead subsequently president roosevelt reached the conclusion that something ought to he be done in the way of untangling the tangled of governmental functions so he proposed a survey under tinder his direction lie he appointed pointed Ip a committee of so s n called experts to t go over the problem thus a at the hie start nt at least it appears that the taxpayers payers are going to be favored by a break I 1 think it ought doubt to t be added however that no one has had the temerity to suggest that either the byrd survey or that engineered gine ered cred by mr Ron roosevelt rodsevelt sevelt will yield very much 0 9 0 the survey promoted by senator byrd will dig up a good many helpful facts but there Is dig up every reason to be helpful facts bileve that the virginia binl a senator will find many obstacles placed in his way and that lie and his committee will be unable to present any an comprehensive statement on their findings to the country to ID advance of the november elections the nine fame Is true concerning the surey suney directed by the seat flent only more so the cold fact bract Is that there Is no chance at all for the presidents committee to even approach the stage of making recommendations from their survey until long after the elections are held frankly cacti of these surveys Is permeated with poll ties so much so that a straightforward accounting or general description of the affairs of government will not be allowed to become public property and thereby become a campaign issue of the two senator byrds proposal has the better chance but that Is rather small adverting to the smoot prophecy it ts Is therefore of no great importance whether a thoroughgoing examination of the governmental structure that has grown up in the last three years under president Roo roosevelt Is made in advance of the elections these new peal jeal agencies have been created and A G chese I 1 ee new deal agencies like many awk af the old deal agencies are with us to stay and suck up taxpayers money looney tor for quite some time I 1 need only remind you that we still have in existence the war finance corporation and the railroad administration that were created as wartime war time agencies not to mention a dozen other similar units it Is possible In indeed deca I 1 I 1 think it Is probable that will be beu 1 u trimming of pay rolls in many of the new deal agencies immediately after election there certainly ought to be important curtailment of expenses and of the list of employees but accomplishing that Is a matter much more easily described than done so go I 1 feel sate safe to lo saying that all of this ado about a reduction la in governmental swelling ry 4 bounts to nothing more than just ado y in making the statement niem ement above that the outcry about reducing the government pay roll and intang new neus deal deai nog ling the functions in i spirits P t rue rise lust just so 80 much bally hoo I 1 think it ought to be said i at the same time that yew new deal spirito are rising there then i was a time a few ew months ago when the national trend was decidedly against mr roosevelt noo sevelt it even went so tar far as to cause many individuals to say that mr roosevelt noo sevelt would be defeated for reelection election re the picture around the first of april was quite different there Is lo in washington quite a general feeling that the roosevelt noo sevelt re elec tion chances have improved and are continuing to improve tills this condition Is quite evident to observers observe rs continuously on the job here for even in the personal manner of the president himself there Is an outward out vard appearance that lie believes the situation Is well in hand As far as I 1 can discover one reason why the new dealers feel so much better Is that events leading up to the national democratic Democrat le convention seem to be cleared of tiny any h harassing possibilities bili ties les I 1 am sure that it will III be recalled how something like the blues overcame many new deal stalwarts stal warts aft after er former gov alfred R E smith of N new e w Y york 0 r I 1 1928 democratic presidential tl a 1 candidate c n di let loose a blast at the I 1 new deal in its ills liberty herty 11 league dinner speech I 1 happened to be in a position to know that the smith speech caused cati sed all kinds of commotion nod find fear among new deal leaders they know as everyone else knows that al AP smith has it big personal following when lie he threatened to take a walk he let loose a declaration that was charged charge with dynamite and the new dealers could not calculate liow how much dynamite now however it appears quite certain that much of the danger inherent in the smith declaration has been eliminated notwithstanding the smith indictment of the president for repudiation of platform promises and his description of the roosevelt policies as a national menace there Is going to be a pitifully small number of anti new deal democrats in the philadelphia convention the number will be so small in fact that however vociferous they become their shouts will be heard no more than the wall of a child in ID a 8 storm it was to be expected as I 1 have reported to you before that the routine type of democratic politician will forget any differences he has with the new deal and be regular at convention time and during most of the campaign that type of politician be he republican or democratic cannot atford afford to bolt it he bolts he cuts oft off his own nose and most politicians do not enjoy being de nosed for that Is tantamount to being politically tie de horned so while the philadelphia convention of the democrats may have some seme seething underneath the surface it Is without It hout the realm of possibility that flint there can be any important revolt against of mr roosevelt noo sevelt likewise it Is just as farfetched far fetched to think that the platform which that convention will adopt for the campaign will not be exactly as mr roosevelt dictates dic tales it actually there Is nothing on the horizon now to indicate any changes from the way I 1 have just described it inasmuch as the new ew dealers can properly regard their situation pretty well in hand bind they G 0 P naturally can feel a in a hole bit cocky over the difficulties in the republican ranks first the republicans are at a disadvantage in that their convention in cleveland Is to be held at or an earlier date than the democrats meet this however Is more real than apparent it Is thus because of the intra party battles that appear certain to come to the surface at cle cleveland e the republicans are not together not unified on anything A halt half dozen candidates with appreciable followings are snapping at each other and two or three factions are announcing almost simultaneously what the platform Is going to say it just cannot help leading into a beautiful mess at cleveland unless the republican leaders show more intelligence than they have hare shown thus far in the meantime the democrats are making note of the various battle charges you can be sure they will use them whoever the republicans nottie nominate note at cleveland necessarily faces a big lil fight but as 83 the situation now stands I 1 think the democrats will be able to make it an offensive campaign whereas ordinarily the party parly in power must give over much of its campaigning to a defense this Is true unless the republicans can get together and take the offensive themselves by criticizing and attacking on a unit united ed front or of courser course ciuch much water cai can run un der the bridge before the Novem election it Is always possible that the party tn in power can make maka elstak es can be led intha into a blind alley pu un ade der r the political guns of its opposition the democrats have made many mistakes already but the anti new deal opposition shows no indication of plans to take advantage of those mistakes so the circumstances as of this time glab every reason for the new dealers to feet feel satisfied with the campaigning up to this time tyrue a 0 newspaper union |
