Show ww t D 0 s natio nal topics by WILLIAM lag NATIONAL MESS it if I 1 hit washington the ca capital pital city has returned to normalcy it is not the normalcy of janu back to ary 1935 or the normalcy years immediately preceding but the normalcy of the year in which that quadrennial spectacle an inauguration of a president takes place but normalcy is a condition that comes in cycles and it matters not how the wheel of life turns those who are resident here get used to it and of necessity they take the condition in regular stride de that sounds like washington residents are blase and they are to a greater extent than residents of most cities but paradoxical as it may seem native washingtonians Washington ians and a certain percentage of those in the political field become so excited that they lose all sense of proportion on occasions such as an inauguration augu ration ceremony ay iy the answer seems to be personal vanity a desire to be out in front and to ashow show off by having important imports nt places in parades a and nd having their names and pictures in the newspapers but there is another side of this washington normalcy it is the side of the political powers who have little concern about the district of columbia as such or what goes on therein unless those affairs strengthen the position these political powers hold among their constituencies back home hence under the dome of the great capitol building there is all the activity of a bee hive the old timers among the legislators have learned to proceed with caution and to develop their plans slowly but the newer members of the house and senate are all agog each one with his own pet idea for saving the nation each one with a vary varying ang i conviction about his own importance as a member of the national legislature and each one determined ter mined not to overlook a single opportunity to show the folks back home that their representative or their senator has become a national figure then through the corridors the halls committee rooms and offices office s there are the hurrying feet of newspaper correspondents representatives of this interest or that messengers and lowly members of the capitols vast staff of carpenters cleaners and chore workers they are of course important only as they make the capitol habitable but they are an inescapable part of the picture of washington normalcy 0 downtown washington has another picture in the executive de apartments part ments in the all Is bureaus commis activity and agencies of which scores have come into being under the roosevelt new deal there is in intense activity policy makers of these various units make plans study confer propose or reject ideas for consideration of the new congress and the administration heads these fellows are less concerned about the folks back home than are the legislators their chief concern usually is perpetuation of their jobs development of their units or agencies into places of such importance that the country cannot do without them there is a personal interest hardly less to be condemned than that of the self seeking politician on top of all of thase the governmental ern mental activities of the government 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 1600 pennsylvania avenue there radiates 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 othar 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 cit city y and in the hotels dinners receptions cocktail parties continue in ceaseless chains and if the brutal statement must be made the truth is is that nearly every one of them has a purpose above and beyond personal enjoyment but the selfish interest is quite frequently so deeply concealed that those who are being cultivated may not realize what the objective is 0 these random observations have been presented chiefly to show the gloss and the gloss and t that h a t is self imposed upon the hundreds ol of persons who combine to make up what aie we know as government they play as they have a right to play they must have diversion frequently this diversion serves useful purposes for the country as a whole because through personal contact those charged with responsibility many times gain information understanding of the problems with which they must deal in official positions and so it is that as washington returns 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 opened the first term of the roosevelt administration in my own mind I 1 doubt that the confusion of 1933 was as great as it is now because in that period of emergency the important wheel horses of government were concerned with only one thing namely quick enactment of policies that would help in bringing order out of the economic chaos in which we found ourselves the current congress gets down to work however in a diffee different atmosphere mo sphere 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 the makeup make up the consistency of that new order must be examined with the idea of fitting the various pieces into a compact and workable whole 0 0 it is in this atmosphere therefore and under the circumstances of an overwhelm time to ing landslide of take 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 analyze the prospects as far as the f future discloses them probably the most serious long iona range problem confronting the ckuj country involves the relationship of government and business for weeks I 1 have sought information and views of individuals concerning the real crux of this problem because athas it has so many different phases from au 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 seem like a broad statement to pin down the relationship of government to business to that one question of what to do with workers above forty five but I 1 verily bc believe that is the crux it will have to be treated briefly in these columns but nevertheless it seems to me that all of the grovv growing howl about social security centers on this one point it centers there because politicians and starry eyed wishers have made so much noise about the government 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 and in an effort to offset the costs of the present social security program manufacturers everywhere have been looking for methods by which they can substitute machines for human workers where that was impossible they have turned to younger workers so that the increase in protection per worker according to the best calculations is not all due to the use of machinery greater efficiency has come from the employment of people able to go at high speed throughout the working period this development has been in progress in the manufacture manufacturing ing i industries dus clust tries ries for at least 20 years but it has received its greatest impetus in the last three or four years since it became evident that the federal government was going to force upon commerce and industry protection for the older employees federal reserve board figures reveal that 16 years ago nearly 70 per cent of all gainfully employed workers were in the basic industries while 30 per cent were employed in the professions and service groups mentioned above five years ago 60 per cent were in the basic industries and 40 per cent in the professions and service industries while at the beginning of 1930 about 57 per cent were in basic industries and the professions and service groups embraced about 43 per cent from 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 this trend will halt equally what government authority can be able to say that social security laws enacted now will be applicable and workable by the time the roosevelt administration ends 0 western newspaper union |