Evening star., 1933-07-06
The Political Mill
By C. Could Lincoln.


and are being removed by the opera.
ton Of the economy act and the reduced
governmental budget. About four thou
sand Of these workers who have lost, o.
are in the process of losing, theil
livelihood are located in the District o
Columbia. There are other Thousands
outside Of the seat of the Government
The question which is now being con-
sidered by the President and the mem
bers of his cabinet is what can be don't
to place these people. who through nc
fault Of their own, have been let ou
work. In a period when the whole
drive of the Federal Government /.
designed to put men and women bach
to work, the dismissal of thousands o.
employees of the Government itself L
a sad and a terrible paradox.
Under the legislation enacted b!
Congress during the special session
there are to be many new Government
positions. There must be In order Il
permit the industrial recovery act, tht
farm relief act, the farm credits act
the home mortgage act, the Tennessee
Valley Authority act to operate. The
President and members of his cabinet
are reported to be considering giving
the Government employees recently dis.
missed first chance at many of these
new positions. Certainly that is the
course which should be followed ir
justice to men and women who have
been active and efficient in the Govern.
ment service, most of them holding
civil service status, which was intended
to assure stability Of employment.
4 **
The demands for Government jobs
have been enormous since the Demo-
cratic administration came into power
There are literally more than hun
dred thousand jobs which may be
filled by the appointment of new Office
holders the country over. Most of them
are essentially political and incumbents
know with a change of party con-
troll what they must expect. With the
regular civil rervice employe of the
Government the situation is very diff
ferent. They have worked for low pay
for years when men and women doing
similar work outside the Government
have been more fully recompensed
The "spoils system" should not apply
to their positions And 1t would be a
grave injustice now to consider politics
in putting these ousted people back to
work.
\ X y \
Never before in the memory of old
attaches about the Capitol have the
Offices of Senators and Representatives
been SO besieged by office seekers. The
Offices which are filled are those OF
Democratic members of Congress. be il
well understood This is not the day
when the Republicans are in position
to pass out jobs. Since the adjourn
ment of the special session Of Congress
the army Of Office seekers about the
Capitol has been on the increase. With
the belief that a lot-of new jobs are
to be created as well as old jobs filed
they have come here from every State
in the Union. The Senators and Rep
resentatives have been kept in Wash
ington beyond their usual time after
the close of a session of Congress look
ing after these unemployed. This is one
occasion when a Democratic Senator
really wishes that he was Republican
The Republican Senators have hied
themselves to seaShore and mountain
without the cares of Office seekers hang
ing over their heads, while the Demo
Gratis are wondering where on earth
they are going to find rest from the
pleas Of their constituents.
With the improvement in business
and farming conditions in this country
employment is growing outside the Gcv-
ernment service. From every part OF
the country have come reports that
more men and women are being put
back to work. 1t would be far better
If private industry could absorb all the
unemployed instead of having them &c
on the Government pay rolls. And it is
possible that the Government will not
have to go fully into the huge S3,300,-
0O0,0 900 public works program which has
been authorized and appropriated fol-
II industry can get on its feet again.
The recrudescence of employment and
business in this country in recent weeks
and months has been vastly aided by
the knowledge that the Government
the administration-was moving to bring
about changed conditions and to add tC
employment and the circulation OF
money through Government effort itself
While the Governments projects are
still in the formative stage and the
machinery has scarcely begun to turn
commodity prices have been on the in
crease, wages have been raised in many
factories, freight has begun to move in
larger volume. This does not mean
however, that recovery would have SO
far advanced had the Government
taken no hand in the matter. After all
hope and confidence have been ma jor
factors in bringing about the increases
in business, and those factors have fol-
lowed on the heels Of the activity Of the
administration and Congress. Even a
hard-boiled Republican will admit that
to be the fact.
President Roosevelt took the country
off the gold standard. He has been
much criticized for that. Some of his
critics would have preferred, apparently,
to have the United States wait until it
vas forced off the gold standard. The
country would have been in far worse
case had such course been pursued.
Going off gold has been a factor in the
increase in commodity prices. 1t had
matter thought that commodity prices
were far too low as compared to the
value Of the dollax. Now, at the London
Economic Conference, the American
delegation and the President have been
assailed by European critics because this
country will not agree to stabilize the
dollar in conjunction with the cur
rencies of other nations at q figure
to be agreed upon at the conference
The plain truth Of the matter Is that
the dollar must be considered in con-
nection with commodity prices in this
country before it is valued in conjunc-
ton with the currencies of other ma
tions. The President has pointed this
out clearly in his messages to the con-
ference. He Is not to be budged in this
matter by threats Of break up of the
conference.
I'VE are interested" said the Presi-
dent, Gin American commodity prices.
What Is to be the value Of the dollar
in terms of foreign currencies is not
and cannot be our immediate concern +"
X X
The foreign nations have been
through the mill of deprecated cur
rencies for some years Their pound
and franc and mark have been more
nearly adjusted to their domestic COM
modify prices. If the United States