The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-03-25
Our Daily Washington Letter
 New Deal Is New Game-And Congress Likes 1t!
BY RODNEY BUTCHER

Washington, March 24.-The
 "new deap' is more than that. It's an entirely new game.
 The way you play it is merely to deal all the cards to Franklin D Roosevelt. He has changed the faces of the cards in advance and
 may play them as he likes. The most astonishing thing about this game is that those who have participated in previous games with equal rights-meanine congress-are quite content with the new rules which give them lit- tie to do except deal the cards while 120,O00,000 kibitzers lean forward and demonstrate strong majority enthusiasm.
 But the thew deal" is not a dic-
 tatorship. What happens is that congress is giving Roosevelt and his cabinet members certain wide powers over certain fields in a na- tional emergency-bankin fed eral economy and reorganization agriculture and unemployment re. lief.
 No "man on horseback" has ap- peared to seize power and hold il by force. Roosevelt and the over.
 whelmingly democratic congress were elected by an unprecedentedly
 huge majority of the American voters through an old-fashioned process of popular government. The congress which grants him these enormous powers is directljy re- sponsible to the people and has every reason to believe that it is acting in accordance with the wishes of its constituents. If it isn't carrying out their desires it's mem bers can be booted out of office next year. And meanwhile if con- gress isn't satisfied with the way Roosevelt carries out it's mandates l it can revoke them at will.
 Principle Remains Obviously, that's lot different from the regimes imposed by Benito Mussolini and various other
 European and Latin-American die. tators who depend on their armies
 to hold them in power. Congress is giving Vp many of the prerogatives
 which 1t heretofore has jealously
 reserved, but the principle of popu.
 lar, parliamentary government is
 retained and may even, be streng.
 thened in the process.
 One result may be the rehabili. tation of congress in the public
 esteem. It needed that. Partly be-
 cause of ignorance on the part o1 kibitZers and partly because of its
 inefficiency under the handicaps o1 it's unwieldiness, lack of leader.
 ship, the absence of party control
 and the customary subservience ot
 it's members to local or sectional interests, congress had become | more than ever @ target for popu-
 lar contempt.
 Speech Is Still Free Congress now presents the pic
 ture of a noble and patriotic re- anyone can quarrel with its parade
 behind the Roosevelt leadership, Against every Roosevelt emergenvy measure there is some sort of a minority, usually small. But there is no suppression of the minority
 beyond the parliamentary restric- tions which can always be exerted by a strong legislative majority Speech is still free in congress. The fact that strong men are still found protesting against strong measures -Borah and LaFollette, for in-
 stance, on Occasion--shouldn'
 worry anyone unduly.
 It is significant that the minor
 ities opposing the Roosevelt meas
 ures vary in composition from day
 to day.
 The republican contingent is not
 '*'the opposition" It has shown
 every disposition to go along flor
 the good of the country" and more
 than once has come heavily to the rescue of the democratic leaders One reason is that the republicans have had no strong program o1 their own, whereas Roosevelt has. Democrats. republic and progres.