The Washington times., 1933-04-12
GILBERT sELDEs

GILBERT sEIDEs making the marriage legal Or
thew sometimes suggest the other party to the Weo"
ding was not Congress but the country, and honey
moon with the President is drawing to an end AS we
are in for marriage lasting at least four years. per-
Mr. Roosevelt is approaching crtcism--what the
English call "bad press"-and one of the reasons
is that for all his frendiness the correspondents IN
Washington he has not manipulated public OPINION.
So far he has not needed to- But he is approaching
also the serious Of his M | f 0ns bacF
the depression and to adjust foreign affairs
Among other things, he needs press-agent'
Some Things to Say
good press-agent could suggest for the President
that the Constitution Of the United States mas not Deea
force more or less willingly abandoned certain ha6lts
and powers to the executive branch doubt whether
in these days when the world has slipped from men,
ores of Stain and Mussolin to definite connection
with Hitler l doubt whether ne cares to nav nave ms
plans for recovery called socialistc if they are
A good press-agent preferably himself, could make
these things clear and set them in attractive light
Among other things, Mr.. Roosevelt, explaining him.
self might warn that this is not oneman depres-
sion and that he alone cannot pull us out of it. Ihls
will anticipate disappointment on the part OF those
who blamed only Mr. Hoover and trust exclusively IN
Mr. Roosevelt and perfectly willing to lie back ana
let him, because he was so active and able on the
fourth of March, carry for year or two. 1t would
not be inappropriate for any President to say that
hundred and twenty-five million people have to do
some of the work themselves. ...-
After Congress Goes ....
By June / (or whenever, Congress adjourns)
Mr. Roosevelt might survey what has been accom-
plished and divide his various measures into classes
In the first class would lie the emergency measures In
the second the temporary ones in the third those IN
tended for something like permanence. He had, on
arriving in power, three things to do: check the
banking panic fight against the general depression
and reform the system under which pancs and depres
sions Closing the banks fell into the trst Glass;
reopening them under control temporary measure
Of the second Glass; and ne new d banking system now
The difficulty this: that the emergency and
temporary measures ran counter to the permanent
ones sometimes being hostile to another. Like
every one ese the Administration wants higher price
level and freer spendng yet the closed banks-those
which are still closed-te up money. The economy
day men will hardly make up for these deficits II
these measures ALL it would appear that the new
remedy for deflaton is defation. My economist
friends that things do not work that way.
The Long Run
It would be encouraging to hear from the President,
In terms simple those he used to explain the re-
opening of the banks, that he has long-term plan
gency measures He can properly say that the addl-
ona burden have had to bear for these past weeks
has been necessary in order to preserve our standing
among the nations he say that any plan TOR
them Then, without making promises by dates of the
calendar he could express his purposes.
The New Republic explains Mr.. Roosevelts decisive
in action by saying that many OF the bills ne pro-
posed to Congress were ready, IN Wrltng, before ne
was inaugurated The Presidents mind also pre-
pared as you discover in certain passages Of his
book "Lookng Forward" But the average voter
not 60 behind bills and speeches to discover intentions,
not to speak of political philosophy. 1t might cheer
us up since the honeymoon is over, to hear directly
what these intentions are. After many accomplish
ments, a few promises would not frighten us.
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