The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1933-07-07
At the
Pie Counter

AT the tration has begun to
Pie Counter serve the pie in big
way. But Washington
observers have noted something new
in the ie--dispensing system now be-
ing employed. The breaking OF the
dam that held up appointments while
congress was made to do the bidding
of the President, and that created such
a terrible traffic jam around the pie
counter, has shown that being Demo
crat in the government service means
little more than being a Republican
insofar as priority for reappointment
is concerned. The flood that came
after the dam broke has washed out
about as many Democrats as Repub-
licans. 1t is always to be expected
that the winning political party will
put its own men In. have heard no
complaint about that course because
it has happened so many times in our
history that it is taken for granted.
From what l have been able to see
and to hear, President Roosevelt can
not be blamed for the ruthless char
acter of the dismissals except indirect
ly. He has gone so far even as to
say that some three or four thousand
postmasters, now serving under COM
missions by President Hoover, will be
allowed to remain on their jobs until
their commissions expire. This has
caused howl among the clique that
appears to be bent on grinding its own
axes because they want those jobs,
and unless the President stands firm
they are going to get them.
The Treasury seems to be affected
less than other departments. Secre-
tary Woodin has picked most of his
people, according to well informed
individuals, but he has had to accept
one or two men to whom senators
were indebted.
The treasury secretary has run into
some difficulties, am told, because he
insists on having Investigations made
of men whose appointments are recon-
mended to him. He was reported to
have made Democratic senator very
angry because he would not name the
senator's candidate as an internal rev.
enue collector in one state without the
prerequisite of an investigation. But
the investigation was made just the
same.
The President and his advisers have
played a brilliant hand in the new
deal in their maneuvers at creating
new jobs out of old ones. Take the
farm legislation, put into the hands
of Secretary Wallace of the Depart
ment of Agriculture. 1t is made to
appear that the handling of the So
called price parity law which is the
old domestic allotment plan in a new
suit, and the other new farm aid laws
will require something like 10000 staff
workers throughout the country. The
farm loan and the home loan ma
chinery, two separate organizations,
will provide jobs running into the thou
sands. The legislation that is sup
posed to prevent blue-sky securities
from being sold to an unsuspecting
public likewise will enable the appoint
ment of many more, and last but not
least the public construction admins
tration and the industrial recovery adj
ministration are two more agencies
offering berths by the score to de-
serving supporters of the Roosevelt
ticket.
1t is fair to say that many of the
underlings, the clerks and supporting
cast in the several new agencies are
being named from lists of those who
have lost their jobs in the face of
economy which Lewis Douglas, direc-
tor of the budget, is taking so serious
ly. But as far as I have been able
to learn, there is no dearth of jobs
that can be and are being filed purely
on political basis. The hardest job
the politicians have, it appears, is in
sorting out the right applicants to
recommend among those thousands
they have been receiving while Mr..
Roosevelt kept the pie closet locked.
Without wasting any time, the adj
ministration has opened the spigot
on the tank of mil
Speeding lions to speed indus
Recovery trial recovery
through use of pub
lie money in construction. The last
congress voted total of $4,000, 100000
for public construction, it will be re-
called, and now the machinery to use
these funds has been set in motion.
1t takes time to get government ma
chinery ready even to spend money,
but the haste with which the opera
lions have been started is looked upon
here as commendable although only
public highway building and the fixing
up of army posts and national ceme-
teries are involved in the first moves.
Out of the gigantic fund, $4O0.O0O,OOo
has been set aside and allocated to the
use of the various states in the build
ing of roads and $135,000,000 has been
marked for use in reconditioning army
posts and national cemeteries. Ex-
penditure of those funds, of course,