Evening star., 1933-10-04
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE

Authorities agree that President
Roosevelt's Legion speech at Chicago
was a particularly effective piece of
work. Political Washington, even in
opposition quarters. is ringing with ac-
claim of the straight from the shoulder
fashion in which he bearded the ex-
service lion in his den and defended
the administrators veterans policy.
F. D. r. must be laughing up his sleeve
at the timid souls who warned him to
the last against the wisdom of going to
Chicago Nothing happened that they
predicted. Instead of being booed, the
President was thunderously cheered.
His fortnight courage in justifying the
Federal economy program before the
elements which consider themselves its
chief victims called for a good deal
of political nerve. The feeling in the
Capital is that Mr.. Roosevelt thereby
enhanced his prestige with the country
at large to degree not exceeded on
any other single occasion Of the sort
since he took Office. His adroitness in
talking to the Legion as buddy placed
his speech on level which, as he must
have figured. insured it the kind Of
reception it evoked.
Disappointment regarding the Presi-
dents Chicago address is encountered
on only one score-his failure to dis
cuss monetary affairs. With economy
and national credit as its keynotes,
there was no lack of opportunity to
bring in imitation. Apparently Mr..
Roosevelt preferred to devote his brief
sojourn with the Legion exclusively to
the things in which ex-Service men are
most interested. Tonight at New YORK
the President may choose the hub OF
the Nations financial universe as the
appropriate forum in which to make
an announcement on which the entire
business world is hanging with bated
breath. The economic car" to which
F. D. R. referred at Chicago, is
stalled" mainly because of the
anxiety of business about imitation.
Until uncertainty is removed by the
one man who can do it, the recovery
engine will not really get started. The
President will have another speech
making opportunity at Saturdays un-
yelling of the Gompers statue in
Washington. If the week passes with
out an imitation statement from the
Executive oracle, it will be sign that
Mr.. Roosevelt IS waiting to take the
country into his confidence over the
radio in one of those "let's-sit- down
aQQ-ldlk-lI-OVel WlHtC 4AoAoS SAS"~
casts he's made so famous.
N. R. A. is now said to symbolic the
administrations Cuban policy, too. A
State Department wisecracker AYERS
that N. R. A. means mo Rash Action" "
X
Deets Pickett. research secretary OF
the Methodist Board of Temperance,
Prohibition and Public Morals, has 1t
figured out that repeal has been able
to muster scarcely Is per cent Of the
total vote in the States which are on
record against the eighteenth amend
ment." This is how he gets that way:
THE total population OF the first 29
States to approve repeal is 79.202 685.
OF this number 46,720,c COO are of voting
age. These 20 States show an approx
innate vote of only 11,600.000 for re-
peal and 1855 900 against"
Imitation" with a jacket strongly
reminiscent of greenbacks, Is the name
of an up-to-the-minute volume just off
the press. One of its co-authors Is
Donald B. Woodward, brilliant young
economic research consultant who has
lived in Washington since the dawn OF
Moody's Investors Service, but was re-
Gently loaned to the economic advisory
staff of N. R. A. for a special job. Mr..
Woodward, a Hoosier by origin, was
formerly financial editor Of the Busi-
ness Week. Last year he collaborated
in the production of compact little
book called "A Primer of Money" In
flation" purports to tell what everybody
wants to know about that complicated
subject. 1t is an effort, Mr.. Woodward
and his co-auther, Marc A. Rose, say,
ITO explain clearly and impartially to
the layman q subject which frequently
Is distorted by prejudice, mounting more
often than not to fanaticism, or at best
is wrapped in the fogs Of professorial
jargon." =: ,.-=-..--