Evening star., 1934-08-05
BY OWEN L. SCOTT.

President Roosevelt and his chlef
lieutenants are drifting back to
/ Washington after the most amazing
of official vacation seasons. Tales of
! woe await them. The breaks of luck
long their way-took this period
to turn.
Into the situation that he will find,
Mr.. Roosevelt will need to inject all
of his optimism and all of his ca
pacity to Great self-aSsurance and
confidence in others. For, if the truth
be known, many of the big-wigs of
this town have developed a case of
the filters in the last few days. They
have begun to see hob-goblins, and
tories, and enemies at every turn.
This development hardly: had been
expected. The present Summer was
to be a season of quiet when the
country could get its mind off
Washington and when officials could
rest after their trying labors during
the past II months. The President
sailed away to Hawaii. Before going
he asked his principal aides to get
out of town and take it easy So
generally was the suggestion accepted
that during recent week only three
out of 10 cabinet members were at
their desks, and almost no heads Of
leading emergency organizations could
be found.
At the height of the official vaca-
tion season, the troubles broke.
Strikes took a serious turn, the drought
tightened its grip on the most vital
area of the farm country, European
affairs went from bad to worse, weak
ness appeared in the structure OF
N. r. A., relief problems increased,
and Republican attacks appeared to
be striking fire..
y X X
A whole stack of troubles have ac-
cumulated in the departments of
the Government, preparatory to
shifting them to the shoulders of the
President. He will hear of some on
the train that is bearing him back
to work. Others await the return
of department heads before they, too,
are shunted to his temporary Office
in the White House Blue Room.
Gen. johnson should be on hand
early. He has a situation that OBJ
viously needs early and intense at
tention. 1t is scarcely too much to
say that N. r. A. as at present de-
signed and functioning is not SO very
far from collapse. The theory on
which Gen. johnson built-that jobs
can be created by rigging up prices
and maintaining them by checks on
roduction-Simply has not worked.
Several shots of high-powered spend
ing by the Federal Government have
already been needed to support this
policy. After each shot the effect has
worn of in few months.
X X X
DR.. Rexford Guy Tugwell, adviser
to the President and Undersecretary
of Agriculture, now has directed a
shaft that may foreshadow the end
of the N. r. A. high price policy. In
defending the present program Of ad-
justment for agriculture, DR.. Tugwell
said this week:
I'VE felt that with industrial
America controlling its production in
order to maintain profitable prices
with absolute indifference to the fate
of the millions who depend on in
dustry for a livelihood. agricultural
America could not survive without
corresponding measures of readjust-
ment and self-control Either in
dustry must prefer abundance to
scarcity. or it will compel agriculture
to prefer scarcity to abundance"
K X
Mr.. Roosevelt is the one to decide
whether the country should continue
to seek prosperity through scarcity
and artificially maintained prices, or
whether competition should be re-
stored with a few new rules governing
hours of work and minimum rates of
pay. If the present N. r. A. code
program is to be maintained, then
officials soon will have to send to
jail businessmen who insist on offer
ing goods to the public at prices be-
low competitors. An auto dealer was
convicted this week of selling a car
at $50 under the list price. Several
coal dealers have been confronted
with prosecution because they wanted
to sell coal at a price below COM
petltorS.
Just how the public will react to
these developments is question that
concerns N. r. A. Realistic officials
in the A A A. dropped their fixing
of retail milk prices when they real
lied that they would be called on TO
| iail dealers who wanted 10 sell milk
for babies more cheaply than the
Government said they could.
Although Gen. johnson is having
his troubles. Henry Wallace. Secretary
of Agriculture, has a few Of his own
that the President viii hear about.
They grow out OF the drought. Nature
has wiped out most of the country S
surplus of farm products, but at the
same time it has revived the vocal
opponents of program of continued
| production control for agriculture.
Dr.. Tugwell came back from a long
swing around the country concerned
over the opposition 10 the A. A. A.
Farmers apparently were blaming the