Evening star., 1934-11-26
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

As President Roosevelt's political
CLING differences within his offlcial
circle, nobody expects the IckesMof
fett housing imbroglio to produce rift
in the New Deal lutte. When it began
to look as If the chiefs of P. w. A. and
F. H. A. were drifting toward head
on collision, the squire of Warm
Springs got busy and the troubled
waters were speedily Gained. Who
emerges from them victor or van
quished should presently become ap-
parent. But 1t is unlikely that there
after the Hull-Moley affair in the
State Department and the Sprague,
Acheson and Douglas episodes In the
Treasury. The nearest previous ap-
proach to the Ickes- Moffett run-in
was the Wauace-Peek scrap over A.
A. A. policy. That contest ended in
the transfer Of one of the belligerents
to . new sphere of activity. No such
aftermath Is foreshadowed for the
housing conflict, but the frscas was
furious while 1t was on, and some
think the last has not yet been heard
Of the duel between two Of the New
Deals most colorful and combative
characters.
Apropos the talk about American
entry into the League of Nations as
the best way Of showing our teeth to
Japan in retaliation for her scrapping
Of the Washington naval and Far
Eastern treaties, it's recalled that the
Roosevelt cabinet contains at least
three men supposedly favorable to
such a policy. They are members of
the Wilson Old Guard-Secretary of
State Cordell Hull, Attorney General
Homer Cummings and Secretary of
Commerce Dan Roper. OF the three,
probably Cummings is the most ardent
pro-Leaguer. His famous speech as
temporary chairman of the 1920 San
francisco convention, which nomi-
mated Franklin D. Roosevelt for Vice
President, is still remembered as one
Of the most powerful pleas for the
League ever heard in this country.
The opinion is hazarded in congress
sional quarters that If Mr.. Roosevelt
were to ask the new Senate. with its
interchangeable Democratic majority.
to approve Americas going to Geneva.
there would be only a corporals guard
tnat would oppose it. Borah and
Hiram johnson are probably still ir-
reconcilable, but it is doubted whether
they could mobilize any effective op-
position once F. D. r. earnestly ad-
vocated League entry.
Current plans to reorganize the Fed
eral departments and agencies prove
that there's nothing new under the
Federal sun. Away back in the
Harding administration an Ohioan
named Walter F. Brown was intrusted
with commission to tackle the same
job. 1t never got beyond the blue
print stage. When Herbert Hoover
became President it was thought
that with his genius for organization
order would speedily be brought out
OF all-pervading chaos. Machinery
set in motion by him to that end was
eventually stalled, too. Now New Deal
No. man, Donald r. Richberg, is
trying his hand where hitherto all
others have failed. Oficially, his task
Is one Of "co-ordination." A so-called
Federal Co-ordinating Service" +"
headed by q chief co-ordinator, has
existed since 1921. It was an Of
shoot of the Budget Bureau, and its
duties are the handling of all ques-
tions arising through application of the
policies of the President and Congress
to the routine business activities of the
executive branch Of the Government"
A naval officer has generally filled the
post Of chief co-ordinator.
4 + X X
Japan q out to capture South
American trade. Tha commercial