Evening star., 1934-10-08
.ThePolitical Mill
By C. Could Lincoln.

The controversy over the charge
that the New Dealers are buying the
congressional elections this Fall with
expenditures of hundreds of millions
Of dollars of public funds continues.
Chairman James A. Farley of the
Democratic National Committee replies
to Chairman Fletcher Of the Repub-
lican National Committee, an initiator
Of the charge made against the Roose-
velt administration. He tells Mr..
Fletcher that, short Of postponing the
election until after all the corn-hog,
wheat, tobacco and other farm bene-
fits are paid or of asking all the farm
erS and men and women on the relief
rolls to wait until after November 6,
the payments of these benefits must go
on. The payments, Mr.. Farley says
and quite reaSonably-are part and
parcel of the whole program of the
administration. On the other hand,
that does not make these payments
any the less effective or persuasive to
the electorate. They are likely to vote
their feelings as to whether they de-
sire to continue to receive these pay
mentS or not.
+ n
The Republican National Commit
tee today uncorked another blast at
| the expenditures of Federal funds by
the administration, a second INSTALL
ment of a campaign pamphlet en-
titled Bureaus and Bureaucrats." 1t
lists % new Federal agencies set up
ito spend money" The list runs from
the A. A. A. to the F. S. r. c., the
Agricultural Adjustment Administra-
ton to the Federal Surplus Relief
Corp. Collectively, the Republican
! pamphlet says, these agencies are
rolling up the public debt and putting
| the Government lin the red" to the
tune of $ll, 100000 a day, including
Sundays.
Aside from these estimates of ex-
penditure, the new Republican docu-
ment asserts that the "unregulated'
spending of huge sums of money
brought about the resignation Of Lewis
W. Douglas, former director of the
budget, and it charges that the Presi-
dent has failed to live up to his
budget messages, sent to Congress
when 1t met last January. In that
message the President said that up
to now there has been no co-ordinated
control over emergency expenditure"
! and that he was issuing executive
orders placing the necessary control
in the Bureau Of the Budget. To
quote from the Republican document:
That was the first serious chal-
| lenge to bureaucracy and the bureau
Gratis. If the President were sincere
in his determination to regulate
spendthrift bureaucracy. then bureau
cracy was at an end. The issue was
drawn"
But. the Republican pamphlet con-
tinued, this reform was short lived,
and "Spendthrift bureaucracy won
quickly" 1t added:
January s, three days later. quietly,
without any newspaper publicity,
President Roosevelt repudiated the
| pledge he made to the American Con-
gress and the American people in
his budget message.
"On January 6, he issued another
executive order resembling the one Of
January which was issued in full
fillment Of his budget message pledge.
in which he stated specifically that
executive order No. 654s, dated jan
ary 3, 1894, is hereby revoked and
rescinded' From that time until this,
there has been no attempt to check
the wild extravaganza Of the %
bureaus ladling out the public's
money"
Just how excited the voters as a
whole can become over expenditures
of money when they have felt COM
| paratively little of the pressure of
making good these monies out of their
own pockets is a question. In the
end the Republican attacks may be
| effective, certainly SO far as the tax
payers are concerned. In the end that
means the whole American people
for they bear the burden of taxa
| ton no matter how the law may be
written.
|
| Old H. c. 1.-The high cost of Iiv-
ing-is sticking his head up again
The cost Of food and clothing and
shelter and a hundred and one other
things has increased with the passing
weeks. But after all, that was a
necessary corrollary to the efforts
made to increase prices of commodi-
ties. If the cost Of things they buy
goes more swiftly or as swiftly as the
| increased wages of labor and the in
creased prices obtained by the farm
erS for their produce, there is likely
to be grumbling and political reaction
4 + y
The newly organized American Lib
erty League, with Jouett Shouse as
/ its president and Alfred E Smith.
John w. Davis, Irenee du Pont, James
W. Wadsworth and others on its
Board of Directors, is biding its time
1t is not making a move in the pres
ent congressional election campaign.
Why should 1t, when the way seems
creased for victories generally by the
New Dealers. When Congress meets
next January, however, the league is
likely to leap into considerable prom
inence. 1t is marshaling its strength
and its facts for an active campaign
to prevent If possible, some of the
emergency" recovery legislation of
the Roosevelt administration from
being made permanent, and to prevent
still newer plans from being written
into law, If the league believes that
they infringe upon the liberties of the
people. Decidedly, it will be interest
ing to see what happens when the
league goes into action. 1t is well
supplied with both brains and money
| X = =
Missouri Democrats are still Won
dering just what former Senator
James A. Reed is going to do in this
campaign. Mr.. Reed did not throw
himself into the senatorial primary.
He is strongly anti-New Deal, how
ever, and has been outSpoken in criti-
cism of some of the things attempted
in Washington. II he ran as an inde-
! pendent Democratic candidate for the
| Senate, could he so split the support