Evening star., 1934-03-18
Continued From First Page.)

Continued From First Page.)
Lawrence waterway treaty and in the
multitudinous amendings of the Pres
ident's airmail proposals and in the
emasculating provisions now being de-
vised for "perfecting" the Presidents
tariff control bill.
Veto Use Now Looms.
So, then, OF course, there's also
the old wood-shed. The President
Is going into 1t right now looking for
that almost forgotten hickory switch
called q veto. He Is going to take
those bad boys of the Congress to
point midway between the wood
shed and the kitchen and turn them
over his knee and teach them what's
what If, for instance, they send him
the bonus bill from the Senate as
well as from the House of Repre-
sentatives.
And there are many Of our re-
Gently arrived rulers and regulators
in Washington who claim that It
will be a great victory for the Pres
ident If the Congress passes the bill
and If it then fails to be able by
two-thirds vote to re-pass 1t over
his veto.
They are naive. That sort Of VIC
tory is a sort of victory that count
less Presidents have won in the past
throughout our whole public political
history. Even Mr.. Hoover and Mr..
Coolidge won victories of that sort.
The point in a dictatorship Is not
that you are able to stop the leg
islature. The point in Dictator
ship is that you are able to prevent
the legislature from starting.
Mr.. Roosevelt has never wanted
dictatorship. and now he will not
even have to thrust aside the prof.
fered Fascist AK or Russian sickle.
Our Legislature has started once more,
in at least a dozen emphatic ways,
and we are rapidly returning to the
old contests between legislative will
fulness and executive stubbornness.
The well Of spontaneous legislation
is again open, and the switch OF
presidential reprisal Is again brand
ished. and all OF the customary cries
and counter-cries of the dear old
familiar barnyard are again raised;
and it would seem. fellow citizens,
it would seem that we are going 10
be obliged to worry along with rep
resentative government and sel1-goV-
ernment even II it gives us mead
ache-and even II the principal pros
pective opposition issue in the next
presidential campaign is eliminated.
A. A. A. Policy Modified.
The same thought strikes the mind
IL a look is had at the A. A. A. and
N. r. A. in their present develop
mentS
The A. A. A. was opposed to the
compulsory features Of the Bankhead
cotton trade restriction bill. 1t did
not want to put a definite coercive
limit on the amount of cotton that a
cotton farmer could freely gin. That
degree of "collectivism" was too high
and hot for even the "collectives"
of the A. A. A.
But what happened? The cotton
farmers of the South, through let
ters to their Senators and Represent
atives, and through letters to the De-
partment of Agriculture and the
Agricultural Adjustment Administra-
ton, held a sort of town meeting and
! decided overwhelmingly that this
Bankhead "collectivism' was pre-
cisely the sort of "collectivism' that
they wanted. The A. A. A. wanted
only voluntary quasi-collecttvism.
The cotton farmers in their town
meeting In the red school house
wanted compulsory ultra-collectivism
for a while.
So what happened then? Why,
then, the A. A. A. turned tail and
| the most authoritative and inspired
reporters are now reporting that the
! administration is pressing for the
passage of the Bankhead bill. That
is like saying that because of your i'm
mense influence. over duck you have
persuaded it to swim. The fact Is
that the farmers themselves are be-
ginning once more to take over agri-