Evening star., 1934-12-28
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

It's a long time since Washington
has had a better kept secret than
the contents Of President Roosevelt S
forthcoming message to Congress, now
practically completed and ready for
delivery 1t is subject to eleventh.
hour changes, but broad policies and
ohjectives for the next phase of the
New Deal have been determined and
are in shape for submission to the
country In many respects. the mes
sage will constitute the Presidents
most important pronouncement since
his inaugural address. His political
destinies are SO wrapped up with
national developments during the next
18 months that the shaping of them
becomes matter of paramount signifi-
canoe. An inkling of the general
line Mr. Roosevelt is expected to take
in his maiden address to the new
Congress was conveyed by his Christ
mas eve utterance in Washington. 1t
appealed for courage and unity in
the presence of the recovery and relief
problems the country still faces and
breathed optimism that they can and
will be surmounted That undoubt-
edly will be the keynote of the mes
sage, supplemented by detailed fore
cast of how the President proposes
to grapple with the situation that
confrontS him.
Southern Democrats, who expect
Representative Byrns of Tennessee to
be elected Speaker and some other
man from their section Cprobably
Bankhead of Alabama) to become
House majority floor leader, ridicule
| and resent the theory of resultant
Dixie domination" of Congress, with
Texas in the vice presidency and key
posts on both sides of the Capitol in
Southern possession. Southerners sug-
gest that if their people are thus hon
| ored, they owe it to their individual
merits and that geographical conSid-
elationS are entirely secondary. In
cldentally, there's a yarn in circula-
ton explaining how the PENNSYLVANIA
delegation reached the decision to
support Joe Byrns for Speaker. While
tne delegation was in caucus. it SOL
emnly and studiously surveyed a man
OF the United States. and came to the
conclusion that Tennessee is not a
Southern State.
On the hill they're still wondering
now Pennsylvania House Democrats
are TO be rewarded for turning the
Iloe OF speakerShip battle in Bvrns'
iaVor. ihey do not rate committee
chalrmanships under the seniority
rule, but various committee assign
mentS looked upon as plums are sure
to fall into their laps. The Keystoners
are said definitely to have been prom
lseo seats ON the Ways and Means
committee, among other coveted
places. ways and means member
ShlpS, because of tariff and revenue
legislation, are always eagerly sought.
x
To George N. Peek, foreign trade
adviser to the President. a merry o11in
is attributed, redolent of his private
occupation as a manufacturer of farm
implements. Somebody asked him
what ne thinks about the deluge of
New Deal planning projects. Quoth
PeeK: i think we've cut more llay al
ready than We can take in before it
rains"
X X X
Morris L. Cooke of Philadelphia,
chairman OF the Mississippi Valley
COMMITTEES of P. w. A., which has
just recommended Federal control of
transmission of the eountrys entire
electrical supply, has had an unusual
ly versatile career. He calls himself a
consulting engineer in management" /"