Evening star., 1934-06-16

as to all others.
The administration boys say pri-
vately that Messrs. Smith and Stea-
gall were, at heart, opposed to ad
ministration principles on agriculture
and banking, and that the admins
tration wanted its bills handled by
its friends.
That may be, but the result is
that no one can expect Messrs. Smith
and Steagall to do or die for the
administration.
The most disappointed Democrat
In Congress during the last Ueek
has been President Rooseuelts good
friend, Senator Wagner. He uns
not at all pleased t11len the Presi-
dent indicated that he Mould &C
cept modified Labor Board bill.
Wagner pdnted Mr.. Roosevelt to
stand by his original bill.
Wagner has been unable to make
up his mind for several days whether
he would even vote in favor of a
compromise. He undoubtedly will in
the end, but with misgivings.
It cannot be said that he is angry,
but it cannot be denied that he is
thoroughly disappointed.
An equally good friend of the Presi-
dent is Chairman Rayburn of the
House Interstate Commerce Com
mittee. He fought and bled for all
the administration bills entrusted to
him-until the oil bill came along.
Mr.. Rayburn is from East Texas
and the oil men around that area are
possibly less favorable to the oil code
than in any other section. After all,
Mr.. Rayburn is representing his dis
trict in Congress and not the Presi-
dent. So he sat down upon the oil
bill, saying that, if the President asked
him as matter of friendship to re-
port the measure, he would try to do
so, but not otherwise.
Mr.. Roosevelt heard about that and
called Mr.. Rayburn on the telephone.
Submits as Good Soldier.
There was nothing for Mr.. Ray
burn to do but TO be a good soldier.
He submitted the oil bill to his COM
mittee and voted with the President.
He was defeated, II to 5, and the oil
bill was dead.
The explanation is that the other
committee members talked with GER
tain Democratic Senators and were
told that the bill would never be
passed in the Senate. They felt that
they might as well kill it.
The upshot is the same. Mr..
Roosevelt did not have enough good
soldiers to save the bill.
The moral OF this situation is
that bread cast upon political
,Ddters returns more stUittly than
upon ordinary seas. The secret of
good politics is to haze all friends
and no enemies.
A snubbed politician neuer for
gets.
There is no need to tell how good
or bad the N. r. A. is today on its
first birthday. Gen. johnson and
Clarence Darrow will attend to that
What they will not tell is how big 1t
is. No figures have ever been given
out, but you can get them from the
right parties.
These show that N. r. A. population
has jumped to 5000. 1t has its own
post office, telegraph Office, railroad
ticket Office and publishes its own
daily newspaper. Last month Its
wage bill was over half million dol
lars. 1t has two huge floors of the
Commerce Building and overfows
into eight other Office buildings. Its
directory lists $500 extern
sions, and it has Two private wires to
New York. Every day it gets 1000
letters and mails 5000. The daily
paper is a digest Of what the coun-
try's leading newspapers are saying
about this most publicized of new
deal agencies.
Almost everything N. r. A. says
or does has to be broadcast in
black and Dtite, so it has a ntimeo-
graph plant consisting OF IS MINI
eogrdgh presses and Is n,ultigraph
presses. On an Average day, 325,-
900 sheets pass through these
presses. That comes to about three
tons OF paper Ueek just for
ntn1eogrdphing.
N. r. A. officials have held $50 pub
lie code hearings. So far, there are
l,230 codes. OF these, 461 have been
and 76e hope to be. These
are only the big national codes. The
smaller local codes run into the
Sometimes, the N. r. A. gets so
tangled up in its own intricacies that
even its corps of 125 lawyers can
not straighten thing out.
For example, to celebrate its first
the N. r. A. is taking its
whole staff on a boat trip down the
Potomac.
One of the plans for the excursion
was to have the local brewers supply
tree beer. The brewers were glad to