Montgomery County sentinel., 1934-04-12
National Topics Interpreted

to Be Good Roosevelt. 1t ap-
peared when con-
gress decided to slap the President in
the face by overriding his veto of the
veterans compensation and govern
ment employees salary question, that
al last there was a definite and far
reaching breach. Many persons here
thought the President had a recalcit-
rant bunch on his hands and that
there would be plenty of trouble DUR
ing the rest of the session. Such is
not the case. however, and, although
there win be differences arising, the
remainder OF the session will show
few cases in which the wishes of the
President win be absolutely disre-
garded.
The reason for this sudden change
Is simple. An election campaign con-
fronts all of the members of the house
and 80 members of the senate. AS the
thing has been explained to me by
numerous representatives and sena-
tors. they were in political situation
where they felt they would rather slap
the President than the veterans. The
President can scold or spank them, 1t
is explained, but the veterans have
votes that are a good deal rougher
than a spanking by the Chief Executive,
from the standpoint of politics. Now
that the potential candidates can go
before the veterans of their respective
districts and point with pride or some
thing to vote to restore the compen-
sation, the campaigning members feel
they are sitting in good seat. They
are ready to be good.
1 am told that Democratic leaders
in the house and senate have had In
Vulnerable visits since the vet vote
from members of their party who
wanted to assure the administration
that they are regular again and will
stay that way. Having obtained what
they thought they had to have to in
sure their reelection, they win now
vote according to direction once more.
Then. when they start speech-making
In their home bailiwick, they will talk
President in one speech and in the
next, If it be in strongly organized
veterans area, they will shout about
their friendship for the former SOL
diers. sailors and marines. From
which it ought to be apparent that the
whole thing was just a part of the
great game of politics.
Democratic boilers could not have
overridden the President by them
selves, and that fact
Just Playing gave the Republicans
Politics an opportunity 70
play politics as well.
The Republicans In the house and SEN
ate saw a chance to embarrass the
President. They nudged the Demo-
Gratis from every angle to override the
veto and Joined with the boilers on
the vote just because it would put the
Democratic leaders on a hot spot and
would be offensive to the President.
That is the way the game of politics is
played. If one looks back over the
records during the Coolidge and
Hoover administrations, plenty of in
stances are shown where the Demo-
Gratis. then in the minority, Joined the
bolting Republicans and so-called pro-
gressives in votes that were embarrass-
ing to the President.
AS matter of fact, there still Is
some doubt in the minds of many OBJ
servers here whether Mr.. Roosevelt
had sound reason for his veto. He
charged that the bill, as passed before
the veto, would add S22S,0O0,0O0 to
the regular budget of the government.
That is true. But / cannot help re-
calling that there are two budgets,
now. One of them is the regular bud
get and the other, many time larger,
is for emergency expenditures. At
least some of those Democrats, who
broke with the President on the ques-
tion, are asking why the government
has to cut down on its regular budget
while it expands and throws money
away like water" from the emergency
budget. 1t does cause one to pause
and think about it.
In other words, the thought of those
men is: why is it such a crime to
spend about one-fourth of a billion
dollars the way congressman want to
spend it when the administration is
spending some five or six billions the
way it wants to spend that tre-
mendOus sum.
Further, / cannot help recalling
that. when the economy act was passed
during the extra session last spring,
l reported to you that the curtail-
ment of expenditures for veterans and
for several other purposes under the
regular budget, was to be short-lived.
said at that time that it would be
given back in pieces. Two acts of con-
gress since have restored a total of
T5 per cent of the amount taken away
from the veterans, and the last act
of congress restored one-third of Is
per cent pay cut to the government
workers and will give them another
one-third beginning July 1.
There is trouble brewing for Presi-
dent Roosevelt In another political di-