Evening star., 1934-05-04
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE

With chuckle that speaks volumes
OF denial, President Roosevelt dis
misses suggestions that he favors lift
ing any of the existing brakes" on
business so that it can navigate dur
ing the next few months without re-
str1ctions and exclusively under its
own steam. Good-naturedly taking
press conference dig at the scribe
who wrote such a story, F. D. r.
plainly let it be inferred there's moth
ing In it. Washington politicians
make no bones about saying that busi-
ness would be relieved of its most
important brake" by early adjourn
ment of Congress. What they mean
Is that trade, industry and finance,
after the myriad of departures and
innovations that have become the law
of the land, now crave a breathing
spell, a period of adjustment and a
respite from legislative uncertainties.
Mr.. Roosevelt has not identified him.
self with such view, but after enact
ment of their major programs, Presi-
dents generally rejoice when Congress
is no longer on their hands. Probably
the present regime is no exception to
the rule in hoping that House and
Senate will make 1t snappy.
Foreign diplomats in Washington,
accustomed by their own traditions to
continuity Of foreign policy" dis
Germ in the Roosevelt-Hul adoption
of the Hoover-Stimson Far Eastern
program evidence that the United
States, too, has decided to let par
tisan politics end at the waters edge.
ENJOYS from abroad discover still fur
ther proof of non-partisan foreign
policy in former Secretary of State
Henry L. Stimsons support Of the
Roosevelt-Hull reciprocal tariff pro-
gram. Republicans in Congress, still
smarting over Col. Stimson's "deser-
ton" of the G. o. p, have forgotten
that in his Topeka speech in Janu-
ary that other stalwarts of the Hoo
yer administration, former Secretary
Of the Treasury Ogden L. Mills. pro-
tested against economic nationalism, -
Just as Col. Stimson has now done.
+* X y.
In Senate cloak rooms, so the story
goes, Senators have been communing
with one another as to what to discuss
with Mrs. Roosevelt, If by any chance
they find themselves honored with a
seat next to the First Lady at White
House dinners. The consensus seems
to be that the conversational piece de
resistance on these occasions Is sub
sistence homesteads, so when they're
hidden to the presidential table Sena-
tors nowadays bone up on the subject
which the President recently described
as his pet project" and one in which
Mrs. Roosevelt's interest Is no less
enthusiastic.
Representative Keller, Democrat, Of
Illinois Is seeking to speed House
action on an authorization of $405, 900
for the Federal Governments par
ticipation in this years second edition
of the Century of Progress Worlds
Fair at Chicago. The Senate has
already passed corresponding bill. At
the end Of March President Roosevelt
addressed letter to Congress heartily
recommending that the money be
made available. The Illinois delega-
ton is confident it will shortly be
voted.
X n n
President Roosevelt has made q dis
covery-he has power to name the
commander Of the District Of Colum.
bia National Guard. A recent White
House inquiry as to when the existing
vacancy will be filled called the Presi-
dents attention for the first time, he
said, to the fact that the job is within
his gift.
4 4 4 \
It seems probable that Tokios recent
''hands-on China" manifesto has given
setback to the project to grant the
japanese an immigration quota, in