Evening star., 1934-06-28
The Political Mill
By C.. Could Lincoln.

With the new dealers touring, or
about to tour, the country in an ef-
fort to sell the new deal policies to
the people generally, dispute has
broken out here in Washington as to
what the new deal administration Is
costing in dollars and cents. Repre-
sentative Buchanan of Texas, chair
man of the House Committee on APP
propriations, has come forward with
a statement asserting that appropri-
ations and direct obligations author
lied by the Congress which has
just closed totaled $13,90l ,661 ,082. .79.
Representative Bolton of Ohio. chair
man of the Republican Congressional
Campaign Committee, on the other
hand, insists that the new deal Gov
eminent and policies has cost the
country $18,781 500, ,703. Mr.. Buchanan
takes the view that the money, if it
brings about recovery, is well spent
OF course, If it does not bring about
recovery things won't look so well.
Rightly or wrongly, this matter Of
governmental expenditure is going
into the coming campaign for con-
gressional elections. If there was any
doubt about the matter. the state
mefss issued yesterday by Mr..
Buchanan on the part of the Demo-
Gratis and new dealers, and by Repre-
sentative Bolton and Representative
Smell, the Republican leader of the
House, dispell it completely. In his
compilation Mr.. Buchanan did not
include farm mortgage and home
loan and other bonds guaranteed by
the Government, postal deficits and
the exchange stabiliZation fund grow
ing out of tinkering with the gold
content of the dollar. The Repub-
licans say, however, that these are
all Government obligations and sub
ject to payment by the Government
and therefore must be considered in
the estimates of expenditures au-
thorized by the Seventy-third Con-
gress.
When the appropriations and au-
thorizations for two sessions of Con-
gress. covering two fiscal years, gen.
EARLY speaking, reach the $4,000
10000 point, the addition of another
S4 900. 600, 900, while a bit staggering,
does not signify much to the ordinary
voter. After all. if the $4,000, ,000, 900
has to come out of the American
taxpayers. either through direct taxes
or indirect taxes, processing taxes and
the like, the point is made. The
Democratic chairman of the House
Appropriations Committee insists that
Congress kept within and below the
estimates submitted by the Budget
Bureau and the President by some
millions of dollars during the last
Congress. While that may be solace
to the members of Congress, it does
not make much difference to the
taxpayers, who have to foot the bill.
whether the appropriations are ini-
tiated by the executive or the legis-
lative branch of the Government.
1t is reported that the President
has directed the officials of his ad-
ministration not TO make political
speeches; they are at liberty, however,
to extol and explain the new deal,
the various measures put through
Congress and still to be enacted into
law involved in that program. In
other words, the ban Seems to be
against partisan Democratic speeches,
and not against new deal politics. 1t
is obvious that if officials of the new
deal administration travel over the
country making speeches in support
of the administration program, and
in support Of candidates for election
to the Senate and sHouses who support
the new deal program. their speeches
must be considered political 1t makes
very little difference whether can
didate or a speaker calls himself a
new Democrat, Republican. Farm
er-Laborite or a new dealer" so far
as the effort to impress the people
with his political ideas is concerned.
1t is politics.
X
Politicians in the Presidents own
Democratic party are beginning to
wonder whether there is to be a new
deal party formed for the 1886 cam
paign. The Presidents declaration at
Yale that politics were not taken
into consideration in making appoint
mentS to high governmental Office,
and other evidences that he is trying
to keep his administration away from
partisan party politics, are regarded
in some quarters as meaning that the
next national campaign will be fought
along new lines. Whatever else he
is trying to do, it seems that the
President is aiming to make the
Democratic party the progressive
party Of the country, and to bring
within its ranks all the progreSSiveS
and independent voters in all sections,
and particularly in the West, where
so many progreSsives grow.
+
Undersecretary of Agriculture Rex
ford G. Tugwell, in the first of a Sc
ries of new deal speeches, has invaded
Iowa. He addressed the bankers of
the State at Des Moines. He talked
of a social management program in
which the Government is to be a
kind of big brother to the farmer and
the mdustrialiSt. There is to be no
rigid or fixed planning by the Gov
ernment, but the planning is to be
rather a flexible affair, able to turn
one way or another. Just why that
kind of planning is any more to be
desired by Americans who wish to
carry on their own affairs is a little
difficult to understand. But there is
no doubt that the new dealers dislike
the criticisms leveled at them on the
ground that they intend to have the
people regimented by the Govern
ment in all their affairs. Mr. Tugwell
insists that what the new dealers are
planning is a democratic affair and
not the planning of a dictator. 1t is
to be an era of cooperation instead
of an era of reaction. The people
are to cooperate in their activities
and also the Government is to CO.
operate with the people The diff
Guilty is, however, that when the Gov
eminent injects itself into the affairs
of the people, it is usually the Gov
orY1Yooof urhinh found rIInpirn m