Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1934-04-05
National Topics Interpreted

Bathereo Dy the minority. There is no
longer any doubt about it. The
minority in the government, consist
Ing, first, Of dyed-in-the-wool Repub-
hcans and, secondly, of old line Demo
Gratis who cannot quite follow all
Items OF the New Deal have begun to
pull back. For the first time since
President Roosevelt came in, there is
at least real opposition party" AS
tute students of politics and govern
ment insist it is most healthy sign
and that 1t will make for better govern
ment In the end.
There has been opposition to a great
many Of the Roosevelt policies here
tofore, but a considerable portion of
1t has been just silent mumbling and
grumbling. Most of them seemed to
be afraid of the widely-advertised
Roosevelt popularity throughout the
country. Mr.. Roosevelt is popular,
more so, perhaps, than any President
we have had in many years, but the
support so represented does not ap-
pear to run to all of his proposals. 1t
certainly does not apply in favor of
ALL of his subordinates. The "oppo-
sition" now appears to have found out
these facts and they are concentrate
Ing their attack.
! noticed the first signs of It In de-
bate in the house of representatives
and in the senate where a desire was,
and is, plainly evident to call a halt.
New Deal plans are not being swal-
lowed without mastication any more.
The most important phase Of the
trend, however, appears to be in the
tendency Of the opposition to question
continued enactment of every kind Of
legislation under the guise of emer-
gency needs. Everything up to this
time has been pushed through with
loud cry Of emergency Some of it,
If not most Of it, was emergency legis-
lation. But now everybody with
pet scheme is rushing in with it as
emergency" legislation, and it is an
overworking of that word that has
brought about concentration of the OPP
position forces, according to the con-
sensus that have been able to gather.
From what / have been able to see, it
is re-enactment of the old story Of
giving the calf too much rope; it Is
choking itself to death.
The Importance of this trend, per-
haps, is best pointed out by the fact
that there are dozens of units of the
New Deal setup that are predicated
wholly on the fact that they were pro-
posed as part Of the general pro-
gram for recovery. think none can
doubt that the depression has pre-
scented an emergency just as great as
any arising under a war. But when
any war was concluded the emergency
was over, then and there, and emer-
gency legislation was neither passed
by congress nor sustained in courts.
One might possibly conjecture bit as
to where the emergency ended in the
fight to get the economic structure
back on prosperous footing, but the
new developments certainly show
considerable number of leaders in
congress and outside who are unwill-
ing to have the emergency continue
forever.
1t might be natural to assume that
the movement to halt enactment of
emergency legislation had developed
naturally from the fact that this is
an election year for the 435 members
of the house and some 80 members of
the senate. Political analysts of long
service and able judgment assure me,
however, that this is not the whole
case. They say that existence of
campaign probably has strengthened
the backbone of some of the opposi-
ton but that the trend more properly
represents the divergence of thought
In the two schools of students Of gov
eminent. If that be true, as it ap-
pears to be, then we may expect to see
more and more assaults on the Roose-
welt position. Every time he slips
with an error of judgment or on bad
advice-and he is human and those
slips have and will come-the oppo-
sition can be counted on to make the
most of 1t.
For example, and as indicating how
the lineup is changing, attention need
only be called to the
Changing opposition that has
Lineup been encountered In
the house on new
agricultural legislation. Most of these
bills are designed to go further than
the program laid down in the agricul-
tural adjustment act, and to use COM
pulsion where the present New Deal
philosophy has been based on volun-
tary cooperation from agriculture,
itself. There are half dozen or more
pieces of legislation, the nature OF
which need not be recounted here, that
would give the federal government
added control of farmers affairs. One
of them, for instance, would give the
secretary of agriculture authority to
tell a farmer what to do with the
land taken out of production by his
agreement to limit acreage of cotton,
or wheat, or corn, or tobacco. Most
observers here construe that legisla-
ton as giving the government absolute
domination over the farmer, and / sus-
! pect that most farmers are not going