Evening star., 1934-01-17

President Roosevelt has summoned
the Washington correspondents twice In
special session since Congress con-
vened on January 8. On both occa-
sions his purpose was to analyze for
their benefit the messages he was about
to send to Capitol Hill The first was
the budget message; the other this
Congress for authority to impound Fed
eral Reserve gold and devaluate the
for the press to receive advance copies
of presidential messages. But Mr..
RooSeyelt's system of Interpreting their
centents beforehand is a brand-new
idea, and one which evokes the enthu-
siasm and gratitude of the whole Wash
ington news writing fraternity. 1t works
to the advantage of both the President
and the scribes, as we'll as to the coun-
trv. because it serves to shed light in
dark places and provide the public with
prompt and authentic background"
that would otherwise not be available.
The President answers patiently any
and all questions fired at him about the
messages and is at ineXhaustible pains
to remove any doubts or m1sunder-
standings that the correspondents bring
to his attention.
There's no indication that Mr..
Roosevelt plans any early f1reside chat
with the country over the radio, but
the wish finds widespread expression
that he would see fit soon to devote
one of his homespun broadcasts to the
technically intricate gold situation he
has just created and in words of one
syllable tell the folks in the sitting
rooms Of the land just exactly what
it's all about. What Mr.. and Mrs
Average Man yearn to know Is pre-
to persons with fixed income large
or small, from wages salary or other
sources; what the effect is going to
be on debts, savings, life insurance,
investments and. perhaps most of all,
on the cost of living. With the Presi-
dents talent for clarification no one
could make better job of telling the
plain people in plain words just what's
happened or is going to happen to
their precious dollars.
X X X \
Washington officialdom Is wondering
whether DR.. H. M. van Haersma de
With, newly-arrived Minister of the
Netherlands, will reopen discussion of
a subject periodically broached by some
of his predecessors the eleva-
| ton of Dutch American diplomatic rela-
tions to ambassadorial status. Ever
since the United States agreed with
Belgium after the war to exchange Am
bassadors instead of Ministers, the
| Netherlands has felt little peeved over
| what it regards unfair discrimination
against itself. The Netherlands is one
of the worlds great colonial empires,
with a grand total of 801, ,583 square
miles of territory and gross popula-
| ton. in Europe, the East Indies and
] Dutch Guiana. of roundly $4,000, 900.
| such a state of affairs, the Dutch con-
tend. entities them to the diplomatic
rank Uncle Sam has not hesitated to
bestow upon such countries as Belgium
! Spain, Cuba, Chile, Peru and Mexico
with vastly less size, population and
national wealth.
| There's nothing in the present day
| deposit figures of American banks to
indicate that the country is short OF
the wherewithal for Uncle Sans i'm
pending $4,000, ,000,0 borrowings. AT
| the beginning of this year there were 80
| banks with deposits of more than SluO,
OOO, 900 each, compared with a. OF tne
| of the 500, 100000 group aggregate $l5,-
$50 ,205, 900, as against $l3,408, 1000
wear ago. The ranking of the biggest
| deposit banks remains unchanged. The
Chase National of New York still heads
the list, followed in order by the Ma.
tional City and Guaranty Trust Co. OF
| New York, the Bank of America Ma
tional Trust & Savings Association OF
San Francisco, and the Continental
Illinois National Bank & Trust Co
of Chicago. Only the first three Of the
above-named banks have more thar
81 900, 900, 900 of deposits each. OF the
! 38 banks in the $1OO, ,0G0, 900 class. more
| than 13 are in New York City.
| X
BY an interesting coincidence, Wal
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