Evening star., 1935-09-15
Changing Scene
By OfCen L. Scott.

going on, have too greatly altered the
New Deal scene.
The early high-powered drive has
given way to caution. Assurance is re-
placed. by an uncertainty. that caused
President Roosevelt to observe the other
day that he didn't know who would be
President in 1899. Plans that sounded
fine two years ago are in discard today.
Men whose every word was law and
whose every gesture caught the national
eye, now are back in the ranks of ordi-
nary citizenry.
Few now talk of New Deal brain
trust guiding the President. Members
of that group, which played a part in
the early days, have scattered and Mr..
Roosevelt does most of his own guiding.
Neither do officials talk much about
Co o-ordination" and the need for "co-
ordinating" the multitude of Government
activities. Co-ordinatorS, still badly
needed, have gone out with Assistant
Presidents"
But it is in the ranks of high officials,
who really run the New Deal show, that
the striking changes are to be observed.
At the White House an early day New
Dealer would find the same surrounding
personnel. The staff stays on and the
secretaries are the same. Marvin McIn-
tyre continues to hold the power to say
who and what should reach Mr.. Roose-
velt A little inquiry would disclose
instances where important administrators
with important problems had been un-
able to reach the President with those
problems because Mr.. Mcintyre didn't
think that they were caring for enough
needy former Senators.
The same dearth of disinterested and
expert advisers would be notable about
the White House.
Digging would uncover Prof. Felix
Frankfurter Of Harvard as a sort Of
part-time one-man brain trust, dividing
time between teaching law and giving
"a President shrewd advice on policy. It
also would uncover the fact that where
the basic New Deal philosophy in its
early days was to regulate bigness in
industry, the policy now Is to penalize
bigness. This shift away from original
brain trust policy is attributed to Prof.
Frankfurter.
The visitor no longer would run into
Donald Richberg or Gen. Hugh johnson
emerging from the White House. Neither
would he need to watch back doors to
see whether Prof. George F. Warren
or Prof. James Harvey Rogers-the
money specialists-were coming and
going. Dollar tinkering no longer appeals
to the President.
Only if speech were being prepared
would there be a chance Of running
across Raymond Moley in the preSi-
dental precincts. Much more likely
would be an encounter with Tom Cor
coran, youthful attorney for the r. F.
c., and at present White House
favorite.
Changes away from the White House
are as striking as in its neighborhood.
Harold Ickes, Secretary Of the Interior,
held the most jobs and among the big
gest during the early New Deal days.
He was czar Of the oil industry, admin
istrator of a $500 100000 public works
fund, housing administrator and director
of number of Government corporations.
And what of today? The Supreme
Court has taken away his oil job. Mr..
Roosevelt has been whiting down the
scope Of the p w. A Job. Low-cost
housing still is in the stage of prepara-
ton. Mr.. Ickes has offered his resigna-
tion more than once of late only to
be talked out of 1t by the President.
Odds still are better than fifty-fifty that
he will be among the first to leave the
cabinet.
Then as understudy to Mr.. Ickes is a
new light in the administration, Charles
West. Mr.. West is Undersecretary of the
Interior. He was former contact man for
Mr.. Roosevelt in Congress and did such
a good job that he is in line for big
things. The Undersecretary is doctor
of philosophy, but does not use the
title. He is a professor but not a men,
Der of the brain trust. He is intellectual,
but was practical enough in politics to
be elected to Congress. He is high
minded and something of an idealist,
but knows his way about among the
hard-headed old-timers in Congress and
outside of it.
Secretary Ickes found that his segime
tended to crack up on the rock of CEN
tralization. Realizing that. the visitor
runs across a changed man when he en-
counters Harry Hopkins, the relief ad-
ministrator and now the Works Progress
administrator. who has recently been
in open conflict with Mr.. Ickes.
Administrator Hopkins built his fame
on the basis of decentralized relief
administration. Now he is engaged in
trying to spend $4,000, 900, 900 from a
centralized Washington set-up in an
effort to create 3,500,00 jobs. Thus far
more problems than jobs have been Gre
ated. Mr. Hopkins, once debonair and
wise-cracking, is found to have become
more troubled and less sure of himself.
He Is beginning to think about Mr..
Iskes' experience with centralization Of
power and authority.
n
Any New Deal survey would be incom-
plete without glance at DR.. Rexford
Guy Tugwell, once known as the head
of the brain trust.
DR.. Tugwell is attempting to make
good in a $500, 100000 project. His ambi-
ton is to show that he can be, not
alone a thinker, but an administrator.
He is engaged in rehabilitating farmers
and in building suburban communities"
to house workers on a low-cost basis.
His definite policy Is to let results speak
for themselves. Big business has served
as his model Of organization and he has
made a deliberate effort to learn from
the mistakes Of Mr.. Ickes and Mr..
Hopkins.
The President still is a close friend
of DR.. Tugwell, but the Undersecretary
Of Agriculture no longer plays much part
in guiding central policy. The reason
is that his political judgment is far
from acute.
OF course, N. r. A., as a code-govern-