The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-11-22
Washington
Merry-Go-
Round
BY DREW PEARSON and
ROBERT 5. ALLEN.

u
w of the last two remaining
members of the famous original
Brain Trust is now definitely on
the way out.
Professor Rexford Guy Tugwel.
Under Secretary of Agriculture and
Resettlement Administrator, expects
TO resign. He has chance to be-
come American observer at Geneva,
possibly with the rank of ambaSsa-
dor. He may Spurn this, however,
and return TO his old professional
chair at Columbia. In any event.
he is determined to get out.
And with Tugwell's passing.
passes a unique and in many ways
most tragic experiment of the New
Deal-the Brain Trust.
When the history of the Roosevelt
Administration is written, the Brain
Trust probably will be given more
credit than discredit for the achieve
ments of the New Deal. Some of
the most important Roosevelt poll
cies, some of his most important
campaign speeches. were the crea-
ton of the Brain Trust.
But it had two great and glar-
ing defectS-in personal equilibrium
under the spotlight of public office
and in practical executive ability to
carry out ideas.
NEW men in the Administration
l. are closer to the President than
Rex Tugweu. Tugwell's departure
is self ILLUMINATION. He feels that
he has become a liability rather
| than an asset. And he is right.
The tragedy - from Tugwells
VIEWPOINTS that he became a LA
bility fighting fervently for the New
Deal cause He was carrying out
orders. His chief trouble was IN
getting himself too far out in front.
! First tactical error was when he
/ authored the Pure Food and Drug
| Act. He wrote the bill at the PreSi-
! dents direct command. The
! President wanted a revolutionary
bill, and Tugwell gave it to him.
His reward was storm OF
criticism such as few officials have
ever received and still remained III
office.
Tugwell did not consider this an
error. Friends who demonstrated
that he was making himself target
got this reply:
We'll somebody's got to be the fall
guy. That's what some of us are
here for. The Skipper can't come
out and sponsor this bill publicly.
He can't afford to be defeated. But
I can"
TOR time the firing was so
Il heavy that the President sent
Rex to Europe during the 1884 con-
gresSional campaign, to get him out
of the public eye
But Rex came back Immediately
after elections with a new idea
which was to put him back in a
more dazzling spotlight than ever.
In Italy he had seen Mussolini's re-
settlement projects. In Germany he
had inspected the work colonies Of
Hitler.
The President fell for the idea.
IRON this there evolved the most
L unwieldy, idealistic, heterogene-
Gus agency ever spawned by the
New Deal.
At present Tugwell is employing
staff of 1909 to put 5O12 people
to work. They draw salaries Of
S1750000 monthly while workers on
the projects get 100000.
1t should be noted, of course that
originally Tugwell was saddled with
a staff of 1900 taken over from
other agencies. Also. much of his
work is planning for the future.
It was known in advance that many
of his projects could not get started
for one or two years.
Nevertheless, the fact remains
that Tugwell's Resettlement Admin
istration is one of the most no.
toriously inefficient in the New Deal.
Glaring example was the estab-
lishment of a model settlement at
Beltsville, Md, only a few miles
from the nations Capital. 1t was
Tugwell's pet project.
Finally, Beltsville was selected.
Maps were made, streets laid out, a
school, theater, community house
blue-printed-but all on paper The
| advance charts cost several hundred
dollars.
Then some one thought of going
down to look at the area. They had
not seen it before. Unfortunately,
they found it virgin forest So the
model village was moved three miles
farther on, and all the blue prints
had to be done over again.
/ Copyright 1895 by United Featura
Etrd.cata