The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1935-01-10
NEWSPAPERS OPINION
THE OUTLOOK IN WASHINGTON

1t was pretty bad last year, but it will be worse
this There never was session in which so much
legislation passed, so little of which was under
stood not only by the public but by members of
congress 1t was an unprecedentedly confused
session and the; executive bewderment was, and
! is almost as great There has never been an adj
ministration in which so many men operated poll
cies in which they do not believe. The shining
example of this is Secretary Henry Wallace, in
many ways the best of the cabinet members, who
| has publicly expressed doubt and dread of the
very policy to which the agency he directs is now
committed There are plenty of others not so
| high-minded and loyal as Mr. Wallace, little fell
lows clothed with unaceustomed responsibility
about which they are partly cynical partly frlvo-
lous, wholly selfish and petty.
The fact is the gigantic task of managing most
of these new agencies is in the hands of men with
no previous managerial experience or executive
training; men whose lives have been narrowly cir
cumscribed, hardly of whom, except Chairman
Kennedy of the security commission, has made a
success of his own private affairs. When they are
seen at close range it is easy to understand the
feeling of thoughtful men here that even II the
policies were sound, the caliber of the chosen ex-
ecutives makes the odds heavy against success
When conviction of the inherent unsoundness OF
the policies is coupled with frst-hand knowledge
of the operators, it would be superhuman not to !
be disturbed.
Now that the experiments upon which these men
have been engaged are about to be scrapped and
the New Deal "redealt,' the fog in which the
faithful live is bound to thicken and the whole
dizzv business become more blurred. Certainly it
will to public which since the New Deal doctors
gave the first full dose, has been in emotional
state practically impervious to reason. In view of
This and at the beginning of the session which
soon will become very. hectic, indeed, it seems
worth while to set down two fundamental and IN
disputabe facts, to Obscure which is the present
principal aim of the administration publicity ma
chine.
Here they are:
First, the Roosevelt policies have severally and
collectively failed to reach their detectives. Some
of them-NRA and PWA-have been, as the most
intelligent New Deal spokesman asserts, worse
than a failure" Such recovery as we have had is
in spite of, not because of, the New Deal. It's fiat
ness is not denied, though not proclaimed, and
despite the stimulation of business and a more
buoyant feeling, our national problems graver
than they were year ago.
Second faced with this situation, the last Roose-
welt remedy, ike the TO Spellu HloHeS,
increasing the debt and the deficit far beyond the
point where two years ago, he declared they stood
in the road to recovery and menaced the stability
of the government itsef. Stripped of its ideastic
truisms and catchy appeals, that is what the 1885
program is and all it is
These two statements tell the story it stands
With them strange as it seems, not a few close
to Mr. Roosevelt himself agree. Stranger still, N
accord with them are some of the leading Demo-
cratic senators who will publicly sponsor the White
House legislation One of the most distressing and
disturbing symptoms of tse times is the public &C
quiescence of our socalled statesmen in policies
they completely distrust They awed into line
by the compelling sentiment of the unthlnklng
masses to whom Mr.. Roosevelt is so enormously
/ attractive and to whose discomfort most of his
policies powerfully appeal.-Frank R. Kent i'll
Charlotte Observer.