Evening star., 1935-01-22
LOCAL D|CTAT|ONS
LAID TOPRES|DENT
State and City Personnel
Control Seen Object of
Administration.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

Federal influence upon the man
agement of State and city governments
is now believed to be a definite OBJ
jective of the Roosevelt administration.
The controversy which has arisen
over the fact that Secretary ICkeS. the
public works administrator, wants
Robert Moses. New York park COM
missioner. to resign one of the two
posts he holds has for several weeks
been regarded by some critics as
merely the outgrowth of a political
feud because Mr.. Moses. as the Re-
publican candidate for Governor, had
some unkind things to say about the
P. w. A. during his campaign. But
now it appears that no such motive
was really held by the administration
here and it is denied that any consid-
Grafton except the broadest possible
interest in the public welfare would
be responsible for the action taken.
Some of the newspapers have COM
mented on the fact that the order
calling upon Mayor La Guardia to see
to it that nobody holds two positions
doesn't seem to have been applied any
where but in New York. But now the
P w A. is revealed as the instru-
mentality Of the President bent upon
making city and State governments
toe the mark if they really wish to get
Federal loans.
Centralized Power Hinted.
1t might be assumed that this is an
effort to bring about Capitalization of
power, for there is no precedent for
Federal coercion or influence upon
State personnel, though, to be sure, in
the past the Federal Government has
insisted upon making the State gov
ernments accept Federal standards in
road building as a condition of the
matching of Federal and State funds
for highways.
The use Of Federal money, of course,
can be applied as pressure against
municipalities which not only pursue
policies but maintain personnel dis
tasteful to the national administra-
ton at Washington. Not until the
1ckeS- Moses f1are-up did the issue be-
come clear-cut
The implications of the Roosevelt
policy Of trying to rule the city and
State Governments by debating their
personnel are far-reaChing. Had the
present order been directed at in
efficiency or irregularity in the hand
ling of a public Office the situation
would have been long ago cleared up.
But Mr.. Moses receives no salary from
one Of his two posts and is acknowl-
edged by civic organizations to be one
of the outstanding examples of every
thing a public servant ought to be.
Principle Involved.
From the administration viewpoint.
there seems to be principle involved
however, that doesn't rest with the
character Of the personnel. 1t has not,
for instance, divulged its reason for
opposing Mr.. Moses beyond the state
ment that the order is general and
applies uniformly To make an excep-
tion anywhere would be to prove that
there was no high-minded policy back
of the incident, but political grudge.
Hence it is felt here that, in due time,
the application of the policy to other
parts of the country will be apparent.
The case of the mayor of Americas
largest city bending his knee to the
Federal Government because the ma
tional administration has issued a rule
telling him how to manage his ap-
pointments is not going to be lost on
the mayors and heads of smaller cities
or upon Governors of States seeking
Federal aid.
The billions of dollars of money be-
ing disbursed by the administration
have built up a power of control over
local government in America which
furnishes plenty of food for political
thought for the future The idea of
local autonomy and local independence
has long been one of the slogans of
the left wing and particularly of the
Democratic party from the days of its
founder, Thomas Jefferson, while the
Republicans have always favored the
Alexander Hamilton idea of a CEN
trallzed government. But then, every
thing is turnd around nowadays, any,
way.
Copyright. 1850