Evening star., 1935-03-04
The Political Mill
By G. Could Lincoln.

It's tough job pleasing all the peo-
pie even q short time. It's an impos-
sible Job pleasing all the people all the
time. The launchers of the New Deal
are finding that out at the close of
their control Of things governmental
for two years. President Roosevelt
and his policies are becoming the tar
gets for more and more discontented
groups. The New Deal laws have been
attacked in the courts. Proposals Of
additional New Deal laws are under
fire in Congress. The work-relief bill,
which was pictured at first as the CEN
tral theme Of new American policy,
has been attacked on the ground that
it will, If put into effect, necessitate
year after year, billions Of dollars OF
appropriations. And particularly has
the fire Of criticism been directed at
the proposal that a security wage"
averaging $50 month, be the portion
Of the 3,500,000 unemployed who are
to be put to work on the public relief
projects. All the employed in the
country fear, with some reason, that
If the Government places this huge
army Of potential workers on this low
wage scale, the wage scale in private
industry will tumble.
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The President has resisted strongly
efforts to write into the work-relief bill
the McCarran amendment providing
that the prevailing wage" be paid the
workers on relief projects, the wage
that they would receive for similar
work in private employment, If there
was private employment for them.
The administration leaders in Con-
gress claim that eventually he will
win his point. This might be a very
expensive victory for the President in
the long run. And lot of the Demo-
Gratis on Capitol Hill fear Just that
thing. It explains, in part, the fact
that 81 Democratic Senators voted for
the McCarran amendment when it
came before the Senate 10 days ago
for disposition. 1t explains the diff
flculty that the administration has
been having to dislodge them from
their support of the prevailing wage
They are not anxious to incur the
wrath of organized labor. But beyond
that, they fear that by putting huge
army Of workers on jobs at less than
the prevailing wage the Government
will discover too late that other en-
ployers will seek to adopt a "securi-
ty wage" scale. If a lower scale is
security" for 3,500,000, why not for
more millions of workers, is a not un-
natural question which may arise in
the minds Of employers of labor.
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1t is sad commentary that when
an emergency has been met, and per-
haps passed, discomfort with the Gov
ernment which has put its shoulder
to the wheel frequently arises. The
late President Woodrow Wilson and
the Democratic party had to face such
discomfort after the signing Of the
armistice which closed the World
War. A lot of drastic things had been
done in the war days, and the toes of
many people had been trodden upon
With conditions on the upgrade in
this country-although recovery has
long way still to go-there is a diff
ferent feeling and psychology in the
country today from that which ex-
listed on March 4, 1888. The Roose-
welt administration is up against the
kind OF thing that made the last days
Of the Wilson administration particu-
larly difficult.
More and more there is a tendency
to criticize the administration because
Of the very heavy expenditures which
it has made and Is proposing. There
Is still a great demand for the spend
ing of public funds, but that demand
comes from the politicians and from
those who hope to be the beneficiaries
Of the expenditures. There are ranged
on the other side great mass of
people who are beginning to fear that
the burden of debt and taxation viii
be tremendous for years to come un-
less there is halt called The great
difficulty always Is to curtan big ex-
penditures, once they have been
launched.
President Roosevelt is expected to
send to Congress. either today or later
this week, a message dealing with the
shipping problem. After the World
War the country wished to build up
an American merchant marine, per-
manent merchant marine. 1t had
suffered from the lack of an adequate
overseas merchant feet when the war
broke out. 1t was unable at first to
find bottoms in which to ship its
products in foreign trade because 1t
had left this carrying trade to the
English, the French, the Germans
and to other nations. The country
rushed $4,000, 100000 into an effort
to build ships to carry troops and
supplies to Europe. 1t cost a tre-
mendous amount. After the war the
late President Harding did his best
to get through a ship subsidy BILL
under which American ship builders
and ship owners would benefit and
an adequate merchant fleet would be
maintained Congress turned thumbs
down on this proposal. It defeated
the bill. Finally, however. provision
was made for carrying the mails over
seas and big allowances were made
by the Government to shipping COM
panies for this service-away out of
proportion to the value of the serv-
ices performed. These allowances
were subsidies" In disguise.
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The President and others in the
administration have said frankly that
If Government assistance must be
given American shipping, it might
as well be frankly called a subsidy.
This is good sense, and every one would
then know just what 1t was all about.
II the administration should bring
forward a ship subsidy bill, it would
be interesting to see whether it has
a better fate than that backed by
President Harding. Since in these
days Government subsidies have been
extended to the farmers, through the
operation of the A. A. A., and Gov
eminent money has been put into
various enterprises, the roar against
ship subsidies may not be SO loud.
The country needs q merchant ma
rine, both in time of peace and In
time of war.
X + Il y
Representative Harold Knutson of