Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-07-07
BLUE EAGLE DEBACLE
TESTS ROOSEVELT GRIP
':Political Window Dressing" Backfires
in Barrage at United States
Supreme Court.

Ill tue tleCtlOH next year. COnSe-
quently he was now compelled to
press for immediate enactment, which
was, and is. awkward In a confer
ence at the White House between the
President and Democratic leaders of
Congress, it was decided that this
revolutionary policy of distributing
the wealth" should be enacted within
less than five days time, with only a
few hours of debate. as rider on a
tax bill which had to be passed by
June 80 in order to keep certain taxes
in effect.
Technical Denial.
At this. again, there was uproar
The President was obliged to issue
what Mr.. Arthur Krock in the New
York Times calls a technical de-
NAL that he had asked that the dis
tribution of wealth" measure be
enacted within five days. To quote
Mr.. Krock further The incident is
unpleasant. . Once again deep
strategy has proved too clever; once
again overSubtlety has overwhelmed
us own inventors.
While the uproar about the brutal
opportuniSm'-the phrase is Mr..
Krock'S-of trying to enact the dis
tributiOn of wealth" measure in five
days-While that was raging, another
regular press conference arrived.
Mr.. Roosevelt now took the poor old
bedeviled public utilities and gave
that whipping boy another ride. For
some Is minutes he damned them,
pounded them, eXcoriated them. All
of which, of course, as was meant,
appeared in the papers next day.
The situation now, expressed in
terms of the new art of politics, was
that the criticism of the Supreme
public mind by the distribution of
wealth" message; but that, having
turned out badly on its own account
was pushed aside by the excoriaticn
of the public utilities.
But one feels like agreeing with Mr..
Krock that oversubtlety may have
defeated itself In any event. there
are two points for the sure-footed part
of the public to bear in mind: One is
the existence of this art of politics
which tries to stampede the people
first this way. then that. The other
IS that the issue between. on the one
hand, Mr.. Roosevelt and the New
Deal, and on the other hand the Su-
preme Court and the Constitution
that issue has not been abandoned by
Mr.. Roosevelt. On the contrary. a
policy is being followed of keeping it
in the. background now. but bringing
1t forward again next year. and bring
ing 1t forward in form politically ad-
vantageous to the President.
Publicity Galore!
Politics conceived as the art of max
ing impressions is not wholly new.
But it has been enormously expanded
by two devices, the radio, and the use
by the Government of publicity men.
propagandlsts-I estimate that the
Roosevelt administration has upward
of hundred of these. The art is car
ried farther in the dictator govern
ments of Europe, where the man at
the head has the advantage of auto
cratic and exclusive right to use the
radio and the press, and to prevent
opposing views from being expressed.
The art, as respects the radio. varies
with the adeptness of the head of state
in that medium. Mr.. Roosevelt has an
exceptional radio voice. has the come
hlther" quality il his voice and in his
personality.
If one were in cynical mood. one
might say that this modern art of
politics. which is the art of moving the
crowd by radio. mainly by the emo
tional quality of the words and per-
sonality. rather than by the intellect
ual content of the words-one might
say this has some similitude to that art
which in the Middle West is known as
hog calling" Successful hog calling
depends on knowledge of the hogs that
the poSSeSsor Of the voice they hear
has a full hog trough. The hog
trough is an old political term for the
source of patronage and appropria-
tions. And Mr.. Roosevelt has $4,000
100000.
Politics as the art of making an i'm
preston, sometimes an impression de-
signed to divert the public from what
is really going on. is broader than
use of the radio and of propaganda
through publicity men. 1t includes
the sort of art of adroit manipulation
of appearances. of which there was an
example early in Mr.. Roosevelt's ad-
miniStration.
Political Windows.
Mr. Roosevelt in making up his
cabinet gave the top place, Secretary
of State, to one of the half dozen most
high minded men in either party,
Cordell Hull. an oldfashioned. low
cratic principles and traditions. That
was for window dressing, for the pub
lie impressions. Back of Mr. Hull, as
UnderSecretary, was put brain
truster" and New Dealer, Prof. Ray
mond Moley. The notion was that
while Mr.. Hull in the front window
created the desired impression of con-
Servatism and tradition, the depart
ment would really be run by the New
Dealer behind his back For some
months it worked that way; it was
Prof Moley who saw the President
daily Mr.. Hull reduced to the status
of figure head. But Mr.. Hull had too
much character and intelligence.
After some six months Mr.. Hull said
to the President, in effect, "Moley or
me-"
Attempts were made to do the same
thing in the Treasury. That post was
offered to Senator Carter Glass, known
everywhere as Democrat of the old
tradition, a former member of Wood
row Wilson's cabinet, man of the
highest character, devotee of sound
finance. But Senator Glass, consider
ing the tender, determined to satisfy
himself about two points: Would the
Treasury policy be in accord with his
principles? And would he be permit
ted to choose his own subordinates?
Lacking assurance on these two points,
Senator Glass avoided the plan to