The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-03-09
THE NEW DEAL
 IN f WASHINGTON
New Deal AK Whetted for McCarl TraInmell Mixes His Morale and Morals American Spurs Move for Great New Highway.
By RODNEY BUTCHER Democrat Washington
 COrresDOndent)

W AU AINh AA0 a0 . ministration has been trying to get up enough nerve to fire Comp troller General John R. McCarl.
 Some weeks ago. while a bar rage of anonymous propaganda was being spread against McCarl by certain angry New Dealers. word went around among insiders that the White House was all set to remove him.
 McCarls enemies are still wait ing expectantly. convinced the administration will find drastic action necessary before it starts spending the four-billion dollar relief fund it expects to get from congress.
 Defiance of McCarl rulings by Secretary of the Navy Swanson, with support from Attorney Gen. eral Cummings, is indicative of the attitude of an administration which considers McCarl an ob- structinonist.
 The New Dealers may finally decide to continue ignoring Mo- Carl instead of trying to get rid of him.
 McCarl's job is to see that ap- propriations are spent as congress intended, that executives don't ex- ceed their spending powers, and that federal employees don't get away with anything on their ex- pense accounts.
 Appointed by President Hard ing for a Is year term which ex- pires next year, he is a republi. can who in. republican years was principally famous for his prun- ing of individual expense accounts.
 In the las two years he has interfered with such New Deal plans as the $100,0O0,0O0 federal slum clearance corporation, the Virgin Islands rehabilitation scheme, the shelter belt program and others.
 New Deal lawyers, including Cummings, recently concluded that McCarl was legally remove ble and so advised the president. Secretary Ickes, Administration Hopkins and Undersecretary Tug well are said to have been de- lighted with the idea.
 Mixes His Morals"
 Senator Park Trammell of Flor ida, chairman of the naval affairs committee, was trying to defend Commandant John H. Russell of the marine corps against attempts to block confirmation of his pro- motion to major generalcy.
 We are breaking down the morals of the corps!" he ex- claimed.
 And then he wondered why so many listeners giggled. Great Highway oBomed
 Representatives of seven Latin American governments are gath .ering in South America for one of the most unusual international conferences ever sheld in this hemisphere.
 It's unique because single American citizen promoted and organized it, because the United States is no party to it, and be- cause it plans to discuss the worlds longest highway-a Pan- American roadway running from the Rio Grande to the Panama Canal.
 The idea has been kicking around in Washington for 10 years or more and last year mill lion dollars was appropriated here for surveying and planning. There are long stretches of good road along the way between the border and the Canal Zone, but they're not connected,
 One reason the agitation here never got anywhere was that Mex ico and Central American coun- tries didn't want the United States to control a road across their territories.
 Publisher Inspires Plan
 Recently Nelson Rounsevell, publisher of the Panama Ameri- can, dashed around by airplane to the. capitals of Panama, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala. Honduras and Salvador.
 He got each of those govern ments to agree to appointing a lawyer and a highway engineer as delegates to a conference in which the U. S. government would have no participation.
 The Rounsevell proposal calls for a concrete highway costing about >$1O0, 100000 and 324f miles long. The governments would form an international cor. poration, with equal ownership an dequal representation on the directorate, which would enter in' to equal contracts with each gov ernment.
 The contracts would grant g right of way and the right to builc the highway and operate it ant collect tolls on 1t for 40 years Tolls would be used for mainte nance and amortization.
 Rounsevell estimates that toll! would be a cent q mile, whic] means Americans could drive iron the Texas border to the Canal fol a toll rate of $32.46,
 Acceptance of the idea and rat, ification of an agreement among the seven republics may take some time, but Rounsevell is sure the corporation would have nc trouble raising big loan for the highway in the United States anC Europe.
 He has the unofficial suppor of the state department, but ap' parently no sympathy from the bureau of public roads.
 Copyright, 1885, NEA Service,
 Inc.) XXyATp TO EEATIIRE.