The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-02-09
THE NEW DEAL
 IN WASHINGTON
Morale at Washington at Lowest Ebb Since Advent of New Dealers - RumOrs Get Nastier Every Day as Dark Clouds Gather.
By RODNEY BUTCHER (DcmOcrat Washington COrrc-
 spOndenO

Washington, Feb. 9.---New Deal morale is nearer bottom than it ever was before.
 A foggy where-do-we-go-froin- here feeling afflicts an unpre- cedented number of high officials and senators who cant find any thing to cheer about.
 Administration liberals, optlmls- tic to the last after others suc- cunibed to pessimism, have now been completely fioored by the dis. fnissal of General Counsel Jerome Frank of AAA and a group of sub- ordinates--plus demotion .o of Con- sumers' Counsel Fred C. Howe, ap- pointed to protect consumers from profiteering under the AAA pro- gram and now being punished for trying.
 Howe, Frank, Gardner Jackson. and others tried to persuade AAA , fair prices paid to farmers and charged to consumers were better for the country and the AAA pro- gram than big profits for packers, milk corporations, and other mid dlemen."
 But food processors, who brought terrific pressure and packed AAA ranks with their friends, are now completely in accendancy after a long period during which the Da- wis group sabotaged and suppressed efforts for the consumer.
 
 More Dark Clouds
 But the sensational AAA purge Is only part of the picture. Here's the rest: -
 Congressional grumbling drowns any cheers over the work relief and social insurance bills. now drag ging slowly and with difficulty. The sole Capitol Hill achievement to date has been negative-defeat of the administration on the World Court.
 Downtown, PWA, EZRA, and NRA all worry over what happens A. F. of L., tries to recover from turned down NRA recommenda- ttons on the automobile code. Morale at the National Labor Re- lations Board is shot to pieces and you can imagine what the supreme court oil decision did to the oil administration.
 Rumors Get Nasty
 Senate munitions revelations in- volve higher and higher person. ages. Evidence of White House wire-pulling by battleship builders involving Jim Farley, Secretary Mcintyre, and the Admiral Peo- pies who Is touted as No. 1 Man in the four billion dollar work re- lief program-hasn't been re- freshing tonic to idealists.
 New Dealers whisper that Roose- welt is slipping" in prestige. A sympathetic senatorial secretary from q large state remarks that whereas 90 per cent of congress sional mail q year ago demanded support fo Roosevelt, few such let ters now are received.
 The administrators own econ- omists insist that there was no genuine improvement in 1884 and fail to see bright skies ahead. Swell Time Had by All
 Just the same, many New Deal- CTS had a swell time at the Presi- dents Ball =. I remember getting wink from bald-headed Don Richberg as his large frame pranc- ed partner through the heavy throng And was carried way back to the Wilson administration when l saw Dr. Cary Grayson and Ray Walker--two veteran social lions-parked with Mrs Roosevelt, beautiful Anna Dali Bottiger, and young Elliott Roo- sevelt and his wife, all laughing heartily as Eddie Cantor wise cracked at points of Mae West s anatomy .. . A blond girl, cran- ing her neck, exclaimed: We'll, If Anna Dalrs husband isn't here, I'm going home. That's all I came for" Ghosts out of the past: Charlie Curtis, once vice president, at a table with the once cele- brated Dolly Gam, MT Gam and others. And Miss Francis Rob bie" Robinson. in white furs and with couple of big fellows, neither of whom was General Johnson And you should have seen roly-poly Mrs Homer Cum mings as she lowered her head and butted a path through a big crowd of standees to the, dance floor!
 Copyright. 1885. NEA Service, Inc