Evening star., 1935-05-23
GROUPS
HAIL VETO SPEECH
Conservatives and Silver
ties Find sMorseIs OF En-
couragement in Message.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
With silverites still determined to
press a free-coinage program, con-
gressional advocates Of conflicting
monetary schools today claimed to find
morsels of encouragement in President
RooSevelt's bonus veto message.
Conservatives warmly applauded
waht they interpreted a san outright
declaration against printing press
money" while those favoring currency
expansion, especially through the sill
yer route, contended the Chief Execu-
tive's statements held no menace to
their programs.
Studied too, and drawing a comment
from Senator La Toilette, Progressive,
of Wisconsin, was Mr.. Roosevelts re-
pudiation of the ''ill-considered" con-
tention taht spending "is the most ef-
fective means Of Fastening recovery"
La Toilette Gives Views.
La Toilette, one of those identified
with the "pump-priming" theory Of
Federal outlays, said lone Of the pri-
mary causes of this economic crisis
and one Of the principal reasons it has
been protracted is that the purchasing
power of the Nation is not sufficient to
buy the products Of farm and factory" !"
1T seems obvious to me-" he added,
that obviously the payment of the
bonus would provide additional pur-
chasing power and help lift the ability
of the people to buy to higher levels. 1"
Others read in the Presidents as
sertion that spending has not been
predicated on the mere spending of
money to hasten recovery, but on the
sounder principle" of meeting specific
emergencies, a departure from early
administration policy. But they
acknowledged Mr.. Roosevelt could seek
logically to justify future spending on
the same basis.
Free Silver Advocated.
Senator Wheeler, advocate Of free
silver coinage on a 16-to-1 basis. said
there was nothing in the message
affecting either the present Treasury
silver purchase program, or the legls-
latiOn he plans to push with renewed
yigor.
Another silverite, Senator McCar-
ran. Democrat, of Nevada, considered
that the program Of his group was
not involved because, he said. No in
flation and no printing press money
is proposed" He added:
There can be no imitation. when
gold or silver is used as the back
ing of new currency. Nature limits
the new currency to the amount of
gold and silver already in existence
or produced by the mines"
Senator Borah, Republican Of
Idaho. whose interest in currency eX-
pansion has avowedly been greater
than his interest in paying the bonus,
agreed. He left no doubt that he
and his colleagues would resume their
efforts for an increase of money in
circulation at the first opportunity.
Conservatives Speak.
From what usually is considered the
conservative side of the economic
fence, Senators Vandenberg, Repub-
lican, of Michigan; Hastings, Repub-
lican, of Delaware; Austin, Repub-
lican, of Vermont, and others of
similar thought hailed the message as
sound" although they could not
agree in every particular. Vanden-
bergs comment was typical:
There are minor thngs to which
I dissent" he said but in the main
/ think it was an able. invincible and
unanswerable argument. ! particularly
welcome what l hope is a permanent
rejection of all hospitality to the idea
of printing press money"
These statements were predicated
on brief passages in the message in
which Mr.. Roosevelt sought to refute
arguments Of proponents of the bill
that paying off the bonus in newly
issued Treasury notes would lend i'm
petus to the recovery drive.