Evening star., 1936-11-22
TugweH is Liquidating
Before Retirement
BY OWEN L. SCOTT.

1
Government department before re-
tiring from official life. His Resettle-
ment Administration, with its $4,000 en-
ployes, Is on the block.
A carefully planned sales campaign is
being directed at Henry wallace as the
most likely high bidder. DR.. Tugwell
finds, however, that the Secretary of
Agriculture is inclined to move slowly
and to do business on his own terms in
order to avoid any misstep for which he
might later be sorry.
Property up for disposal includes one
| Of the Governments largest and most
expensive administrative staffs, four
suburban housing projects in various
stages of development, several hundred
thousand acres of submarginal land, a
| few hundred thousand loans to drought
stricken and destitute farmers and blue
| prints for a wide variety of ambitious
| experiments
An inventory of property and of ideas
has been made for the Secretary of
Agriculture. He is engaged in surveying
Doth the property and the ideas.
But the present situation turns out To
be embarrassing to both Salesman Tug
well and Prospective Customer Wallace.
Reasons why this should be so are not
difficult to find below the surface of off,
cial Washington. They trace an inter-
esting pattern back to the early days of
the Roosevelt administration and weave
through the personal history of the pc
riod since that time.
* ~
DR.. Tugwell, like Raymond Moley,
came into the Government as a close
adviser to the President-Mr Moley as
Undersecretary of State and DR.. Tugwell
as Assistant Secretary and then Under
secretary of Agriculture. From that time
on, the careers of these two advisers took
different directions.
When Undersecretary Moley differed
on foreign trade policies with his su-
perlor, Cordell Hull, Secretary of State.
he went around Secretary Hull to the
President. Shortly thereafter, the Under
secretary retired to civil life under cir
cumStanceS that left no doubt about the
Identity OF the State Department boss.
When UnderSecretary Tugwell differed
on matters Of policy with his superior,
and was overruled, he went around Sec
retary Wallace to the President and
came out with half-billion dollar show
OF his own-aS well as with a title and
salary that left him with an important
voice in the affairs of the Department
Of Agriculture.
Mr.. Wallace, patient and averse to
hurting the feelings of any one, said
nothing, accepting an anomalous situa-
ton.
But then DR.. Tugwell following his
show OF influence and authority with
the White House in the 1885 situation.
found himself after election to be in
the position of needing to ask favors
from the cabinet member he disregarded
less than two years ago. When the
Secretary of Agriculture this time turned
a cold shoulder, there was not much
the Undersecretary could do but admit
that he had outsmarted himself in the
first instance.
SO the second member of the original
Roosevelt brain trust" retires under cir
cumstances comparable to those that
led to the retirement of the first mem
Der. Only In the instance of DR.. Tug
well the result has come about through
slower motion
DR.. Tugwell was able to convince
President Roosevelt that he should be
given vast amount of money to spend
and vast amount of authority in spend
ing that money for objects that other
departments already were seeking to
reach.
But after he had been given resettle-
ment administration and field for
experiment that took in agriculture and
housing and relief and soil erosion
among other things-Dr. Tugwell was
unable to convince Congress that his
experiment should be given specific legis-
lative authority accompanied by a speci-
fic appropriation.
In fact, the reSettlement administrator
kept his title as Undersecretary of Agri-
culture, with the $4,000 salary that
goes with the title, rather than face
the Senate for confirmation in the Job
he really filled.
Both money and authority to continue
his program threatened to run out on
July /. Many of the things he was
doing already were being done by other
agencies of the Government. And when
DR.. Tugwell came up out of his storm
cellar after the election, he found the
ground occupied by men who had stood
up to voters on the firing line. His
own vulnerability was Immediately ap-
parent.
The one way out seemed to be through
a merger with the Department of Agri-
culture. The Resettlement Administra-
tion might become a major division OF
that huge department The resettlement
administrator might continue as Under
secretary of Agriculture, with ready ac-
cess to the White House. Congress might
then be free with appropriations.
So sales campaign was set under
way with that objective in mind. Presi-
dent Roosevelt inspected resettlement
housing project outside of WASHINGTON.
Mr.. Wallace was led up on a mountain
to view the new fields that might be
his. A barrage of publicity was laid
down, intended to prove that the Tug
we'll experiment offered the logical ma
chinery for tenant aid.
But the Secretary of Agriculture failed
to be impressed except on terms that
left no doubt about the center of control.
In fact, the Secretary told newspaper
men only few days ago that aroused
farmers are worth all of the brain
trusters' in the world" when it is neces-
sary to get things done. Mr.. Roosevelt
showed that he placed his confidence
in Secretary Wallace by ignoring the
Tugwell plans for tenant aid and by
appointing Mr.. wallace to head a COM
mittee to work out a program for White
House consideration.
After that, there was nothing for DR..
f, 1r h11f To l-f1