The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-06-10

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 Washington, June 10-Gossip as to the 1940 presidential aspirations of REC Chairman Jesse Jones has blossomed anew among insiders who know how the tall, white-haired Texan recently tried to naneuver control of PWA away from Secre- tary Harold Ickes.
 It was about that time that Ickes threatened to resign. And Jesse didn't get what he was after, even though he had the support of Harry Hopkins of PWA, whose feud with Ickes is now more bitter than ever. Under congressional pressure, Roosevelt came around to the idea of using a PWA revolving fund for PWA grants in a continuation of the loan grant system which would use REC money for PWA loans.
 Jones vigorously sought the power to handle the PWA loans. which would have meant control over the grants and would have left 1ckes somewhat in the position of an of- flee boy.
 Even more astOnishingly, the
 REC chairman proposed that he
 be empowered to make loans to municipalities for any and all pur-
 poses. That would have made him
 the banker for city politicians all
 over the country and, although he already is known as the worlds
 biggest banker" would have added
 enormously to his power. Certain men in the administration who think Jesse will bear watching managed to scotch the scheme. Promise Broken or Not? Picking Up $250, 1000, ,000 for PWA was a slight-of- job, the im- plications of which the administra- tion doesn't care to stress. It either repudiates the presidents promise that there would be no new expen- ditures beyond those called for in the budget without new taxation to cover them-or it doesn't, accord ing to the way you look at 1t. No new appropriation was re- quired. Ickes will merely be spend- ing money which otherwise would have been recoverable" and sooner or later have been paid back into the treasury. Thus it doesn't do the deficits or the national debt any good-not by $250,00000O. But it's worth pointing out
 that, under the most favorable
 circumstances, the sum may
 mean up to a billion dollars in public works. Ickes has said
 that only about half the recip-
 tents of PWA grants now re- quire loans from PWA funds,
 the others being able to get
 them under as favorable terms
 on the market.
 Clash Over Figures
 There's an increasing disposition to question the accuracy of WPA statistics, although 1t would be dif- ficult for any agency to check them.
 ICkes and his friends are sOr-
 CT than ever at Hopkins, be-
 cause they believe the facts as
 to the relative employment poe
 tentialities of WPA and PWA
 were misrepresented to the president.
 Hopkins, the Ickes faction claims, persuaded Roosevelt to agree that all figures as to government created work should be cOllated through WPA. The same group charges that the figures, by the time they were presented to F. D. R. prior to his apparent decision to let PWA die on the vine, were "doped."
 On big PWA projects such as the Tri-Borough Bridge in New York, where the states put up 55 per cent of the money, 1t is claimed by PWA fans that the cost to the federal government per man employed is less than the WPA cost.
 Even inside WPA itself you can hear occasional skepticism ex- pressed as to the statistics fur nished by Corrington Gill, boss statistician and research director. A "Simplified" Tax Bill
 Another recent lesk reveals that the administrators corporation surplus tax bill got off to an even worse start originally than all but few supposed.
 Legislative draftsmen em.