The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1936-06-06
Relief Is Supreme Issue
As Noisy Party Wrangles
Precede 1886 Conventions
Many Important Matters
Are Now Receiving At
tention Of Various Party
Leaders
By BYRON PRICE
(Chief of Bureau, The Associated
Press Washinoton\

There is at least a hint of
prophecy in the fact that the re-
lief issue plays so prominent
part in the final noisy prelude to
the national political conventions.
The new tax bill may be disturb
ing in some industrial quarters.
The farm issue may dominate the
campaign in certain states. Va
rious groups of citizens have
shown special concern about the
constitution. But when all is said
and done, the universal issue is
relief.
On the side of the Democ. ats,
no other issue has produced such
outspoken disagreement in the
, party ranks in congress. No other
has resulted in such open public
dispute among officials of the ad-
ministration.
Among the Republicans, too,
there are differences of view
which it may be difficult to over
come completely. Some of the
most influential, however, are
talking of launching the Republi-
can campaign on the keynote of
radicaHy-revised relief program,
letting all other issues take sec
ondary place for the moment.
Relief is something every voter
knows about That is the kind of
issue which inevitably pushes it
self to the top.
Miners Forget Guffey Act
Recently a visitor to a coal
mining section brought back word
to Washington that the miners and
their families were not talking
about the Guffey act, nor about
wages and hours or homestead
projects, but about relief.
What about all of these charges
of politics in the relief set-up,
they asked, and would some other
method of handling the problem
be better?
If anyone doubts that relief has
become a burning local question
everywhere, he will find the proof
in the columns of the daily news
papers of virtually every state in
the union.
The care with which the Repub-
lican national committee recently
prepared its case relating to con-
ditions in Missouri, and the
thoughtful manner in which this
case was handled by the admins
tration, testify to the Importance
accorded by both sides to this
problem.
1t is not that there is any dis
pute about the necessity for taking
care of the needy. Even the rank
ing Republican leadership in con-
gress supported the new relief APP
preparation. But they did so after
protesting that the job could much
better be done some other way.
The core o. the controversy is,
specifically, Harry l.. Hopkins adj
ministration of the vast relief
funds entrusted to him.
The underestimate conflict be-
tween the Hopkins and the Ickes
schools of thought has been much
more severe than the general pub
lie realizes.
Secretary Ickes has not hest
tated to carry to the highest quar-
tiers his insistence that a substan-
tial portion of relief funds be put
aside for permanent public works.
Those who agree with him are nu-
merous enough in congress so that
compromise was unavoidable, bat
in the main Mr.. Hopkins still
dominates.
The exact form of the Republi-
can campaign attack remains I'M
determined. Many politicians doubt
whether the national convention
can do more than charge waste
and political manipulation, and
hint at some new form of relief
administration.