Evening star., 1937-05-31
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE,

Signs pile up that therell be the
toughest kind of struggle over the Con-
nery-Black labor standards bill Slice
it as thin as you please, it still smacks
strongly of what Al Smith would call the
old N. r. A. "baloney." No matter how
regulation of hours and wages is hedged
in, the plan also savors of what Justice
Cardozo, when blasting the wide powers
given to Blue Eagle code authorities,
termed "delegation run riot" Finally,
from many quarters, the proposition is
assailed as outright Fascist in trend.
Apart from the constitutional snarls into
which the project thus is almost certain
to run, it faces prompt and bitter con-
gressional viciSsitudes. Announced Amer
ican Federation of Labor opposition of
itself guarantees plenty of strife at the
Capitol. The placing of labor of all
classes on the same level conjures up
spokesmen. So, on constitutional and
regional lines, to say nothing of the
divergent views of union leaders, the bill
is headed for stormy career as 1t
bounces into the legislative hopper.
For the first time, the reading public
is to have peep at the kind OF letters
Uncle Sans children are addicted to
writing to the President OF the United
States. Mr. Roosevelt's mail is different
from that of any preceding occupant OF
the White House. mainly because of his
radio f1reside chats and the voluminous
fan" communications, pro and con,
which they produce. Ben Whitehurst,
former chief of the correspondence divi-
sion Of the Federal Emergency Relief
Administration and w. p. A., has COL
lected great batch of F.. D. RS letters,
both humorous and troubled in content,
received from citizens in all parts OF
the country. They will be published in
volume form this Summer under the
title Dear Mr.. President"
* X X
Because of relief and economy debates
in Congress, about to set In on an in
tensified scale, special interest attaches
to figures just cited by Senator Byrd,
Democrat, of Virginia on the current
cost of government. Defending his de-
mand for abandonment of the Shenen-
doah Park homesteads, a reSettlement
project designed to spend $500 900 in
his own community, the Virginian argues
that economy, like charity, should Legln
at home. To bulwark his indictment OF
governmental waste, Senator Byrd cites
the present grand army of .466 ,2GS reg
ular Federal employees, which represents
one out of every 80 citizens. The total
pay roll for Federal, State and local
employees in 1885, he says, was $685.
100000, or 10 per cent Of the national
income The Senator claims chat new
Federal employees are being hired at
the rate of 100 day. Byrd's general
charge is that "the most wastefu' and
bureaucratic form OF government in
American history now exists in Wash
ington."
When age limits are under discussion
in Congress during the fight over the
judiciary bill, some one is likely to Use
up and point out that President Roose-
velts inhibitions about the value of men
in the lean and slippered years are not
shared by Great Britain. Prime Min
lister Neville Chamberlain, who has just
taken Office, is in his 69th year, while
Stanley BALDWIN,, whom he succeeds,
achieved his supf.ne political triumph,
the preservation of constitutional au-
thority in the abdicatiof crisis, on the
verge of TO- Sir John Simon, Mr..
Chamberlain's second in command, as
chancellor of the exchequ er, is "a. The
lord chancellor, Yiscouut 4101hAm, u