The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-07-23
] BEHIND l THE SCENESl WASHINGTON wy ROONEY DUTcHER-A
 Democrat Washington
 COFFespondent)
FDR Falls Back On "Old Jack"
 Garner To Pull
 Him Out of Hole

@@SMe SvW VVMAU VII w@Ck hWES and help me settle some of this
 mess you made. 4 lot of these
 e6matefs who are aeitatlng for ad- :. touFnmaent point out that there is
 nc reason for staying here and
 passing our legisIatLOn since Che
 president of the Senate has gone
 away. Come on back here and
 help mo out OS thls jam"
 Presufnably each man had a stenosrapher taking down the conversatlon, none of which is available, of course, except to the participants. One can only guess as to what Garner said.
 But every instder, Roosevelt and Garner adherents alike, agreed that Roosevelt desperately needed 0arner'S help at Q tight point in the court fight.
 Somewhere in the controct be.
 tween the White House and Gar. ner arose the suggestion that Roosevelt would be willing to make trade with Garner on cer- tain policies in return for the vice presidents support.
 one guess, made by 0 man who nearly always guesses right was that Garner would win the assur. Ance that wage-hour legislation would not be demanded at this session. Garner is grimiy set against financial economic- -poiiti. cal control from New York. Hence he realizes that the court bill would be helpful in that field. He is equally violent against sitdown strikes, the c. I. O., higher wages for Negro workers as well as poor whites in the south, and govern. Si1ent spending for WpA.
 Recall of Garner, who had walked cut from his post while Roosevelt, in effect, had elevated
 hib nose snd suggested tho vice president would never be missed
 k thN was the way he felt about it, indicated the desperate posi-. Sion In which the administration forces felt themselves to be after Majority Leader Robinson's death. The fact that Roosevelt would have to trade with Garner became obvious at once.
 The late Joe Robinson had CD. erated on 6 personal basis and there was no administration ma. chine in the Senate. He had ex. changed favors for favors, but these were personal favors and this became obvious after his death to the great demoralisa ton Of the administrations court fight, The real Capitol Hill battling had been left to the Department of Justice, which meant, In effect, only Assistant Attorney General Joe Keenan. I1 His Luck Holds Good
 Some of Rooseveits closest friends and most influential advisers begged him in vain to go on the funeral ,I train with the body of Robinson to Arkansas, for strategic reasons, of course.
 The Presidents failure Co board that train aroused plenty of crlti. clsm, not only from Che few who felt he should have paid the final tribute Co . loyal follower, but also--and perhaps mostly - from political enemies who made the most of it.
 Roosevelts unjustiy celebrated i luck seemed to hold good. how. ever, when complaints as to his failure to 90 along became dulled by unvarnished news reports which showed the to-and.from trip to have been continuous political con. ference. Vote canvassing on the Senate majority leadership and court bill compromise talk were the outstanding features.
 The President of Che United States would have been placed in Q bad setting. Whether or not the specter of such spectacle inslu. enced his intention not to ride with the body to burial he had Che memory of the political shin. dig into which Che late Speaker Henry Rainey's funeral was turned to remind him of the possibilities.
 The excuse he gave to the inti- mates who urged him to go was that he was terribly worried about the Chinese.Japanese hostiiities and must stay here to follow hour.by. hour developments.
 Loaded With Dynamite
 Apparently he meant 1t. The new neutrality act practically forces the President in, effect, to take sides fin my foreign war. Roosevelt could afford to make e grandstand play for neutrality by his handling of the Spanish situ- ation, privately taking the posi-. ton that Spanish civil war was primarily something for France and England to worry about.
 But the Pacific, from the mili- tary and political standpoint, is in this country's back yard. Our traditional attitude toward China Is enc of friendliness, and the nine-power treaty calls for aid for nations which become victims of aggressors.
 Military and naval gentry all i regard Japan as the nation which | we're most likely to fight. This country is China's base of supply | for munitions, which would be | automatically cut off once Roose- welt recognized state of war.
 The neutrality acts cash-and carry principle would give Japan 6 tremendous advantage on other commodities because she has a merchant fleet and China hasn't.
 The situation was loaded with dynamite. and each of the many possibilities through which the neutrality law is sure to make US unneutral in 6 foreign war was painfully obvious.
 tCepyright, IS35, NEA Service, Kne.)
 CITY FATHERS WAIVE PAY