Evening star., 1937-10-15

tne HUDSON. On
the latest trip across the continent.
the President invited to his train all
the politicians and Yes men" on the
Federal pay roll. And they certainly
told the President what they thought
he wanted to hear-all Presidents
get that kind of polite treatment by
their henchmen.
The newspapers reported in great
detail how almost every hour of the
Presidents day was spent on his
transcontinental trip. There was no
mention of time spent with 1.-The aver
age man" or conferences with the
persons in each region who represent
not one side but both sides of the
controversial issues on which a fair
minded President might be expected
to want "first-hand knowledge"
Did Not Get Clear Picture.
But even the people who were ad-
dressed by Mr.. Roosevelt did not get
from him clear picture of the ma
tional problems facing the country.
He omitted to touch on the most
vital question of all-the present busi-
ness decllne-which is in no small
part due to the choking effects of
new taxation all along the line
Some of the things the President
did say are somewhat puzzling for
they do not seem to accord with pre-
vously held views. Thus at Grand
Forks, N. OAK, in the heart of the
agricultural area of the Nation, Mr..
Roosevelt said:
L have never subscribed to the
constitutional theory that agriculture
Is purely local matter and that it
has, therefore, no national scope"
Only seven years ago-March 2,
1880, to be exact-Mr. Roosevelt,
while Governor of New Yolk, made a
Nationwide radio address in which
he said:
"As a matter of fact and law, the
governing rights of the States are all
of those which have not been sur
rendered to the National Government
by the Constitution or its Amendments,
wisely or unwisely, people know that
under the Eighteenth Amendment.
Congress has been given the right to
L,
but this is not the case in the matter
of a great number of other vital prob
lens of Government. such as the con-
duct of public utilities, of banks, of
insurance of business, of agriculture,
of education, of social welfare and of
q dozen other important features. In
these, Washington must not be en-
couraged to interfere
Disavows Statement.
The proper relations between the
Government of the United States and
the governments of the several States
is not something that has been con-
ceived overnight. Mr.. Roosevelt in
1880 stated the historic truth. He
merely repeated the constitutional law
OF the land. Today, however, he
disavows having made the public state
ment of March 2, 1880. Or perhaps
he has forgotten that he ever made
1t though, to be sure, in the last two
or three years the paragraph quoted
above has been printed hundreds of
times and in thousands of different
places.
1t MIR. Roosevelt can impose his
will on the Supreme Court and change
the constitutional concept of agricul-
ture, there is no reason why he cannot
do the same thing with respect to
education, insurance and the dozen
other important features such as
wages and hours which have hitherto
been reserved to the people or the
States and which now have suddenly
come within Federal Jurisdiction be-
cause Mr.. Roosevelt wills it so.
The Presidents Western trip taught
him, he says, that lit is refreshing to
go out through the country and feel
the common wisdom" but he doesn't
reveal what magic process he uses to
tune IN on the common wisdom" when
he is travelling in state with a retinue
OF reporters, secret service men anc
parasitic politicians.
Told What He Likes to Hear.
Mr.. Roosevelt says he gets bored
sitting in Washington hearing GER
tain people talk and talk about all
that Government ought not do-peo-
pie who got all they wanted from
Government back in the days when
the financial institutions and the
railroads were being bailed out in
1888" This will be news to most
everybody in Washington for a re-
examination of the Presidents engage
ment list which is published every day
Tor the last four years will reveal
that Mr.. Roosevelt spends most of
his time with young New Dealers
and members of Congress or with that
vast number of sycophants, among
tnem few business men, who like
10 tell the President what he likes
to hear.
If any considerable portion of the
Presidents time is spent in listening
to persons who got money out of the
Government in the Hoover days
something that would seem automat-
ically to rule them out anyway under
the present administration-the news
paper reports of what the President
does with his time must have been
grossly inaccurate during his first
term and are evidently even more
inaccurate now.
So far as is known, the President
listens very little to his callers, any,
way. He is represented by many of
his visitors usually as doing most
Of the talking. If by chance the
President is getting bored with much
OF the talk he hears, it is quite pos
sible that he has in mind the steady
stream of Senators and Representa-
tives who take up SO much of his
time. But this isn't much Of clue
to the mystery, for the President ap-
pears to Re a glutton for self-punish-
ment-he- has just called = special
Sessien Of Congress
tCopyright. 1877
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