Evening star., 1937-07-25
Who Is Advising the
President Now?
BY OVEN L. SCOTT.


policy and White House planning?
Anybody who listens to senatorial dis
cussions or who reads the comments OF
newspaper columnists would think so.
More and more reference is made to
mysterious individuals who are influ-
encing the President to do things that
he really does not want to do and would
not DO II only he listened to older and
wiser heads. One widely circulated con-
fdentlal Washington service advised It's
clients few days ago that this countrys
troubles might quickly be solved If only
eight or ten people could be deported.
The story is that Mr. Roosevelt drove
ahead to a smash-up on the issue of
supreme Court change under the spell
OF this group of radical advisers The
president, in fact, is pictured as Eyes
man. accepting the dictates of indi-
vlduals who never have stood for election
and whose ideas may spring from ire
sponslblllty. Then when trouble breaks
there is scurrying for aid and comfort
from the old-tmers like Vice President
Garner.
But none OF the commentators gets
AoNAi w IllC DaSlllCSS Ol IdullIlK names
OF the supposed backstage dictators.
mat leaves the question:: Who are these
people supposedly guiding the President
toward some unknown goal, getting him
into deep water with Congress and with
the country?
The little group Of supposedly "Willful"
individuals is not hard to detect
or course, Tom Corcoran and Ben
Cohen wont bfIl1
enjoying their first taste of power and
prominence, head the list. AS a matter
OF tact, Corcoran is accepted as the one
person who today stands in most favor
at the White House But he debates
rather easily. as Senators demonstrated
by puncturlng the Cohen Corcoran plan
for reviving Government control over
industrial wages and hours, and by man
handling every other bit Of canned" leg
lSlauon that this team prepared for the
White House.
Even SO, Corcoran-Cohen ideas still
command premium in Washington. So
do those of Mrs. Roosevelt who is cred-
lted with carrying to the President many
OF the ideas generated by left-wing thick
ers in the Government service She has
more direct association with several in
thlS group than has the President. Her
influence is behind many New Deal ex-
perlmentS including such expensive ones
as the Resettlement Administration and
the ventures into various projects de-
signed to help the under privileged,
NOBODY undereStlmates the influence
OF harry Hopkins. but that influence has
been eXerted ever since the President
TOOK Office. Mr.. Hopkins combines ideas
with more than slight fair for politics
that gets results from Congress in deter
mining relief policy. And when it comes
10 nScal policy and experiments in taxa
tlon the voice is that of Henry Moreen-
thau, Jr, but the ideas are those of Her
man Ollphant, counsel to the Secretary
OF the Treasury, and reform zealot
with real passion for anonymity.
Paul Appleby, youthful assistant to
Henry Wallace, aspires to the toea
dropped by DR.. Rexford Tugwell when he
tired OF the Washington struggle. Mr..
Appleby is active enough, but there seems
little evidence that he is deeply influ-
enclng the Secretary of Agriculture
much less the President. And when if
comes to labor policy. Frances Perkins
counts much more heavily than some
people think.
4
Is this. then, the little group OF will
ful' individuals who are supposedly in
huenclng President Roosevelt to under
take the ventures that have been shaking
the Democratic party to its conservative
foundations and keeping the country en-
tertained?
So far as there is such a group of ad-
Vanced thinkers welding influence close
TO the seats of power, this seems to be
the one referred to by the Senators and
by the commentators. Some of the
observers add DR.. Mordecat Ezekiel and
Louis Bean on farm policy and Prof. w.
0. Douglas as the Wall Street batter of
the Securities and Exchange Commission
But the catch in the whole set-up
turns out to be that Mr.. Roosevelt-in-
stead OF listening very attenively to ad-
vlsers-is doing his own advising Of him.
self. or was until the other day. The
very lack OF outstanding personalities in
the group syphoning ideas to the Presi-
dent is the cue to what actually has hap
pened. Rather than being "yes-man"
himself, President Roosevelt has insisted
upon. or at least has encouraged, yes
men to gather round him. Opposition
has had short-shrift. Or did have prior
to the drubbing on the issue OF Supreme
Court change when a reputation for in
fallibility was lost.
4
AS explained by one young and observ-
ant official who has been in q position to
see what has been going on:
The President, since Inauguration has
had very definite ideas about the direc-
ton he intends to take and the moves he
wants to make. Those who have dis
agreed or found fault with decisions have
plainly been in disfavor. After all, those
around the President now are enjoying
greater power and prestige than ever be-
fore in their lives Why should thev
court disfavor and loss of that power
and prestige by disagreeing very strenu-
ously when Mr.. Roosevelt decides that an
idea sounds good? The result is that
some of the old heads no longer are de-
pended upon for advice that might upset
plans while the others go along yessing
at anything"
Mr.. Roosevelt pressed his fight against
the Supreme Court in the face of warn
lngs from every one Of the old-l ad-
visers. who recognized practical victory
at the time the justices altered their at
titude toward the scope Of Federal power.
After that the country witnessed the
strange spectacle Of a President bump
ing his head against a stone wall of
opposition after he had got what he
needed.
The idea "yessed" into acceptance by
"a n f,l1 J4}e