Imperial Valley press., 1937-12-21
News Behind the News
- No Fun for Prophets

WASHINGTON-This is not one of those
periods when anyone whose function II Is TO
prophesy what's going to happen next in gov
eminent, politics. business and other national
affairs finds himself having very much tun.
Yet there probably is no more confusion
inside the government as 10 the future thah
there is on the outSide-and probably nowhere
near as much. The question Of who or what
started this depression has given way 10 debate
on which forces are now most scared-the al
miniistrationS or those of Big Business g? Faith
in the curative powers of tax revision budget
balancing. attempts 70 stimulate oulldlng ana
other measures is ebbing.
There appears to be real worry in New York
that the situation can't be saved simply by tear
ing down the New Deal that private capital
can't and won't take over during a depression,
and that no one really knows the answers.
Conservatives who believed in an independent
Congress" and a balanced budget are now not
quite so sure especially after observing Congress
in its special session.
Proposals from the National Association OF
Manufacturers that government cooperate with
business toward recovery caused hardly ripple
IN Washington. perhaps because OF deep-seated
conviction that the NAM. is an incorrlgible
enemy Of the New Deal. There are tugs OF war
between various sets of administration advisers
as to the nature and extent OF concessions to
business but these only aecentuate confusion.
Probability that Chairman Joe Kennedy OF
the Maritime Commission will be made ambas-
sador TO England has started everyone guessing
whether this is bad sign inasmuch as it gets
perhaps the Presidents closest conservative ad-
wiser far away from the White House, or wheth-
er it isn't a good sign when Roosevelt demon
strates his faith in his closest conservative ad-
wiser.
Almost simultaneously Roosevelt has thrown
a package of mingled good news and bad news
to both conservatives and progresSiyes by ap-
pointments of Jerome Frank, liberal lawyer, and
John w Hanes, Wall Street broker, to the SEC.
DR.. Rex Tugwel has just visited Roosevelt
at the White House foTs lunch) for the first
time since he quit the New Deal Arch -conserva-
tive Congressman Bruce Barton of New York,
advertising magnate, has advised the NAM
to get interested in low-cost housing on the
ground that one gesture Of social consciousness
will do more good than all the resolutions in
the world.
The political picture continues to be COM
plicated by the third-term specter, and there
are rumors that High Commissioner OF the
Philippines Paul McNutt will seoH coalition
nomination for 1910
The Republican executive committee meets
at St Louis to name program committee which
will be just as much mixed up on the program
question as everyone else.
Meanwhile the Rev. Gerald L. K Smith, who
will rabble-rouse over 40-odd radio stations
every Sunday as long as he can raise money
TO pay for it. has moved into the Hay-Adams
House in a room where he gazeS daily across
the park at the White House and thinks of new
polemics to hurl at its most celebrated Occu-
pant
And if anyone asks you Where do we go
from here" the best answer is:
"I'u bitel"