Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1937-11-12
THE POLITICAL
MILL
BY G.. GOULD LINCOLN.


eminent spending, and second, toward
business? The President recently has
laid good deal of stress upon a bal
anced budget. He has said he hoped
and believed it would be possible to have
| balanced budget by the end of the
| fiscal year 1899. And he has gone fur
| Their in demanding such balance than
| ever before, particularly in his recent
| letter to the chairmen of the House and
Senate Committees on Agriculture. If
| there is to be any increase in the mat
| ter OF Government contributions to
| farmers for curtailment of crops and
what not, he warned, Congress would
be expected to find additional revenue.
| Along comes Secretary Morgenthau
OF the Treasury with statement that
the administration planned to make a
determined effort to balance the budget,
Mr.. Morgenthau said that the plan was
to curtail Government expenditures for
| relief, for farm subsidies and for public
works, including particularly, highways
where very large expenditure has been
under way. He said, too, that the ad-
| ministration planned to encourage busi-
ness to expand, through the revision OF
taxation which, presumably, has held
| business back.
| X X
| All of this has a very different sound
from the earlier days of more and more
| spending to prime the pump" and of
demand that business diSgorge so that
more money would be available to make
| these Federal expenditures. On the sur
| face 1t would appear that the admins
| tration had had change of heart and
| change of front. President Roosevelt,
| however, is to send message to Con-
| gress when 1t opens here next Monday
| in special session. What he has to say
then may throw good deal more light
| on the situation. Or he may reserve a
| discussion of finances until the regular
session in January.
Recent business receSSionS have given
some OF the Democrats cold chills. The
New Dealers have had things all their
own way for nearly five years If re-
cession should grow into depression, the
New Deal and its policies will not be
SO popular.
There is always the chance that the
New Dealers, seeing a depression under
way, may wish to get out from under
by now turning to business and saying
get busy and pull the country up to
stability" If business fails to deliver,
then business is more to be criticized
than ever. Under such a set up-with
business allowed to take the lead and
Its head once more-there is the pos
slbillty business might succeed in STEM
ming the recession. That, however, is a
chance the New Dealers must take, even
though it may be necessary to give buSi-
ness some credit in the end.
Having put the Federal Government
into competition with private business
in many lines-particularly in the mat
ter OF houSing-the administration is
now contemplating a great housing drive
by private industry. Private business is
to be encouraged to go ahead with a
vast program of home and apartment
house building that will make the Gov
ernment's contributions along that line
entirely insignificant. A couple of big
stumbling blocks stand in the way, high
labor cost and high prices of building
materials. 1t is not clear yet just how
the labor costs are to be cut. The ad-
ministration has been doing its best to
get labor's wages to high points. and
at the same time to raise prices of goods.
X
The voters of the country are more in
terested in good times-a full dinner pail
may stand as a symbol-than in any
political party. Political parties have
learned this lesson many times in the
past. 1t is lesson the New Deal party
may have to learn. The New Dealers
have for the last few years been able to
talk OF improvements in conditions for
business and for workers. When bust
ness men have attacked the policies of
the administration, the New Dealers
have retorted: They are the men who
are beneflting under these policies; they
should be the last to criticize" The
business recessions of recent months,
however, are not so cheerful to mention.
If the administration sees the hand
writing on the wall, it may be ready
to move. But the tug will be tough
one. The voters-some of them-have
been educated up to public relief and
Government aid of all kinds It will be
difficult to make them understand that
relief must grow less. The farmers have
been subsidized beautifully from the
Federal Treasury. They are looking for
still greater benefits under the new farm
bill. How are they going to take real
drive for economy-if it comes? And
labor has been encouraged to demand
higher and higher pay. How will it
view any effort to curtail wages. for ex-
ample, in the building trades-if the adj
mlnlstration countenances any such
thing?
Congress has been called back here
to enact legislation which is expected
to increase the cost of production-the
hours and wages bill and the crop con-
troll bill. Where does this kind of lepis-
latlon mt into picture of lower Gov
eminent expenditures and less reliefp
1t is not the kind of legislation that
may be expected to increase the flow of
capital into industry, but rather to con-
tract 1t. For that reason it NAV bring
IN the end less employment instead of
more II there is less employment there
VIII be more people who need relief.
II the farm bill is calculated to boost
prices OF foodstuffS, still more relief for
the. undernourished will be required.
4 X X
Secretary Morgenthau has one enthu-
siastic hacker for his program of Cur
tailed Government expenditures and tax
revision. Senator Pat Harrison of Mis-
sissippi, chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee, rushed a telegram to the
Secretary congratulating him upon his
New York speech. The Mississippi Sena-
tor declared he was coming back to
Washington almost Immediately and
would go to work on the tax revision
matter especially the revision of the