The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1937-01-21
Observations From
Washington

Am wanted First Place

washington
All Wanted First Place
The past week has been an un.
usually busy one for me. AS a mem
Der of the Committee on Commit
tees practically all my time was
taken up with helping to make
committee assignments for the Re
publican membership Of the House.
With only 80 Republicans this
would seem to be an easy task but
strange to say, it was more diff
cult than two years ago due to the
fact that nearly everyone Of the
seventeen newly elected members
was under the impression that with
so small a membership they could
get anything they wanted in the
way of committee assignments and
ali of them wanted to go on Rules,
Appropriation, and Ways and
Means, or some other major COM
mittee. Happily that Is now behind
me.
Government Reorganization
The Presidents message on THE
Reorganization of the Govern
ment" has been referred to what Is
to be known as the Select Commit
tee on Government Organization
which has been created to go into
the subject exhaustively. In his
message the President asked for
two new departments Of govern
ment to be known as Department
of Social Welfare" and Department
of Public Works. Personally, I
feel that we already have too many
departments and have been giving
serious consideration to the intro
duction of a bill to consolidate the
War and Navy Departments into
a Department of National Defense.
These Departments and Bureaus
have a habit of growing by leaps
and bounds and where they may re-
quire but million or two to oper-
ate the first year it is not long be-
fore they are absorbing rs to 100
millions of dollars for operating
expenses. We hear great deal Of
balancing budgets and reducing
taxes before elections but after the
votes are in they become most I'M
popular subjects. AS I see it, the
way to reduce expenditures does
rot lie in the direction of increas-
ing the number of government
bureaus but rather in reducing the
number and making a drastic cut
in the personnel. There Is some
thing radically wrong when one
fourth of the earnings of every
man and woman go for taxes, Wis
ible and invisible.
Protect American Producer
My readers will recall that in my
weekly letters of last winter and
spring I had much to say against
the present reciprocal trade policy
of the Administration. I have not
changed my views on the subject.
Reciprocity is fine stimulent for
foreign trade if it is carried out
with common sense, which main
tain the present law has not been.
There is only one way to operate a
reciprocal trade law and that is to
compel the contracting country to
agree to buy as much from us as
we buy from them and then the
agreement should only relate to
non-competitive products. I see no
good reason why we should allow
agricultural products such as dairy
products, eggs, meats, grains to be
brought into the United States to
be sold in competition with like
products from our farms. It Is not
faiy to the American producer. A
bill to extend the life of the pres
ent reciprocal trade law for anoth-
er three years has already been in
troduced and the Committee on
Ways and Means will hold hearings
on the measure within the next
month. Personally expect to vote
against an extension unless we can
be assured that the present method
of making trade treaties will be
greatly changed.
A Long Session
Washington is all set for the In
auguration and both sides of Penn
sylvania Avenue are lined with
grandstands where out-of-town
spectators will see the parade. The
price of the tickets range from five
dollars to fifteen dollars. After the
Inauguration Congress will get
down to business in earnest and it
promises to be long and busy sea-
son that will run into July or Aug
ust