Evening star., 1937-07-16
correspondents Of

ment was mad ##
vertent ra her -, ,
than deliberate.
Last week Tuesday, the press cor
respondents asked President Roosevelt
If he endorsed the statement on labor
policy which had been made by .he
Secretary of Commerce, Daniel Roper.
Mr.. Roosevelt replied fatty that he
had not read the statement. The in
ference conveyed was that the Presi-
dent knew nothing about it until it
was published. This would tend to
detract from the Importance of the
Roper speech as an administration
policy.
Now comes the Associated Press on
Wednesday of this week with a dis
patch stating that Secretary Roper
revealed today that he had submitted
q recent speech of industrial labor re-
lations to the White House" Mr..
Roper is quoted as having said that
he sent the address in advance to
Secretary Early of the White House
staff.
A Contradiction.
What does Secretary Roper mean
By contradcting the President? Or
maybe it wasn't intended as contra
diction? If the President wasn't just
fencing with the correspondents and
trying to evade a direct answer to
their questions, and if he literally
meant that he had not read the Roper
speech in advance, it could mean that
whereby an important pronouncement
on labor policy is passed upon by the
secretaries without taking the trouble
to draw it to the attention of the Presi-
dent of the United States.
There have been reports for some
time that the White House staff was
50 overWorked as not to be able to
take care of the Presidents men,
oranda, circumstance that may or
may not be behind the recent re-
quest for six executive assistants to
the President at salary of $4,000
each.
But it sees incredible that vital
pronouncement on labor policy would
be approved by White House secre-
tary and no knowledge of its phrase
ology given to the President of the
United States, who was elected by
the people to administer the laws of
the land, including those concerned
with labor relations
Strange things do happen, however.
at the White House nowadays. Only
recently it was averred that the
President signed lot of blank sheets
OF paper with his autograph, and he
didn't know that the Democratic Ma
tional Campaign Committee put the
sheets into campaign books which
were later sold to corporations in vio-
lation of the Federal corrupt practices
act, the proceeds being used to retire
the financial debt incurred during the
1886 campaign by the Democratic ma
tional headquarters.
Maybe He Didn't Want to Know.
1t has been suggested that perhaps
Mr. Roosevelt didn't want to know
In advance what Secretary Roper was
going to say, so he, the President,
would be able to repudiate it if public
opinion didn't take kindly to the ad-
dress. These tactics have been used
before in other administrations and
are called trial balloons" but it is
rare indeed to find a President of the
United States unadvised about an i'm
portant statement issued by member
Of his cabinet. 1t is even more rare to
md cabinet officer saying some
thing to the press on a question of
fact which conflicts directly with what
the President himself has said to be
the fact. One explanation might be
that Secretary Roper is tired of being
made the goat" in his relations with
business men and the public generally
because things he has said of con-
servative nature have frequently been
repudiated by the Presidents own
statements or actions in respect to
various public questions.
But this explanation hardly seems
adequate. What seems more plausible
Is that Secretary Roper missed read
Ing the item in the newspapers say
ing President Roosevelt claimed not
to have read the Roper speech in ad-
vance. 1t would be most surprising
to find Secretary Roper, who is trained
IN the school Of political loyalty, max
ing misstep of this kind innocently
If, however, he did say what he did,
knowing what the White House had
declared to the press, it may have
real significance as indicating that
Mr.. Roper is not going to be put ION
the spot" through the carelessness of
the White House staff
Was Press Misled?
The question remains: Did the
President mislead the press, or does
the White House staff keep him so
Isolated that he does not even have
. chance to read the most important
statement on labor policy that has
come this year from high official of
the Roosevelt administrations?
Some sort of explanation would seem
to be due the press and the public
OF what did actually happen, for it
would be most regrettable after the
1ine record of relations with the press
which has been built up by the Presi-
dent and his able assistant, Secretary
Early. to find that the White House
considers it legitimate to fool the news
paper men. For, after all, fooling
the press is not different from fool
ing the public, and it will be recalled
that Abraham Lincoln spoke a warn
ing that might be repeated now, to
the effect that one can fool some of
the people some of the time, some
OF the people all the time, but not all
Of the people all of the time.