Evening star., 1937-01-15
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLI4N VILE.

Little doubt remains that President
Rosevelt's staggering reorganization plan
will provoke the most strenuous legisla.
tive contest the New Deal has so far
had to weather and one of the bitterest
storms In modern congressional history.
It will find party lines broken in all
directions. Early indications suggest
that Senator Byrd, Democrat, of Vir-
ginia will be the rallying point for the
opposition, which is expected to be more
effective in the Senate than In the
House. The chairman Of the Senate's
own Committee on Federal Reconstruc-
ton Is not hostile to all the features
OF the administration program, but is
ready to fight some of its outstanding
provisions, especially abolition Of the
controller generalship. Senator Byrd
contends this agency should be con-
tinued as something wholly independent
of the executive department. The Vir-
ginians view that a mere regrouping
of agencies means neither simplifica-
ton nor economy Is widely held on
Capitol Hill. That the report will be
subjected to microscopic examination
and to critical fore and aft fire is q
foregone conclusion. One of the COM
monest shafts leveled at the project is
the twofold charge that it makes for
too centralized executive authority and
for expansion of an already swollen and
expensive bureaucracy.
y -
Probably the phase that will encoun-
ter the least resistance is the plan to
create two new cabinet Offices and to
give the President six special admins
trative aides. 1t is universally admitted
that Uncle Sans general manager, the
ness on earth, is seriously understaffed
and requires the expert assistance now
planned. There is no more arresting
thought anywhere in the voluminouS
reorganization report than the descrip-
tion of the qualifications these helpers
must have-"high competence, great
physical vigor and passion for anopy-
nifty" Just where r. D. r. Is going to
find shrinking violets and super men
that measure up to these composite
requisites is question. In his school"
for Washington news writers, Just before
the reorganization bombshell was sprung,
the President stressed the anonymity"
virtue which his proposed lieutenants
must possess. They are apparently to
be the last word in taciturnity, as well
as self lf-effacement. It was suggested
that even If their identities are ever re-
vealed, people who try to establish con-
verSational contacts with them may dis
cover that the White House mystery
men will not even say good morning"
when asked q question. .er
Honors for the brightest witticism of
the political season belong to Senator
Ashurst, Democrat, of Arizona. When
asked about the probable reaction Of
Congress to Mr.. Roosevelt's budget pro.
posals, the towering chairman Of the
Senate judiciary Committee opined that
Congress will have the courage of the
Presidents convictions" A good many
people think the same spirit Of &C
Quiescence, irreverently known as the
rubber stamp system, will eventually
prevail regarding Government reorgani.
zation. Senator Ashurst Is famed as the
Capitol's cleverest word wizard. One Of
his celebrated observations was at the
expense of q former colleague from q
Southern State, who was addicted to
speeches distinguished for quantity
rather than quality. "I never listen to
the gentleman from -" said Sena-
tar AshmUs without 11aAnMg HAllay'S