Evening star., 1938-04-01
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Where is the President getting his
advice these days? Is he getting any at
all? Does he listen to it when he gets
1t? Such questions have been current
in Washington for months. They were
never asked more anxiously than at the
present moment of wholesale RooSe-
veltian impulsiveness. Things like the
Gainesville selfish few" and "feudal-
ism outburst. the Warm Springs in
discretions about inetficiency in the
foreign service and extending a welcome
to political refugees from everywhere
the Senate-cannot-b be-purchased boner
and now the m-no-dictator" letter,
all persuade friends and foes of F. D. r..
alike that balance-wheel on executive
exuberance is sadly missing and badly
needed. Never more than in these
stressful times has Mr. Roosevelt's loss
of the astute services of Louis McHenry
Howe been so generally felt. That gnome
of a man, who was at the Presidents
elbow from the outset of the latter's
political career, seldom pulled his
punches when occasion arose to keep his
impetuous chief from doing or saying
the wrong thing. Since Howe disap-
peared from the scene two years ago, no
one has taken his place as the candid
friend. Break after break in policy and
in public expression, has been the result
~
Mr.. Roosevelt assures the country he
has neither the inclination nor the quail
tications to be dictator But in politics,
Government and public life, as in every
other relation, actions speak louder than
words. The extraordinary powers per-
sistently sought by the President since
1888, eliminating in his Supreme Court
and reorganization plans, tell their own
story. AS that incorrigible Liberal, Mr..
Justice Cardozo. said in the decision
tnvalidating N. r. A., that characteristic
bid for supreme executive authority
represented delegation run riot" To
most New Deal innovations the same
description applies. It is the sum total
OF them which causes thousands of
Americans to fear that we are living
under q dictatorship with captivating
smile and Harvard accent, but a die
tatorship, for all that; that we may call
its idealiSt occupant President, but
that for most practical purposes, he
might as well be called Fuehrer or a
Duce. To many of his compatriots, F.
D. RS Warm Springs disavowal of die
tatorial ambitions suggests a passage in
king Henry VIII-"Tis we'll said
again; and 'tis kind OF good deed to say
we'll; and yet, words are no deeds" And,
of course, another Shakespeareanism Of
far more familiarity springs to the lips:
'The lady doth protest too much, me-
thinks"
\ X
To this observer comes circumstantial
word, by grapevine from lower Man.
haitian, that none other than Tommy
the Cork" otherwise, Thomas G. Cor
coran, President Roosevelt's confidential
literary aide and court-jester, is con-
templating a change Of base. He Is said
to be exploring the possibilities of a
lucrative New York law firm connection.
Whether white House Tommy" seeks
merely to emulate that other former
eminent brain-truster, Rex Tugwell, and
improve his economic status, or whether
it's case Of leaving a sinking ship, is
q matter on which opinion is divided.
Like so many Of the younger luminaries
Of the New Deal, Corcoran is product