Evening star., 1938-04-14
CHAT WILL OPEN
ROOSEVELT FIGHT
Broadcast Tonight Expected
to Reassert Personal
Leadership.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
President Roosevelt is expected to
=. serve notice in his fireside chat tonight
that he intends to carry the fighting
for his New Deal objectives vigorously
Into this years elections.
Just what he will say in this address.
timed to reach the largest possible
radio audience, is unknown Most OBJ
servers, however, accept the White
House decision to return to the fire.
side chat technique, after message to
Congress today on his new recovery
and relief program, as significant in
dication of the Presidents mood.
1t cannot be doubted that a new
pitched battle over the recovery pro-
gram is in prospect between the Pres
ident and the conservative wing of
his party in Congress, which played
major part in the defeat of such Roose-
welt measures as the Supreme Court
and Government reorganization bills.
And it is on the recovery program that
the President is expected to concen-
>trate in his direct, personal message to
millions of voters
Moderate Tone Expected.
Administration aides seem to expect
q moderate tone on the Presidents
part although adding that he will deal
very frankly with the business slump
and the steps he proposes to meet it.
The mere fact that the President felt
1t necessary to take to the air in sup
port of his forthcoming recovery pro-
gram, and the care taken about timing
his broadcast, indicate the Importance
attached at the White House to that
phase of the matter
1t is obvious that Mr. Roosevelt
wants to have the first word with the
country in the new controversy over
a return to heavy Government ex-
pendltures. His tactics tend to invite
public pressure On Congress for the
prompt carrying out of his recon-
mendations.
1t is recalled that the President has
never made any general summation of
the results of his long series of con-
ferenceS with business and other
groups in search of ways and means
of checking the business slump In
some administration quarters there is
expectation that the flreside address
will go over that ground, perhaps 10
trace the causes Of the recession as
the President sees them.
Seeks to Reassert Leadership.
Whether that will include an in
dictment of business leadership for
failure to take up the recovery load
as Government spending was tapered
off last year remains to be seen. 1t
is obvious to observers, however, that
the President has planned his fireside
chat with the intention of meeting
in advance his critics expected argu-
ments that New Deal tax, labor and
other policies led to the new relief and
unemployment crisis.
Whatever the form and substance
OF the Presidents personal statement
in elaboration of his relief recovery
message, there is widely held belief
In Washington, not challenged by ad-
minlstration insiders. that he is going
to the public in an effort to reassert
his personal leadership That view
was backed up by the Presidents let
ter yesterday to chairmen of the con-
gressional tax-framing committees,
demanding retention of the principle
OF the undistributed corporation profits
tax, which was wiped out by the Sen
ate without record vote.
In one administration quarter ex-
pectation was expressed that the
President might concede in his address
that he had made mistake, but it
was added that his admission would
give no comfort to the party con-
servatives. About the only policy the
President conceivably could back
track on, according to this insider,
would be the rate at which Govern
ment pump-priming had been slowed
up last year. Exactly how that might
be expressed, if at all, was not indi- |
Gated.
Observers were impressed with the |
tone of Postmaster General Farley's !
address last night. characterizing op-
position to the Presidents program
as a last desperate "die-hard" attempt |
to wreck the reforms he has wrought"
1t created an impression that the full |
force of administration spokesmanship |
was being modified to meet the chal- |
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