The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-03-02
! . BEHIND 1 THE SCENESl WASHINGTON LY ROONEY DUTcHER-A
 Democrat Washington
 Correspondent
Business Thinks It's Too Good To Be True, FOR Seems
 Agreed To Stop
 Rocking The Boat

still believe its too good to be true, but they have persuaded the PreSi- dent that he ought not to do or say anything which might cause him to be accused of rocking the boat.
 For while, at least, Roosevelt
 plans to sit inactively in the mid-
 dle-and quietly, too, except for
 frequent optimistic and inspira-
 tional assurances designed to im-
 prove business psychology.
 The President is tired and he is especially tired because so much of the New Deal recovery has been lost so rapidly. Although various plans for another resuscitation are in abeyance, he clings to the hope that business will recover under its own steam.
 Avoiding Disturbance
 For some time it has been ob- served by visitors that F. D. R. doesn't seek to monopolize conversa- tions as he once did.
 And lately they have reported that he greets proposals looking to re- form, even of the mildest nature, with the objection that they might cause him to be accused of dis turbing business"
 The little business mems con- ference, from which Roosevelt eX- pected at least some sympathy and constructive support, appears to have saddened him and led him to pay more heed to business protests. He has not swung from the New Dealer reform group into the arms of the Richberg "cO- operators" since no program for letting business organize to police itself is yet in the cards.
 But he has sought ground be- tween. It looks now as if business might get practically all of the tax revision it has asked for.
 Wage-HOur May Be Dead
 Although it's reported that wages and hours are White House must" measure, some of the best friends of wage-hour legislation have given up hoping that Roosevelt will really fight for it again this session.
 The opposition apparently will continue to slash away at his re- organization program. It seems doubtful that the President will seek to insist on new monopoly legislation, or even an inveStiga- tion of that problem.
 No new important legislation
 uilI ho rrnrncoH ry,,locc exigencies eventually demand it.
 Attacks on business" as the speeches of Assistant Attorney Gen eral Robert Jackson were quaintly termed, have ceased. Jacksons last speech. made in New York and ad- mittedly the last he expects to make on business and government for some time, was more of plea and an explanation than an attack. Reform Still to Be Sought for further social-economic reforms. Delegates of the Consumers Ma tional Federation, who met with him for half an hour, gathered that i'm pression despite the fact that the President was lukeWarm to their re- quest for a congressional inveStiga- tion into fragrant under -consump- ton of the necessities of life," com mercial devices and practices which | keep housewives from getting their moneys worth and business and fi- ancial controls which deny to workers and farmers the right to enjoy the abundant standard of liv- ing which they are ready and able to produce"
 The President, although appar- ently unwilling to make any move that would "upset business" was sympathetic as President Michael Quill of the Transport Workers UniOn-a New York City council man-and F. B. McLauren of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Por- ters, told him that the cost of liv- ing was bearing down hard on their members and that wage in- creases meant nothing if they were promptly eaten up by higher prices.
 Roosevelt pointed out that the price of food wasn't new problem for government. It bothered Queen Elizabeth, he said, until she finally made production of bread a public utility. It stayed that way in Eng land, with prices fixed, for 100 years.
 The President also recalled his old story of how the British gov- ernment first entered the transport l business by breaking a one-boat etaoin uldrhh shrdlu pywf m cmmb ferry monopoly on the Thames. He indicated he would like to see a far greater abundance of bread, milk and other necessities. Copyright, 1888, NEA Service, Incl
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