Evening star., 1938-02-13
Widening Gulf Between
President and Congress
BY OVEN L. SCOTT,


is found to be growing wider.
The President Is annoyed by Congress
and its endless pickering. Congress is
suspicious of the President and his mo-
tives and plans. Neither side shows
much desire to get along with the other
AS result, President Roosevelt has rea-
son to develop more and more under
standing of Herbert Hoover and his ex-
perience in the White House during q
period of stress.
Mr.. Roosevelt Is able to do little with
a Congress overwhelmingly of his own
party. This explains the continued in
activity at the White House-as far as
congressional plans are concerned-in
the face of the most drastic decline in
business activity that this Nation ever
has seen in comparable period of time.
X
The difficulties on examination, are
found to be quite fundamental. A ma
jOrity in each house of Congress is in
tenSely nationaliStic. Senators and Rep
resentatives, rejecting sentiment back
home, are uneasy about the State De-
partment policy in its dealings with
Japan in China. They are worried about
the Presidents plans for a Navy big
b.
for defensive purposes. There is a deep
suspicion that Mr.. Roosevelt would like
to try again to make the world safe for
democracy. Denials have failed to dis
pei feeling that some tacit understand
ing on naval operation exists between
Great Britain and this country
If Congress had its way, the United
States would pull in on itself in an en-
hn md tod ,Sclr,
that are involved in trying to keep this
country in the international swim. The
now ineffective Neutrality Act is q SYM
Dol OF this attitude.
But nationalism calls for Government
to exercise more and more controls over
business and finance and agriculture, to
force the adjustments that once were
automatic. The new farm-control plan
now moving through Congress is a mild
sample OF nationalism as applied to one
industry. Yet Congress. except in the
field OF agriculture. is shying away from
plans to give the Government power to
dominate the country's economic ma
chlnery. 1t refuses even to give the
President more efficient administrative
Set-up for performing the present gov
ernmental functions.
The result is that Mr.. Roosevelt finds
himself caught in the middle.
Any really important move designed to
throw this country's weight into the
international balance in a bold attempt
to restore stability causes Congress i'm
mediately to get its back up. So does
any really vital move to draw the United
States away from the rest of the world
by setting up purely nationalistic pro-
gram of action.
Congress realizes vaguely that nation
alism inevitably would force the Legisla-
ture into secondary position, inasmuch
as board of directors of 531 members,
many OF them garrulous by nature, would
have difficulty shaping the plans and
making the quick decisions that would be
needed in a Government dominated
economy. The result is that nothing
much happens and neither the President
nor Congress can decide which way the
country is to move.
This stalemate over basic policy runs
through many other situations as we'll.
One OF the most obvious concerns the
Governments policy in dealing with
business. Congress is inclined to be all
steamed up over the antitrust laws.
ANY verbal attack on big business draws
down the House. Everybody seems to be
against monopoly and for free compe-
tition The mere mention by the Presi-
dent that he thinks it would be nice If
there could be some unofficial economic
council produces a bareback in Congress
ana the suggestion of a new N. r. A.
\ X
RUt Conoroscpooo riob+ 49,, 49,. -
gagged in creating a bit of governmental
machinery that will be used to provide
cotton and wheat and corn and tobacco
farmers with basic monopoly in the
production and marketing of those crops
The old-fashioned competitive economy
Tor agriculture is to be replaced by
new-fashloned controlled economy by act
of Congress.
law to protect workers while they en-
deavor. under the leadership of the c. I.
.. and the A. F. OF L.. to organize labor
monopoiles OF their own-injecting an
other element of control
The result Is that when any but the
biggest business men come to town there
Is confusion of councils and a near
riot OF ideas. The antitrust laws are
designed to force business to remain dis
organized, with no overall planning or
exchange of ideas or attempts at educa-
tion. Yet 100000 individual farmers
and many millions of workers are either
ordered or encouraged by Government
to get together
Henry Wallace, in the past four years.
mas done a remarkable job of organiz-
ing and educating the Nations farmers
70 run their industry on a controlled
OASIS John L. Lewis and William
Green have done another remarkable lob
with workers.
But ever since Gen. Hugh Johnson
WIN MS Blue Eagle, muffed the ball on
N. r. A., business men have been left to
ofiIt Whlle Congress and the President
Snlpeo. Now, when Mr. Roosevelt appar-
ently would like to try again to get busi-
ness IN on the deal, Congress is suspi-
clous. Anything he does is likely to be
discussed as another antitrust program.
Inc TACT of the matter seems still to
pe That 1t is increasingly dificult for q
modern Government to do the things
tnat the people apparently want 1t to do
without some reorganization of Govern
ment itself.
Mr.. Roosevelt knows fai<!y we'll what
he would like to do. But he also knows
that what he wants to do may readily
not be what Congress wants to do. The
TACT that he is leader of q party that
dominates both houses of Congress cuts