Evening star., 1938-04-01
THE POLITICAL
MILL
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

that the Senate cannot be purchased
and that he himself has mo inclination
to be q dictator" have caused many
politicians in Washington to wonder if the
administration has the "jitters" Some
say very definitely it has. The admin
istration leaders in Congress have done
their best to read into the Presidents
remarks about the failure of the Senate
to sell out to a mass Of kilograms some
thing less harsh than 1t really seems to
mean. But Senators who voted against
the reorganization bill take a different
view. Like Senator Hiram johnson of
California, they say that the Presidents
statement was Outrageous; that it
virtually meant that those Senators who
voted against the bill had been "pur-
chased" and thai those who voted with
the President had not been purchased"
The President will be some time living
this down.
The President evidently was in hurry
Wednesday night. when he had his Sec
retary rouse the newspaper correspond
ents accompanying him to Georgia and
give them his now famous letter dis
claiming he had any inclination to be
dictator. Probably he wanted to- get
that blow in before the debate on the
reorganization bill began in the House.
And probably he was sick and tired of
being charged with attempting to set
himself up as dictator. Whatever his
reasons for putting out his letter, after
midnight, the manner in which he did
1t has given rise to some uneaSineSs
among his followers.
OutWardly, the administration leaders
are praising both these moves by their
President. But inWardly and more pri-
vately, they are not at all pleased. There
Is bitterness enough now on the part OF
Democratic Senators and Representa-
tives against the President and some of
his pet measures without any further
move to increase the feeling. But there
is not the slightest doubt that men like
Senator Wheeler Of Montana and Sem
ator Burke of Nebraska has been stirred
by the suggestion of the President
his opponents were purchased" And
what about Senator Wagner of New York
that ever faithful and devoted New
Dealer who voted against the Presi-
dents reorganization bill? What q sur
prise the Presidents statement must
have been to him. AS a matter of fact,
Senator Wagner became convinced that,
far from being merely the opposition of
economic royalists," the opposition to
the reorganization bill was coming from
great many of the labor leaders and of
the rank and file of labor. And he voted
accordingly. The New York Senator
might give the President bit of sound
information about this
Tho practIoy,t hoe +, ho ia; H.
over the House of Representatives prac-
tically ever since he took charge at the
White House. The one exception, so
far, was when the House declined to be
railroaded into passing his wages and
hours bill. Presumably the House will
do as the Senate did and pass the Gov
ernment reorganization bill, However,
the leaders are worried. They fear that
when the time comes to vote on several
sections Of the bill. the House may turn
down the President. They are worried
particularly over the section that abol-
ishes the Civil Service Commission and
puts one man in charge of the Civil
Service. directly under the President.
They are fearful, too, that the House may
take the bit in its teeth and not agree
to the abolition of the office of the con-
troller general of the United States.
Should the House decline to follow
the lead of the President and the Senate
on these important parts of the reorg-
anization bill, the measure might be
tied up indefinitely. After all, the coun-
try can get along without the passage of
this bill. 1t is not going to reduce taxes
or reduce expenditures. Members of
Congress do not feel that it is an i'm
ativo mo foI IN
country in the present depression.
Rather, the bill has come to be con-
sidered just another step on the part of
the executive to grasp more power in
his own hands. This is so. notwith-
standing the midnight letter of the
President, denying he has any desire to
be a dictator.
, There is another matter before Con-
gress now that the public has greatly on
its mind-the appointment of a COM
mittee to represent the Senate and
House to investigate the Tennessee
Valley Authority. The Senate and
House have passed resolution setting
up the committee and it will be approved
by the President unless all the leaders
miss their guesses. The Vice President
five Representatives. The personnel of
this committee will mean either a white
wash of the administration of the T. v.
A. or real investigation with the chips
falling as they may. Unless the admin
istration has been pressed into q diff
ferent attitude, it will see that the in
Vestigating committee is composed of
men who are not at all critical of the
T. v. A. 1t will see that the investigation
is made by men who are not unfriendly.
It will pick as minority members of the
investigating committee men who know
practically nothing about the T. v. A.
or its administration. Indeed, the Speaker
OF the House and Administration Leader
OF the Senate Barkley have already
stated they did not propose to have any
critics Of T. v. A. on the committee.
Vice President Garner alone has not
committed himself. But the wiseacres
insist he will, Of necessity, do what the
President wants him to do in this matter.
The President does not want Senator
Bridges of New Hampshire or Repre-
sentative May of Kentucky, for example,
on the investigating committee-at least
that is what Bridges and May believe
very thoroughly. It would be a great
surprise to them If they were appointed.
4
Up in Bangor, Me-, at the Republican
State convention, Senator Bridges, key
note speaker, tore loose yesterday with
vitriolic attack upon the Roosevelt ad-
ministration. He charged that the new
depression called a recession" was 80