Evening star., 1938-02-21
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VIE.

Psychological anodynes and sedatives.
rather than specific treatment, are what
DR.. Roosevelt apparently meant to pre-
scribe for the depression patient in his
recent homily on price levels and kindred
complexities. In the longest press con-
ference since the Supreme Court bomb
shell was sprung in February, 1887, the
President subjected the newshawks to a
course in the higher economics that left
most of them both exhausted and be-
fuddled. Barring scribes like Bernard
Kilgore of the Wall Street journal. whom
F. D. r. occasionally singles out for his
keen analysis of financial stuff; Louis
Stark of the New York Times, who
knows his labor onions as thoroughly as
John Lewis or Bill Green. and J. r.
Virgins of the st. Paul Pioneer Press
and Dispatch. who can talk agriculture
like Wallace himself and who. with
Felix Belair. jr., of the New York Times,
suggested the plan to use the amended
Soil Conservation Act in place of defunct
A. A. A., only few White House cor
respondents pretend to fathom such
dissertations as the Roosevelt dose last
Friday.
- X 4
~ 4AoNC bCCI1 ouCh SOup 4OI lIlC
New Deal analytical economists" to
prepare the thesis with accompanying
questions, answers, and illustrative
charts, which the President inflicted
upon his reportorial audience. It's a safe
guess that the mountain Of theories,
facts. figures and deductions was
brought forth by the minor brain trust
that now has the executive ear. Lumi-
1Asr 10H
Isador Lubin, Nine. Perkins labor sta
tistics wizard; Mordecai Ezekiel, eco
nomic adviser to the Secretary of Agri-
culture; E. A. Goldenweiser, director of
Federal Reserve research statistics, and
George c. Haas, director of research
and statistics for the Treasury. Opinion
is divided as to just what effect on house,
hold budgets, wages, commodity and
consumer goods prices, ETC., the Presi-
dents distractions will have. His most
positive contributions to the ailing busi-
ness situation were negatives-the an
nouncement that there will be no tnfla-
ton, no devalution of the dollar, and
that there should be neither specula-
lively high rises in prices nor unwar-
ranted wage cuts. Keenest observation
in an otherwise drab and dreary dis
course was Mr.. Roosevelt's self asked
question whether his latest proposals are
reconcilable with what he said last April.
and his answer: "A question like that
is very much like warning man to slow
up at the curve and then being held re-
sponsible If he goes of the road"
X i
Secretary Ickes' full-throated oratorical
tones will cross the Atlantic, the Pacific
and all the other seas and lands on
which the British imperial sun never
sets, when he broadcasts an empire-wide
address on Democracy or What?" to-
morrow afternoon. He was invited by
the British Broadcasting Corp. to hold
forth In its series Of talks entitled Amer
lea Speaks" BY short wave, the p. W. A.
boss will be networked throughout John
Bulls worldwide realm. He VIII be on
the air 20 minutes. Although ne Will
use the facilities Of the Columbia Broad
casting System in Washington, hell not
Be heard in this country. The sixty
families" don't figure in the impending
1ckes communion with our British
eUuAink