Evening star., 1938-10-23


ghost or have been relegated into
temporary obscurity. Take, for in
stance, the strange case OF Mr.. Roose-
welt. Not in six years has he been as
silent as in recent weeks. Perhaps
he is still unnerved by the shellackinz
given him by the Democrats he under
took to purge from the party. Perhaps
Mr.. Roosevelt is afraid some one will
commence laughing il he again tells
the country he will balance the budget
next year or that I'VE planned it that
way"
At all events, Mr.. Roosevelt finds it
expedient to excuse himself from
taking the stump in this years CAM
paign. There are no plans for trips
across the country, as in previous years,
to give helping hand to some OF the
Democratic candidates who now sorely
need his help. No longer do the press
conferences rock with merry laug inter-
over quips and wise-cracks. The White
House and Hyde Park have become
somewhat funereal.
Jim Smiles No More.
So has Democratic headquarters
here. James Aloysius Farley, who once
was called Smiling Jim," now goes
around with look on his face as
though he had pain all tine way up
his broad back. Perhaps it is the
pain the purge gave him. Most lugub-
rious appearing OF all is my esteemed
contemporary. the Democratic publicity
director. In seclusion and out Of sight
are Tommy Corcoran and Benny
Cohen. The blankets will be taken
of OF them after the election. Harold
L. Ickes. as usual. growls at every one,
and Harry Hopkins has face as long
as an arm.
But not so Marse Henry Wallace.
There is man for you! Like the
youth on the flying trapeze, he goes
through the air with the greatest of
ease, jumping from one excuse for
New Deal failure to another and from
panacea to panacea, oblvious of what
he favored the day previously. Indeed
it appears he does not greatly care
where he lands. If he can only keep
the farmers kidded until election day
Marse Henry Is really trying. For
instance. the other day he appeared
before the Womans National Demo-
cratic Club and there, according to the
newspapers, blamed the "spendthrift
policies of the Republicans in the
twenties" for the Roosevelt depression
He said that with q perfectly straisht
face. This was funnier even than the
observation the same day Of the newest
of New Deal apologies among the COL
umnists. Ernest K. Lindley, VINO cou-
tended the administration made the
mistake Of trying to balance the budget
too quickly" Imagine all these New
Dealers lying awake nights worrying
about their mistake Of bringing the
budget into balance too quickly! Its
darned shame!
Big Hearted" Wallace.
Marse Henry, however, is at his
best when he is dealing with the farm
situation. As the Baltimore Sun has
said. our big g-hearted Secretary Of
Agriculture knows as many ways of
saving the farmer as there are petals
on a daisy"
When one scheme fails" added
this 100-year old Democratic news
paper, he is always right there with
another. He is going to make the
farmer love him-and the administra-
tion-if he has to make over America
to do it,
1t will be remembered that about
six weeks ago Marse Henry delivered
himself OF q resounding philippe to
a group of farm leaders denouncing
in unmeasured words plans for sub
sidizing farm exports. Then about
two weeks later. marvellous to say,
Marse Henry solemnly announced that
the Federal Government proposed to
subsidize the export of wheat.
But this failed to do the trick-said
trick being the quieting Of the dissatis-
faction in the farm belt with New
Deal fumbling. So Marse Henry went
out to Kansas and pleaded with the
wheat growers to be patient-that he
would do something for them. The
only thing he could think Of at the
moment was restoration Of sales
taxes on food and clothing, euphemisti-
cally called processing taxes" which
the bad old Supreme Court had invali-
dated.
All, said Marse Henry and all the
bright New Deal boys, restore the
processing taxes-that was the stuff.
But the farmers could not figure out
how that would help them. Then
some one remembered that two years
ago Marse Henrys Bureau Of Agri-
cultural Economics had reported that
the former so-called processing taxes"
had not been paid by the professors
but had been deducted from the prices
paid to the farmers or were passed
along to the consumers.
So Marse Henry decided to drop that
hot potato. But he had another idea-
and thev cor,e to him inst like that!