The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-07-09

Roosevelt luck has come to be the envy of business men, the thing for which gamblers would give their dealing arm.
 Only Joe Louis and the Presi- dent of the United States have it. Yet even some of his close advisers now think that Franklin Delano has strained the magic luck too far.
 ROOsevelt's Weakness
 Those who sincerely hate Roose- welt can find all sorts of things wrong with him: He laughs too loud. His smile is too broad. He tits his cigarette holder too high. He kow-tows to labor. He has betrayed his own class. He is not a constitutional Democrat. He will not balance the budget. He will get this country into war, and so on until very late into the night.
 But those who really know Roosevelt-his great qualities plus his dcfects-know that his greatest weakness is over-con- fidence.
 Just as he was needed in the Supreme Court fight of 1887, just as he was needed to steer the congressional program of 1898, just as he is needed to steer the primary and recovery battles of the present summer, the gener- alissimo of all these campaigns blithely goes on a fishing trip. Inefficient New Deal
 It is always dangerous to report contemporary history. But prob ably it is safe to predict that when the history of the Roosevelt Administration is written, it will stand out for the many brilliant ideas conceived, and for the slov- enly inefficiency with which they were executed.
 Second to over- optimism, the inability to execute ideas is the greatest weakness of the New Deal.
 Franklin Delano Roosevelt has an over-Weaning, uncomfortable propensity for appointing square pegs in round holes. He has un- earthed some positive geniuses in administration; and at the same time, he has continued in import ant offices some gentlemen who literally stink.
 Undoubtedly his greatest joy is to mix both types on commits sion where the two sabotage and hamstring each other to a degree where absolutely nothing is &C., complished.
 This is what he did with the Federal Communications Com- mission. No more polygot, het- erogenous assortment of persona mel ever stymicd an otherwise excellent Act of Congress.
 This is also what he did with the Bituminous Coal Commission with the U. s. Housing Authority, the Munitions Control Board, and half dozen other agencies. And his close advisers fear that this is what may happen to some of the new agencies created just be- fore the closing of Congress. Wage-HOur Bill
 After long and strenuous legis- lative battles which nearly met with defeat, a Wage-hour bill was pushed through the last Congress, together with recovery-s -spend- ing program. The wage-hour bill invades a virgin field. It is one of the most important bills ever passed by Congress. Perfect ad- ministration is vital to its suc- cess.
 The equally important spending program happens to be in the hands of two experienced opera tors, Harold Ickes and Harry Hop- kins. But in highly centralized administration such as the New Deal, everything goes through the White House. Every school-house or Painted Post or swimming pool for Punxsutawney must bear the initials of Franklin Relano Roosevelt himself.
 So while he is fishing, the spending program gathers dust; and the new wage-hOur officials will be franticalIy radioing Roosevelt in mid- Pacific regard ing the wages of the hewers