The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-04-11
! . BEHIND ! THE SCENESl WASHINGTON AsV RODNEY DUTcHER-1
 Democrat Washington
 Correspondent
Will the Battle Over the Reorganization Bill Make Roosevelt More Belliger= ent or More COncilia= tory?

Washington, April 1.-The presi- l dent and his adverSarieS have reach- ed new, feverish peak in their fight for power.
 Ther is some reason to believe
 that the battle is taking place at
 the bottom of the present depres-
 sion. But there is no certainty
 about that. And meanwhile the manifold uncertainties arising from general confusion in Washington,
 concerning which business leaders
 have complained long and angrily,
 have not been diminished by the
 bitterness of the struggle over the
 reorganization bill.
 | 1nasmuch as there's general de- mand for presidential leadership to take the country out of depression, it's important to ask whether the revolt on the reorganization issue is going to leave MT. Roosevelt in a more belligerent or more concilia- tory frame of mind as he deals with business and its problems.
 Ready to Fight?
 As always, the president is beset by two groups of advisers. One asks him to reasSure business, to refrain from oratory of the type which dis turbs business and to lay off reforms, at least until business can get on it's feet again. The other group urges him to "go out and fight, to insist on mastery and program of reform which he s told will rouse "the people" to his support.
 Roosevelt always has accepted
 advice from both sides, sometimes
 more from one, sometimes more
 from the other. Lately he has
 shown much willingness to cOm- 1 promise and has listened attentive ! ly to conservative advisers. But
 whereas a few weeks ago he was telling left-wingish visitors per-
 sistently that he didn't want to
 say or do anything that would
 disturb business, his recent deter
 imitation has been to fight, to get
 as much as possible of his reform f program through Congress and to take the rest of the program to
 the country as campaign issue. South Retaliates
 His Gainesville "feudalist" speech may have helped him politically with voters in the mass, as it was meant to do. But it certainly had bad rebound in the house. Southern con- gressmen felt they had received a swift kick when they least expected it and the trouble which this feel ing made for Roosevelt in the reor- ganization fracas illustrated the old rutism that you shouldn't kick any one unless you're sure you can beat him when he turns around to fight. One result of the reorganization revolt is to dim still further the chances of wage-hOur legislation, for which the president recently promised to make knOckdOWn effort at this session. Another re- suit is pOstpOnement of the White
 House recommends tiOns for anti
 monopoly legislation, now planned
 for late in April instead of during
 the first week after F. D. R.'s re-
 turn from Georgia. The adminis-
 tratiOn no longer hopes for any
 such legislation at this session.
 HistOry-Maker
 Revolt and administration defeats on Capitol Hill, however, do not mean quiescence on Roosevelt's part. The president has left little doubt that he considers himself one of the great figures of history. To such a man it obviously seems prime duty to vanquish the foes who obstruct him.
 Each day brings new reports of efforts to nominate and elect pro- Roosevelt men, while defeating anti Roosevelt men, for congress. h. creasing fire and furor is certain if the president insists on playing leading role in the 1888 campaigns by stressing the issues on which he has met congressional opposition.
 Another Uncertainty
 At the moment there is much hope and prayer that the new tax act, es- pecially it's drastic changes in un- distributed surplus and capital gains provisions, will bring business up- turn. If it doesn't, Roosevelt is fair ly certain to try to administer some kind of "shot in the arm" to business. But the extent to which success of recovery forces and reme- dies will be aided or impeded by mounting political turmoil is just another of the current uncertainties. The sale of drinks seldom increases during a barroom shooting fray. Copyright, 1888, NEA Service, Inc.)