The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1939-07-13
LOOKING FORWARD
By FRANKLIN MAILMAN
Publicity Director, Republican National Committee

Life in Washington for the most
mart is deadly serious but frequently
# is made highly pleasant by flashes of
humor. Of course it is the unconscious
humor which gives the most joy-and
there has been a great deal Of that
kind of humor coming from New
/ Dealers in recent months.
For instance, there was the declara-
ton Of Attorney General Frank Muir
phy made in his most solemn and
Nous manner, the great need of the
hour in the reduction of the payrolls
of Federal, State and local govern
| ment by one million persons and
100000, 900 annually. Mr.. Murphy
/ was quite right about it but he is the
4 last man in the world who should have
made such a statement 1t was as
ludicrous as though Stain had de-
nounced terrorism.
In the first place, the Roosevelt Adj
ministratiOn, of which Mr.. Murphy is
a part, is responsible for adding sew
eral hundred thousand jobholders to
the public payroll. In the second place.
! he has l20 special assistants, who re-
ceive better than 100000 yearly, chif-
| " because of their political drag. In
! the third place, the Hon. Murphy,
| when Governor of Michigan, loaded up
| the payrolls of that State with sew
eraI thousand additional jobholders.
Even New Dealers Laughed
Is it any wonder that even intimates
of the White House burst into uproar-
lous laughter when they read the Muir
/ oh, AID Tho 1o1,po
| ter became louder when it was learned
that at the very time the statement
was made the unctuous Attorney Gen
eral was engaged in finding a job in
his department for the lame duck
Thomas J. Hefin, the Alabama buff
foon Of few years ago.
Even more humorous than the Muir
ply incident were the simulated in
dignation and anguish of the New
Dealers, from the President down,
when the Senate undertook to end his
discretionary and dangerous authority
to tinker with the value of the dollar.
Instead of retrieving a power which
properly belongs to Congress, one
would have thought that the Senate
had sought to abolish the Presidency,
so loudly and fiercely did Mr.. Roose
welt cry out.
The entire corps of New Deal prop
agandists went to work on that one. 1t
will be recalled that the move to end
the Presidents power to devalue the
dollar was brought about by cOali-
ton of Republicans and Democrats,
who also banned the purchase of for
eign silver by the Treasury but fixed
the Treasury price for newly-mined
domestic silver at 7712 cents an ounce.
Lindley Becomes Hysterical
Why, cried the New Deal propagan-
dists, it was awful for Republicans to
join in any such deal" Even the usu-
ally intelligent and calm Ernest K.
Lindley, who writes the most sensible
syndicated column in behalf or the
New Deal, became hysterical. The SEN
ate Republicans, he said, 'have voted
for a chunk of legalized graft for the
domestic producers Of silver"
What makes this so ludicrous is that
when the Treasury, by proclamation OF
the President, was paying the domes-
tic silver producers 7712 cents an
ounce back in 1885, 1886 and 1887,
METER Mr.. Lindley nor any Of the other
New Deal apologists called it illegal
lied graft" Nor did they brand as
"legalized graft" the millions of Amer
lean dollars which went into the peck
cts of foreign spectators under the
Roosevelt foreign silver purchase pro-
gram. All this, they said, was neces-
sary to assure the more abundant
life"
Nor did Mr.. Lindley scream 'legal-
lied graft" a few days later when the
New Deal leaders in Congress, in an
effort to save the Presidents devalu-
alton powers, made a deal" with the
silver bloc to fix by law the price Of do
nestle silver at 70 cents an ounce. :,
Oh no! Such IDEALS" are quite all
right when the New Dealers engage
in them. But it is awful-it is legal
lied graft"-when the Republicans, IN
an effort to wipe out a much greater
evil, namely, the Presidents power to
tinker with the dollar, agree to give
the domestic silver producers a sub
sidy of approximately $7,000,OOO an