The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-04-20
WASHINGTON, April 20

ash can = with the loudeSt
 To date Congress has shaved $150,0O0,O00 from budget recom- mendations $50,00O,000 from . WPA and 100000 from other agencies. But if the plan of 8 powerfully buttressed log-rolling coalition ill the Senate goes through, not only will this saving be swallowed. but nearly twice as much will be added to the defi-' cit.
 Leaders of the coalition are Senators Harrison of Mississippi, George of Georgia, Smith of South Carolina, and Nye of
 North Dakota - all of them top voice shouters for economy.
 Their plan is practically certain to pass, and it would add $400,- 100000 to the agriculture supply bill for parity payments-$250,- 100000 for the five major crops, cotton, wheat, corn, rice and to- bacco; and $50, 1000, ,000 for dairy products, fruits, live stock and other commodities. This is $250,- GOO, ,000 more than the economy so laboriously hacked out of WPA. and other sources. @ <, What Pat Harrison, Cotton Ed''. and others maintain is that the parity money is needed to avert. catastrophe drops in farm prices this year. Without such snoring, they contend, the bottom will fall out 1f agriculture and adversely. affect the entire national econ-. omy. a <
 But this, it happens, is exactly :; the New Deal argument for big ! scale spending-which the pap :: boys so heatedly denounced a few weeks ago. { NEW PWA PROGRAM
 While the congressional trapeze artists are setting the stage for a treasury raid to feather their per- sonal nests, inner Administration ties are limiting privately that a new public works program may be sprung next month. %'.{
 Details of the plan haven't ] been worked out yet, but discus cussions have centered, so far, around a $2,0O0, 10000 bill for building hospitals and diagnOstic centers in small towns and rural districts. .sG. <
 The report on medical needs submitted last December by the committee headed by Miss Jo--. sephine Roche, former assistant secretary of the treasury, declared that such institutions were ur- gently needed in hundreds of communities. ' FRANK MURPHY
 Debonair, red-headed Frank Murphy Is now Washington's No Bachelor. Frequently he com plains: This Washington society Is too much for me. I can't keep up with it. I'm an i'll man." V
 Next night you see him at dm- ner talking to a gorgeous debu-, tante. 'ess A'7.
 Women rave about him. Frank is simply too charming" remarked one society matron, until sud- denly he seems to see the angel Gabriel just above the horizon. Then that righteous far-away look comes into his eyes and he doesn't hear what you say any mOre." & DEAD rec
 Unless the White House can find some way to give 1t new life, the bill to replace the dissension- wracked 7-man Communications Commission with 3-man body is a dead duck for this session.
 The legislation is suffering from two maladies that are usually fata1: there is little in- terest in 1t in Congress, and the powerful radio lobby Is se- cretly fighting it tooth and nail. Only the personal intervention of Senator Burt Wheeler, influ- ential chairman of the Inter- state Commerce Committee, can overcome these handicaps--and Wheeler is too occupied with other matters.
 He is concentrating on the rail- road reorganization bills; also, while readily agreeing that the EGG is a mess, Wheeler feels that it is Roosevelt's fault be- cause he appointed all the coIn- missioners. Had the President named abler men, the agency would not now need a house. cleaning.
 Recent appointment of Fred erick I. Thompson, liberal Ala bama publisher and communica-