The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1940-01-04
He'll Have The COuntry's Ear


Washington, Dec. 80.
The first two weeks of the New Year
are likely to be marked by Presiden
tial utterances more significant and
important than any time since 1887.
Or, perhaps, since those 1884 New
Deal revelations, when Mr.. Roosevelt
reversed his direction and started on
the spending road which, through con-
sistent and heavy deficit financing, has
added S21 00O,0O0,OO0 to the national
debt.
First, he will deliver to Congress
probably on Wednesday-his annual
message on the state of the Union. On
Monday, January 8, he will be the chief
speaker at the big Jackson Day Demo-
cratic banquet in Washington. Either
January 9 or 10 he will present his
budget for the year 1940-1941. Thus
Mr.. Roosevelt will be able to pour his
thoughts and feelings into the coun-
try's collective ear in so wholesale a
way as practically to monopolize the
channel of communication for the next
ten days. Until he has that last utter
ance off his chest, no one is in position
either to commend or criticize, be-
cause no one know what he is going
to say.
There is reason to believe the Pres
dent has given these three speeches
unusual consideration and has had
more than his usual expert assistance.
For one thing, in all probability this
will be his last message to Congress
and be his final budget. Before next
January a new President will have
been elected and Mr.. Roosevelt will be
preparing to turn over his burdens to
his successor. For another, what with
the war in Europe and third-term
movement here, the dramatic nature
Of the present situation hardly will be
duplicated for long time to come.
AS to his first speech-the message
on the state of the Union-it is taken
for granted that Mr.. Roosevelt will
dwell strongly on foreign affairs. AS
head of the greatest neutral nation
whose recent gesture linked US with
the Pope in move toward peace, his
words will be fraught with interest
abroad as well as at home. He, of
course, will touch upon the business
Improvement of the past year, the ne
cessity of further increasing our arm
ament and on various domestic prob
lens There is feeling that he may
recommend certain changes in the
oppressive Wagner Labor Act. Large
| ly this idea is based on the convic-
ton that if he does not so recommend,
Congress, impelled by disclosures of
it's unfairness and proded by public
sentiment, will make changes anyhow.
| In the budget message it seems GER
tain that Mr.. Roosevelt has made
drastic reductions all along the line
and will present to Congress bud
get, which, while still far from bal
anced, at least will represent an eff
fort in that direction. There is at the
moment some question as to whether
Mr.. Roosevelt intends these cuts to
be taken seriously or whether he has
calculatingly made them with the
knowledge that Congress facing an
election and under departmental and
farm lobby pressure will restore most
of what he has slashed The test of
his sincerity will be in the kind of
fight, if any, he puts up to make the
cuts stick and secure the new taxes
he recommends.
If he throws himself behind his own
recommendation with the force and
vigor he did in 1888, when he achieved
the remarkable feat of cutting govern
mental costs twenty-five per cent, no
can pretty nearly do the same thing
again. But, if he contents himself, as
| in 1884 he did in the matter of the
bonus, with a perfunctory attitude,
the economies will not be made. In
that event he will have made an in
sincere gesture designed to gather ap-
plause for himself and put Congress on
the spot. In any case, there will be no
excuse for either his Democratic or
Republican critics to refrain from sup
port of the economies proposed. Re-
trenchment is what they have de-
manded, and when confronted with it,
sincere or insincere, they are in no
position to pull back.
AS to the Jackson Day speech-that,
of course, is the one in which the
| politicians are most interested. Not an
inkling of its nature has been had,
though there are not lacking those
who pretend to know. Last year his