Detroit evening times., 1945-03-14
BEHIND
The NEWS
BY Paul
Manon
WASHINGTON. March 13-

Not single fresh figure has
been brought in. Only one of
the long familiar faces has dis
appeared-the mobile counte-
nance of the banker Jesse
Jones (now reported in the
market for a Washington or
other newspaper in which to
express his ideals and wounded
feelings).
The unannounced part of the
shakeup has definitely brought
the Tammany schooled ward
boss Edward Joseph Flynn to
the Presidents right hand in
place of Harry Hopkins. After
the Malta -Yalta-Livadia eonfab,
Hopkins went back TO the hos
pital and Flynn went to Moscow
for more detailed negotiations
with the Russians in the name
of the President.
Flynn was only sn assembly,
man, sheriff and city chamber
lain around New York before
Mr.. Roosevelt, while governor,
appointed him state secretary
of state and eventually raised
him to chairman of the DemQ-
cratic National Committee for
the third term election.
Now apparently he is to
handle both international diplo-
matte and domestic matters,
taking the load which rested
too heavily on the ailing Hop
kins.
THE announced part of the
L shifts bear less significant
meanings aside from the strik-
ing disclosure that MIR. Roose-
welt has not wanted any fresh
blood or new ideas in his
fourth administration. Other
wise the chances suggest only
that labor and the leftwing
have improved their position at
the inner council table.
Fred VinSon. in place of
Jesse Jones, is a man who
knows Washington ropes, and
he will pull them adeptly. The
$4,000, 100000 mortgage en-
pire built up by Jones will be
quietly administered.
Economic stabilization will
be in the hands of a patent at
torney who has made a ca
recr of coordination and labor
eoheiliation. William II. Davis.
The union chiefs were glad
TO get rid of Vinson. In RFC
he cannot block their wage in
crease plans. They think Davis
will follow the same concilia-
tory labor course as stabilizer
he followed in the War Labor
Board.
As A MATTER of fact, he
"A will do whatever Mr.. Roose-
welt wants. He will up, down
or hold as orders come from
the White House, for he is es-
sentially a Roosevelt man.
In his old place at the head
of the War Labor Board. DR..
George w. Taylor. a young col
lege professor, (labor, econo-
mics, etc. will follow the es-
tabliShed DaviS-Roosevelt line.
He generally voted with Davis,
who invariably followed the
Presidents purposes.
All these moves were recon-
mended TO the President by the
generalisSimo of domestic af-
fairs, James F. Byrnes. He got
Speaker Rayburn, Vice Presi-
dent Truman and the other
inner circumlocutioniSts to-
gether on them, which means
his prestige and wishes will be
higher from these appointments.
Indeed, it has not been an
nounced, but Byrnes has re-
ceived carte blanche on domes-
tic affairs from the President.
From these changes / would
expect more politics and labor
in coming decisions, and moth
ing much new.
WHAT the coming of Wallace
w to the stripped commerce
department will mean, few will
guess until they can see what
he does with il. He is supposed
TO be angling to get control Of
the Federal Trade Commission
(now conducting Investigations
of bignesS in busineSs), and the
Federal Power Commission
(which Ickes is not likely to re-
lease without a struggled.
However, the rumorS that he
also wants the OPA, WPB and
a few other top bureaus, seem
TO have been concocted by his
spoilers who thus have already
started kidding his efforts TO
build up the commerce DEPART
ment into something leftishly
powerful.
In his first move he appointed
people who really know some
thing about small business to
investigate that subject, but so
many commissions have b c e n
started by the government on
small business without results,
little enthusiasm attends this
sixteenth or seventeenth effort.
Yet Wallace will have to ac-
quire something aside from
patents, census, etc, TO which
his management now is limited,
else this springboard to a 1948
presidential candidacy will sag
and break under his weight.
Wait on this one TO see what
develops.
Thus are the lines being
drawn in rather than out for