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EconomyView May Become Awkward Items in Budget Held Not Unlike Others Left in Cold. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S budget message falls on fertile ground today so far as a small number of members of Con gress are concerned. Indeed, many of them realise the importance of cutting expenses and may try to pare down me President's fig ures. But the truth la Roosevelt is the only man who can really bring expenses down. Pressure groups of one kind or another . are always on hand to get this or that appro priation through and in the last • three years each of these nressure David Lawrence. groups has had access to the White House. The President is emphasizing the Importance of getting the budget into balance, but he will find Congress rather disinclined, on the whole, to reduce the expenses of the Federal Government. The economy advocates will be prominent in the discussion, but the overwhelming majority have been taught the doctrines of spending so intensively by the Roosevelt ad ministration itself that it will be diffi cult to reverse the thinking of men who have been boasting about how much money they got out of Uncle Sam for their respective districts. During the last campaign, the WTiter encountered a member of Con gress from a Western State who made his whole campaign canvass on the plea that he had obtained more dollars per capita for the people of his dis trict- than any other Congressman in the country. Spending Idea Dominant. The idea of calling on the Federal Treasury to finance every kind of boondoggle, from the building of me nageries to the construction of city sewers, which ought of course to be financed out of city taxes without subsidy from the National Govern ment. is a basic New Deal policy. The arguments made by the President against spending which now appear in his budget message are remarkably similar to the arguments which have been made for three years by the administration's opponents. Hence suddenly to expect Congress now to take seriously any warnings about Federal deficits, after a political party was elected last Autumn by the big gest majority in history notwith standing three years of successive defi cits. is something too novel to be in troduced at this time. The experience is too recent to be forgotten by the politically-minded members of the National Legislature. Mr. Roosevelt’s words about the necessity of side-tracking expenditures lor certain social reforms do not, to be sure, sit well with the more radical members of his party. A paragraph like this from the President's budget message, they opine, might have been written by a Liberty Leaguer of by gone days: “While I recognize many oppor tunities to improve social and eco nomic conditions through Federal ac tion, I am convinced that the success of our whole program and the perma nent security of our people demand that we adjust all expenditures within the limits of my budget estimate." Sentences like the foregoing would have more weight with Congress if the President did not have a half dozen agencies planning more and more Federal aid in the coming years. Items Dangerous to Cut. Mr. Roosevelt refers to expenses Within his budget estimate. Naturally there are some items which he would like to cut out but which, if elimi hated, mean antagonism for him Among members of Congress whose rotes he needs for certain measures like the bill to reorganize the Su Iweme Court. The President will be In an awk ward position If he attempts to defend kome of the items already within his budget which do not differ In prin ciple from the items which other groups now are trying to insert in the Federal appropriation bills. It is sig nificant to note that Mr. Roosevelt chooses now to speak of “special pressure groups.” He says: “It Is a matter of concern to you and to me who are working for a balanced budget that so many special groups exert the strongest pressure to bring about Increases In Government expenditures. ” Who are the special groups, and ' what pressure do they exert? There usually is plenty of time and money to investigate business interests who ask that they be freed from ham ktringing legislation, but there never apparently is any money to investi gate the “special pressure groups” who want to raid the Treasury. The reason is that most of these special pressure groups aided the Roosevelt administration and members of Con gress to get a big majority last Au tumn, and It Just isn’t political style or custom to Investigate the short comings of ones own party or its Allies. ICopyright, 1937.) One factory at Moscow, Russia, an nounces It will make 30,000,000 paper cups this year. YOU WILL PREFER THIS HOTEL IN NEW YORK! • IT’S MODERN AND MODERATE.. in the Grand Central District adjacent to Radio City, the leading theatres and better shops. All 800 rooms feature outside exposure, bath, shower, and radio. Single S3, double $4, twin-bedded, (4.50. HOTEL MONTCLAIR Lexington Ave. at 49th St., N.Y.C. News Behind the News Budget Estimates Held Less Promising Than Message With Middle Road Taken. BY PAUL MALLOV. R. R. wrote his budget argument to Congress In type of normal size, but he attached a proving table of flgurea printed in sensationally fine type. The figures were certainly too small for elderly legislators to read with their aging eyes, but some of the younger Congressmen could make them out with the use of glasses. Their conclusion was that perhaps the figures should have been in even smaller type. The specific estimates disclosed far less promise of expenditure curtailment than did the written message. Tot one thing, these figures showed President Roosevelt's new budget on the whole Is about 168,000,000 more than the one he submitted In Jan uary. Also, the appropriations he Is seeklhg are only about 6 per cent lest wum vne expenditures now con templated this year. The basic story of the budget was not even evident to good legislative eyesight from a face analysis of the fine print figures. They needed a pencil and pad to figure it out, and some of them are still at it. The uncertainty in the face value of the figures is amply illus trated bv one extreme instance: LOOKS Offhand they appeared to show a curtailment of some $275,000,000 In the supplemental items of the revised budget, meaning the odds and ends of Government expenses. The $450,000,000 total of the January budget was shown to be cut to $175,000,000 in the revised one. But a footnote on another Item (not on this one) indicates the new figure does not include C. C. C.. as the old one did. This time C. C. C. is listed separately. So, if you add in C. C. C„ the $275,000,000 saving in the odds and ends estimates really is a $75,000,000 loss. Instead of disclosing a disposition to curtail sharply, the odds and ends item really indicated a disposition to let things slide. The whole set of figure* is more or less like that. Thus, the layman and the expert are likely to get two opposite conclusions about Mr. Roosevelt's proposition. The layman will note that the President "regards it as extremely important that we should achieve" a balanced budget next year, and it appealing to Congress to help him. Analysts generally will agree that a balance is wholly improbable from the figures. * What Mr. Roosevelt seems to be doing now. in its simplest terms, devoid of elusive figures, is this: He intends to hold down expenditures, not to cut appropriations. He intends to block extrabudgetary appropriations by Congress this ses sion to whatever extent he later may choose. He i* saying to Congress: "You go ahead and pass the appropriation bills for next year, limited to the amounts I told you last January, and I will try to balance the budget by spending less than you appropriate, and by picking up some money on refunds received by the Government on R. F. C. loans, etc.” The whole implication clearly is one of "spending no more than necessary" rather than "active curtailment." The budget is still on the basis of "need," rather than income. Mr. Roosevelt is taking a less serious view' of his budgetary situation than Federal Reserve Board Chairman Eccles has taken, for Instance. All hopes of a real reduction in relief appropriations is over for another year at least. To all who are clamoring for a balance, Mr. Roose velt is merely saying: “Just leave it to me." Strictly under your hat, two of Mr. Roosevelt's legislative con sultants protested the tone of the message to him before it was de livered. They said the relief figure was too high, that he need not spend $1,500,000,000 together with the money he will have left over xsvin tans jcm. aucy cuuiiacicu mm u) cut me ngure to a nat billion Just for the sake of appearances. It would have a beneficial effect, to show he meant business. This and several other less important recommendations of the consultants were turned down cold. As a result, there is likely to be an unexpected and unusual inside movement in Congress to readjust the figures submitted by the President in several ways. The officially whispered explanation of the President's stand is that he was caught between two fires. The Governors and Mayors out in the country have been doing everything in their power to keep the Federal Treasury grab bag open for themselves. The State and city officials wanted $2,000,000,000 for .relief. A small group in the House is propagandizing for $2,400,000,000, or some such sum. The President apparently decided to take the middle course again. It would appear he landed about halfway between the pork barrel criers and the budget balancers, thereby satisfying no one and clearing nothing. (CoorTlsht, 1937.) “Vanishing” American Indians Rapidly Increasing Population By the Associated Press. . America’s Indians, once considered a vanishing race, now are increasing i more rapidly than any other group in : the country. | This fact was reported by the Indian Office today along with the announce- 1 ment that the country’s Indian popu- ! lation is 334.300, compared with Smithsonian Institution estimates that there were 800.000 of the redmen here when Columbus arrived. The Indian Office said births now exceeded deaths by 3,500 a year, whereas a few years ago the population was steadily decreasing. At the same time John Collier, com missioner of Indian affairs, noted a re birth among Indians of an independent spirit, which, he said, helps keep Uncle Sam's per capita expense for them down to around $60 to $90 a year. As evidence of a growing Inde pendence of spirit Collier cited that some tribes will not accept Govern ment assistance except as a last resort. The Florida Seminoles particularly are independent, he said. They re fuse to send their children to school or to go to a hospital except in cases of great emergency. Collier mentioned also the Red Lake Day School near Leupp, Ariz., where several Indian families interested in home gardens built and paid for an Irrigation dam. The commissioner's annual report said, however, that “the Indians' eco nomic level, by and large, is still the lowest in the United States." DR, SZE TO BE FETED Cornell Alumni Club to Honor Retiring Ambassador. Dr. Sao-Ke Alfred Sze, retiring Chinese Ambassador, will be the guest of honor at a dinner to be given by the Cornell Alumni Club of Washington Saturday night at the Carlton Hotel. John L. McElfresh, president of the club, will introduce the toastmaster. Prof. Charles L. Durham of Cornell. Dr. Jacob Goul Schurman, former president of Cornell, and Bancroft Gherardl, vice president and chief engineer of the American Telephone & Telegraph Co., a trustee of the university, will speak. 'J'HE opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are presented in The Star’s effort to give all sides of questions of interest to its readers, although such opinions may be contradictory among themselves and directly opposed to The Star’s. Showdown on Spending Another Failure in President’s Resolve to Economize Would Be Hard to Explain Away* BY MARK SULLIVAN. DURING the interval since President Roosevelt sent his budget message to Congress, the question has been, will expenditures actually be held In check? Dependent on that, the ques tion Is, will the country experience seuuus umauon: For the moment the answer seems yes, expenditures will be restrained; and no, the coun try will not ex perience serious inflation. But all that this answer purports to be is a summary ol present atmos phere. The long term answer is not possible to know. For the moment, Mark Sullivan. tne picture seems to be a competition In virtue between the President and Congress; that is, a competition in reduction of spending. The President sends to Congress a budget of pro posed expenditures and says to Con gress In effect: "I hope you won’t add anything to It.” And Congress re plies in effect: “All right, if that's the way you feel, we’ll go even farther; we’ll take out some of the expendi tures you put In yourself.” Such a competition in economy is most unusual. As respects Congress, It could readily turn into a competi tion in the other direction, in spend ing. If Congress felt the president would put personal drive behind his recommendation, then Congress would reduce. Congress in that case would have the President as an alibi. In dividual members of Congress would be able to say, to the constituencies that ask for relief money and other appropriations. “I'd like to. but the President is determined to reduce, and I won’t stand in the way.” Relief Key to Economy. As between Congress and the Presi dent, the key to the situation is re lief expenditures. The President says he wants a billion and a half. Con gressional leaders who met with him in a conference preceding his budget message told him—60 gossip says— that they thought much less would do. Gossip says that all the leaders told him $1,000,000,000 would be enough, except one who said $1,200,000,000. Nevertheless Mr. Roosevelt, in his budget message, kept his figure at $1,500,000,000. To this, the reaction of the congres sional leaders could take one of two directions. They could say, “Very well, if he holds to his $1,500,000,000 for relief, there is no reason we should say no to the constituencies that demand appropriations from us.” That would be a competition in spending. Or Congress could say, “If we must say no to our constituencies, then we'll reduce the President’s $1,500, 000,000 to what W'e think is enough.” The latter seems to be the direction the congressional leaders are taking. Im portant ones among them say they will move to reduce the $1,500,000,000 to $1,000,000,000. Thus Congress is asking for what Senator Arthur Van denberg of Michigan calls “reciprocal self-denial.” If that mood in Congress lasts, then the whole trend will be toward reduction of some expenditures and restraint of new ones. The question comes down to the degree of the President's earnestness. Is reduction a “must” matter? Is the President as much in earnest about restraining expenditures as he is, for example, about getting his change in the Supreme Court? To push his court proposal, he sent Democratic National Chairman Parley into North Carolina and other States, to make speeches saying that the court pro ^ w We Can Repair 4 That Watch 1 Our wtlthmiVfri art ruga of aklll and Ion* training. Thry know howl Work SuaraaUH. Uit Your Credit CASTELBERG’S 1004 F St. N. W. M A. V. • < -'-rv <■ ■ r ■ C. Schmidt $k Smi, Inc. Phil*., Pa. EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTOR FOR DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Try-Me Bottling Company 1345 Florida Avenue, N.E. WASHINGTON, D. C. Htoiwi Line. 0112-0113-0114 posal is official party policy, thereby implying that Democrats in Congress who fail to support it will be marked for political death ■when they come up in the primaries for renomination. If the administration were willing to do this in behalf of restraining expendi tures, and do half the other things that are being done for the court pro posal, then the expenditures would be restrained. Resolution Is Questioned. Opponents of the President and critics of him are digging up records to show that, with respect to economy in government, the President lacks continuity of intention. Yet the President's past lapses in this respect could be explained. True, the Presi dent, in his 1932 campaign, promised great economies. True, the President, as almost his earliest act, in March, 1933, moved in the direction of econ omy with greater force than any other President had ever done; he actually performed what was deemed incred ible; he brought about an extreme reduction in payments to veterans. True, these early economy moves were later undone and the campaign prom ise of economy was thrown out the window. But this reversal in 1933 could be explained as a change of fundamental policy, adopted because of emergency For the economy policy of the cam paign and of the first month of hi* administration, there was substituted the spending policy which some economists recommended as the better cure for depression. Whether spend ing actually is a better cure; whether the change from an economy policy to a spending one was justified by new conditions that arose in the interval between the two policies—all that is a question over which his torians and economists will long dis pute. Another reproach now thrust at the President has to do with his repeated holding out of expectation that the budget would be balanced It is recalled that in 1933 he said there was “reasonable prospect" of a balanced budget “within a year”; that in 1934 he said “we should plan to have a definitely balanced budget for the third year of recovery"; that again in January this year, in his message to Congress, he still seemed to expect early balance of the budget Answer to Be Had Soon. All that, however, can be seen af mere excess of optimism. That the President is an optimistic person is not denied by either friends or foes Whether optimism is at all times a virtue is a question. Immunity from worry is commonly supposed to be a desirable human attribute. But immunity from worry may be merely one way of describing inability ta see possible unpleasant outcomes oi present actions. However, the President's past record on economy may be explained or excused, the fact remains that this record Impairs his moral authority for insisting on economy now, the fifth year of his administration. Any how, the coming weeks will constitute almost a last call for Mr. Roosevelt and for the country. One more failure in continuity of intention about economy, added to the previous ones, would make a record not easy to defend. And if Mr. Roosevelt cannot or does not balance the budget at this stage of recovery, if he does not balance it when times are as good as they now are. there will be a general feeling that he will not bal ance it at all. And if that feeling We, the People New Deal Pushes Packed Court Program in Spite of 5 to 4 Favorable Decisions. BY JAY FRANKLIN. THE New Deal attitude toward the Supreme Court’s cherry blossom festival over the Wagner labor relations act is that there is no change since the 5-to-4 decision on the Washington State minimum wage law. They still regard it as a "one-man court,” composed of Associate Justice Owen J. Roberts, whose peripatetic vote can make or break any Federal law that comes before the judiciary. Those officials and politicians who are working to repack the Supreme Court point out that the five labor relations cases produced only one unanimous decision—the interstate bus ease, which was so clearly a matter oi interstate commerce as to be undeniable. In the four other cases—the Associated Press Watson case, the Jones Sc Laughlin Steel Co. case, the Fruehauf Trailer Co. case and the Frledmann-Harry Marks Cloth ing Co. case—the decisions were *11 5 to 4, with always the same Judicial battalion of death voting against the majority. Associate Justices Sut.herl anH Van — *_ McHeynolds and Butler—by the aolldlty of their line-up—show on how thin a thread hangs the fate of New Deal legislation. It it not too much to toy, the New Dealert feel, that it was not to much the election-returns as the strike-news which induced Mr t0 Cast hU deciding vote with the three liberals and with Chief Justice Hughes, any they are interested to note that while Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion in the A P case Mr. Hughes wrote the opinion in the other three split decisions. This is In line with the practice of a Chief Justice who has hern careful to write opinions only when he Is on the liberal side, but has“uS one of the conservatives to write the opinion whenever he found himself m agreement with them. In New Deal cases from May 1. 1935 through December, 1936, the Chief Justice has refrained from writing a liberal opinion monly four minor matters coming before the court, when he was voting with the liberals. He has written only one conservative opinion aH H ,L‘.Cv°nCU g and confuMn« one—in the many cases where he has sided with the conservatlvee. e The record speaks for itself: 1. West vs. C. & P. Tel. Co. (Rate value oase). Roberts for conservative majority of six (including Hughes). 2. MeC and less vs. Furland. Cardoso for liberal majority of live (In cluding Hughes). 3. U. S. vs. Constantine. Roberts for conservative majority of six (Including Hughes). ^ y oi six 4. Colgate vs. Harvey. Sutherland for conservative majority of six (Including Hughes). U' f3 , VV B,utler (the A A- A CM*>- Roberts for conservative majority of six (including Hughes). 6. Great Northern vs. Weeks (North Dakotei Tax Case). Butler for conservative majority of six (including Hughes). , B°rden* Co vs. Ten Eyck (Second New York Milk Case). Roberts for liberal majority of five (including Hughes). 8. Mayflower Farms vs. Ten Eyck (Third New York Milk Case) Roberts for conservative majority of six (including Hughes). 9. Brown vs. Mississippi (third degree confession, Negro case) Hughes for “liberal'' unanimous decision. 10. Ashwander vs. T. V. A. Hughes for liberal majority of eight. 11. Whitfield vs. Ohio (convict goods case). Sutherland for liberal majority of six (Including Hughes>. 12. Sugar Institute vs. U. S. Hughes for “liberal" seven. 13. Jones vs. S. E. C. Sutherland for conservative majority of six (including Hughes). 14. St. Joseph Stock Tarda Co rs. U. 8. Hughes for “liberal" majority of six. 15 Carter vs. Carter Coal Co. (Guffey ooal act). Sutherland for conservative majority of five, Hughes in separate conservative opinion. 16. U. S. vs. Elgin & Joliet Railway Co. McReynolds for con servative majority of six (including Hughes). 17. Ashton vs. Cameron County (munirloAl lanirunhi art.) Cardozo for liberal minority of four (including Hughes). 18. Morehead vs. Tlpaldo. Hughes for liberal minority of four. 19. Landis vs. North Ameri can. Cardozo for "liberal" seven on procedure. 20. Duke Power Co. vs. Greenwood County. Hughes with conservative per curiam decision— (a raw deal for the New Deal's power program). )tciito*S So when Mr. Hughes comet to write his autobiography he will find plenty of interestingly liberal opinions for inclusion. His votes on the conservative tide will not be supported by documentary material. So can one choose how one shall be presented to posterity. The Supreme Court decisions on the Wagner labor relations act, however, do represent the first stage In the New Deal plans for *% conversion of the Judiciary. Shortly after the election. I wrote that President Roosevelt really was gunning for 5-to-4 decisions In favor of his legislative program. Now that he has them, slnos the appetite grows with eating, It would be idle to expect him or his supporters to refrain from pushing through the Judiciary reform bill to the bitter end. Never theless, unless the word "No compromise” is again sent out from the White House, no one can blame some of his supporters In Congress from wondering whether he may not leave them out on the end of a limb. (CopTTlsht. 1937.) becomes widespread, then inflation will not be a matter of prediction, it 1 will be an actuality. Whenever there is a widespread feeling that the budget is not going to be balanced, and that therefore prices of all kinds are going to go higher and higher—that psy chology constitutes a definite stage of Inflation. fCopyrlsht, 1P37.) An American You Should Know -- Dorothy Detzer Leads Women’s League Fight for Peace. BY DELIA PYNCHOV. PEACE and freedom ring interna tional door bells hopefully. Their reception become* in creasingly cordial In war weary world homes. Many organizations sponsor peaca. The Women’s International League for Peace and Fredom iW. I. L. foe Dorothy Delier. Miorw goes a step further. They link freedom to peace. This is not the freedom of li cense. It la, they say, a "liberty of the human spirit” in opposition to "intolerance and oppression.” Dorcthy Detzer ts Its executive s e c r e tary. She fights with the weapons of or ganization, edu cation and legis lauon ior "justice witnout violence." She lobbies in Congress with a vigor ous political technique, she argue* with a factual knowledge of Interna tional treaties and policies. She wins converts to the cause with logic and persuasion. Her recent single-handed attack on the profits of munitions makers re sulted In a munitions Inquiry, spon sored by Senator (Jerald P. Nye In 1934, to Investigate the manufacture of armaments. Native of Indiana. A vital personality Is Dorothy Det *er. By definite stair-steps she has gone up In peace convictions and serv ice. From Fort Wayne. Ind, where she was born, she started viewing the world at 17, when she went to the Far East. “I revolted against college,” she said, “and Instead went to Hull House in 1915 and had social service training under Jane Addams.” During those World War days Doro thy Detzer’s peace ideas were de veloped. She saw what war was doing to individuals and nations. "Something happened to me," sha said. There is no abortive indecision about Miss Detzer. She went overseas In 1920. She worked with the American Friends Service Committee In Vienna, which, she said, was a “dying city without food.” In Russia In 1922 sha saw what revolution did to civilians. When she returned to America sha camped on peace organizations door steps, determined to scrub floors, if necessary, for the cause of peace. In 1925 she became executive secretary of the W. I. L. Sections In *1 Nations. Twenty-one national sections func tion In 21 countries. Headquarters are In Geneva. It Is a growing movement, which, like a giant arterial system, pumps the life blood of peace and free dom Into every city and town. It 1* significant that a war-resisting cam paign In England has signed up mora people than the army or navy in re cent months. Dorothy Detaer feels the “manifes tations of facism does not come out of a clear sky.” “These countries mus* have access to raw materials," she says. To accomplish this she hopes we may have an “international organiza tion of society which will permit the formation of an international export and import board to control allocation and distribution of raw materials and goods.” "nf NICE TO HAVE A COMPLEXION CAPE THAT KEEPS SKIN SMOOTH/—" ^ > Guard against Cosmetic Skin the Screen Stars’ way ... 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