NEW PRESIDENT

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 13

NEW PRESIDENT

AN AMAZING MONTH

CONFIDENCE OF PEOPLE

BIG TASKS AHEAD

(From "The Post's" Representative.) ;■ ' ',■-:. NEW YORK, April 4. . President Roosevelt was "inaugurated" a ; month ago. His amazing record ' during that short period may best be illustrated by a list of his performances:— 1. Reorganised the banks, which had closod throughout the nation. Today, 5000 national banks are operating at full capacity and 500,000,000 dollars in hoarded gold has been paid into tho banks. 2. Secured passage through Congress in two days of legislation affecting economies aggregating 500,000,000 dollars. 3. Initiated the repeal of Prohibition, and legalisation of \the sale of beer and light wine. ' ; 4. Instituted a system of farm rolief which guarantees farmers a fair price; and reasonable'profit .on their operations, and a plan of refinancing farm mortgages, under which the farmer will meet his indebtedness at an interest of not more than 4J per cent. 5. Directed Congress to pass tho 30----hour week bill, which will provide work for 6,000,000, or half tlio unemployed, by the-resultant spread of work, and laid plans for advances to individual States for direct relief to sufferers, from depression. 6. Opened air investigation of stock market practices, with a view to controlling speculation. ; . ' 7. Laid down plans for Ihe relief of tho small home owner, encumbered by ,mortgages at high rate 3of interest. j 8. Negotiated with various, nations, \ with a view to reducing tho American "tariff against their goods, in return for concessions in reciprocal trade. 9. Set a new precedent in administration by the appointment of women to the Cabinet and to the diplomatic serTice. HEAVY TASKS AHEAD. -• That one man has been enabled t6 carry out reforms with the aid of both Houses of Congress that would have taken Congress many years to achieve shows tho extent of tho trust placed by the people in the President. In the last few years, they have not learned to placo much reliance on Congress; therefore, it was made clear that the President was not to be held up by Con.gress in his programme of restoring confidence to a nation that had been fear-ridden for over two years. This is amply demonstrated by the -powers of initiative Mr. Roosevelt has already exercised—such powers as President Hoover, .balked at every step by a- refractory Congress, could not dream of attaining. President Roosevelt' has two heavy tasks ahead: the control of stock market speculation, and the reduction of the tariff, two of the main causes to "which he ascribes the world depression. The stock exchange is in a very sober mood these days, with Federal investigators prying into tho activities of brokerage firms, ,whoso names were a household word. Practices which, in Canada, secured the imprisonment for two years of the leading stockbrokers of tho Doininion,.have gone ' unchecked until tiow. But stock market operators have at last awakened to tho knowledge that ilr. Roosevelt is their nemesis, and ihnt many practices that were tolerated by established custom will not coincide with his code of ethjrs. Wall Street haa never known .such eonsciciieostrieken.days. I Tlio President intends to link tho war debts with trado concessions. Were this task left to 'Congress, we would have a repetition of the bitterness against European nations that was indulged in by members of .both Houses in the first "two months of the year. The lobbying and discreditable vote-bar-gaining that characterised two years of tariff discussion in both Houses would have been reproduced. But neither course is likclv to be pursued, jis there is every indication that the President will play n lone hand in the ■ war debt and tariff negotiations. In the present humour of the people, and •with tho knowledge of what Mr. 'Roosevelt has already 'dono to rehabilitate his aonntry, Congress will be« well advised "to fall in, behind him.'