Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, MAY 27, 1935. INFLATION CURBED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 151, 27 May 1935, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, MAY 27, 1935. INFLATION CURBED.

The personal appearance of President Roosevelt in Congress to veto tire Patman Soldiers’ Bonus Bill—regarded as the most dramatic since tlie late President Wilson asked for a declaration of war against Germany—and the soundness of his arguments against the inflation of currency so impressed a number of Democrats that their votes turned the scale against the legislation. It was an anxious moment in the President’s career, but he lias been enabled to keep at bay proponents of an inflationary measure devised not for sympathy for tlie soldiers themselves but for political aggrandisement. There were three Bills for payment of further gratuities to the war veterans. Last year Mr Wright Patman, a Texas representative, proposed that the bonus due in 1945 should be met at once by the issuance of “greenbacks”—flat money created for the purpose. Such a measure meant the printing of 2,200,000,000 dollars in new money, an inflationary proposal that, in the words of President Roosevelt to Congress, would destroy the value of savings and investments, reduce fixed incomes, and even seriously affect the pensions of disabled veterans. A second measure, the Vinson Bill, was the product of the “sound money” advocates. The Patman Bill, while, it welded the inflation bloc and received support from western farm groups more interested in cheap money than in the veterans, alienated conservatives among the veterans. The national commander of the American Legion himself endorsed Mr Vinson’s Bill, which provided merely for the payment of 2,000,090,000 dollars to the veterans and left the means of payment to the President to determine. It was charged against both sections by informed American writers that they sought to turn to their own purposes the sympaihy of the country for those veterans considerably fewer than the whole number — who are in desperate financial straits. The third Bill was devised by moderates who could see no hope of the President’s veto being sustained, and brought forward a compromise measure known as the Andrews Bill, by which the bonus would be paid in ten-year certificates. The Patman Bill was the best favoured by Congress after a good deal of political manoeuvring, in which pressure was brought to bear upon members of the Senate to follow the House’s lead in passing it. It was in these circumstances that President Roosevelt dramatically appeared before Congress with his well defined arguments against inflation. The House of Representatives, however, immediately took up the challenge and again passed the Bill. Upon the Senate devolved the duty to sustain either side, and it restored Mr Roosevelt’s leadership, which was seriously assailed. The President has been plainly in a quandary of late. The November elections gave lus New Deal policies overwhelming support, and the session of Congress opened in the critical year of his office with both the Legislature and the country solidly in his favour. Since then, however, he has become painfully aware of the fact that the New Deal has lost some of its glamour and Congress is not wholly with him. It rejected his recommendation for adherence to the World Court, and a fortnight ago extended the National Recovery Act for nine months whereas Mr Rooseveltasked for two years; the Railroad Retirement Act has been declared unconstitutional, and many cases are.pending in the Courts against the New Deal’s regulations, though the famous gold clause case was a victory for the Administration; finally came the conflict between the President and Congress over a measure which could do nothing "more than destroy the country’s confidence had the Senate overridden the veto. Mr Roosevelt’s victory savours of a Pyrrhic one,

for the battle with Congress illustrates how liis prestige has sharply declined in the last few months. In this inflation contest, however, he had right on his side.