ECONOMIC ILLS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 15 November 1937, Page 6

ECONOMIC ILLS

SPECIAL SESSION OF U.S. CONGRESS SEEKING A CURE PERSONAL FATE OF ROOSEVELT MAY BE AT STAKE | United Press Association —By Electm Telegraph—Copy rich U WASHINGTON. 13th November I . The special session of Congress ' to consider means of curing the economic ills of the United States will be convened on Monday, not only in an atmosphere reminiscent of March, 1933, the depth of the depression, but with the added aspect that the personal fate of President Roosevelt is very much at stake. i If the President wishes re-election in , 1940, and it is now becoming increasingly evident that he is likely to seek a third term, then what Congress does will have a very great efi/.t thereon. There is no longer any cc/.coaling the fact that recovery in Amc/rica was apparently as insecure as a house on stilts and, whereas in the words of one observer, “to manage a slow and orderly reduction in the heights of our stilts ought not to be difficult,” the situation is infinitely more serious than Americans are aparently willing to admit themselves. President Roosevelt spent the weekend writing a long message to Congress setting out proposals necessary in his opinion to rectify conditions, but so many conflicting forces seem at work i that it may be questioned whether even a docile Congress, adopting unquestionably his entire programme, would produce a solution. Measures which President Roosevelt will apparently ask from Congress include farm relief, a Wages and Hours Bill, a national land conservation scheme, government bureau reform, the strengthening of anti-trust laws, a huge housing campaign in order to stimulate business, and ship subsidies. President Roosevelt is apparently still taken up ( with the necessity for long-range planning and undertakings, but he may face a runaway Congress. From a wide variety of sources demands are being made that something must be done immediately to reassure business, re-establish confidence and reduce taxes, notably on undistributed profits and capital stocks. The assurances of Mr H. M. Morgenthau, Secretary of the Treasury, concerning a reduction of expenditures and balancing the Budget arc taken in some quarters as an indication that President Roosevelt is now seeing the wisdom of changing his tactics. Mr Walter Lippman, the noted publicist, said: “There is good reason to believe that President Roosevelt is no longer acting on the assumption that his electoral majority gave him a mandate to executive his personal programme.” Mr Lippman continued: “We may look forward now to something much better than a vindictive, destructive and indecisive quarrel between Conservatives and Reformers.” The National Republican Congressional Committee to-night issued a statement demanding that the special session devote itself exclusively to the immediate business of amelioration. Democratic Congressmen, with an eye to the Congressional elections in 1938, also widely urge that the Government should abandon reform, relax the reins on private initiative and give business and industry opportunity and incentive to expand. It is, however, far from certain that President Roosevelt has abandoned his long-range programme. His addresses on a recent western trip indicate clearly that he is prepared to make few basic concessions to the so-called “economic royalists.” Conservatives and Reformers probably will be disappointed, because minor tax reforms and other amelioratives may be insufficient to cure the sudden serious economic illness.

Generally high prices of consumers’ commodities plus grave shortages of meat and other staple products; heavy recessions in steel and other large industries, a seasonal merchandise factory output which has suddenly shrunk to the lowest point in years; a largescale lay-off of workers in many basic industries; extremely high taxation which must remain high due to the necessity of meeting continued distress relief; a sharp distrust by foreign business of American conditions, seriously affecting foreign trade, and the deep psychological lag which has overtaken the minds of business men—all these may compel President Roosevelt, under pressure from western and •southern Liberal groups, to reintensify the New Deal fight. The crisis of President Roosevelt’s career may occur before the end of the year. President Roosevelt confirmed the belief that one of the most important points of his business rejuvenation programme would be legislation to encourage a large building boom. Unique features of the programme will be an increase in permissible Government loans to private persons of from 20,000 to 200,000 dollars per structure, a reduction in interest rates, and large-scale mass building.