NEW DEALERS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20361, 19 July 1934, Page 4

NEW DEALERS.

Truth About Men Behind Roosevelt. TALKATIVE TUGWELL. (By PAUL MALLON). WASHINGTON, June 12. If *ll the whispers about * President Roosevelt's inner circle were consolidated into one big wind, it would at least blow the roof off the White House. More windy misinformation has been circulated on that subject than on any other since the new deal started. The President is pictured by blowhards as a rather vacillating person under the domination of (a) a crowd of college professor theorists, or (b) a gang of inexperienced intellectual radicals, or (c) the feminists of his private or official household. The most popular current yarn is that t|je man who is really running the country is Professor Tug well. Another concocted by a prominent democrat is that Mrs. Rooeevelt is the No. 1 adviser of the new deal. If the roof ever goes off the White House you will find a somewhat dif* ferent inner situation. Tugwell. The Tugwell illusion lias grown up around the fact that he is the most talkative of the new dealers. He writes for magazines and makes speeches giving interpretations far beyond the scope .of the agricultural section in which he is involved. People who read and hear naturally are led to the conclusion that he sits at the right hand of the Presidential chair.

The truth, is that Professor Tugwell rarely goes around to the White House. He has a theory, apparently, for every issue, but the only Tugwell theories which reach the executive mansion are those concerning the farm problem. Even these are not usually conveyed to Mr. Roosevelt by Tugwell,' but by Agriculture Secretary Wallace, who really is in the first circle of White House advisers. Tugwell works with Wallace, and Wallace works with the White House, but almost entirely in connection with farm policies. Tugwell is not at all a No. 1 brain truster in the same sense that Professor Raymond Molev was. Moley ran in and out of the White House on a dozen subjects every day. His influence was widespread. Tugwell’s influence outside the A.A.A. ha* not even been strong enough to get liis Pure Food and Drug Bill through Congress. Mrs. Roosevelt. In the matter of feminine influence, the "White House appears to be just about an average . American household. Mrs. Roosevelt is deeply interested in social problems and teaching. She is interested also in the women’s organisation end of politics, but not in politics generally. There have been obvious occasions when the first lady initiated new deal moves. The two outstanding ones are tlie West Virginia homesteading project and cleaning up the alleys of the district of Columbia. Those are the types of problems in which her influence is important. Regarding several other matters, she has been unable to convince Mr. Roosevelt that she was right. How They May Be Listed. ’ Whatever influence is wielded by the college professors is similarly restricted. Mr. Roosevelt's advisors cannot be Lifted accurately as No. 1,2 and 3, Tn relation to their importance. They do not work that way. They are worked in relation to subjects * which they handle. Imagine a large wagon wheel, and you will get the idea. Mr. Roosevelt is the. hub. Equally powerful spokes run out to the rim. Each spoke is a subject. They could be identified as follows: Social reforms: Miss Perkins, Senator Wagner, General Johnson. Legislation: Senator Byrnes, representative Rayburn, and occasionally the nominal leaders. Farm: Wallace. Tugwell. Relief: Harry Hopkins. N.R.A.: General Johnson, Richberg. Politics: Louis Howe, General Farley. Securities: James Landis. Each of these people is a strong influence in his own field, but few have any influence outside their particular field. They consult the President, and sometimes put over their ideas. Sometimes they fail. There never has been an occasion when they all got together at once in the Presidential presence. Close Friends. Only a few of these really are cl6ea friends of the President. If you started picking his inner circle of friends you would have a different list of names. You would start off with the White House clique. It is the Louis Howe gang, including Stephen Early, Miss Marguerite Le Hand, et al. They are the official family circle. Close also are Treasury Secretary Morgentliau, Miss Perkins, Prof. Raymond Moley and Hopkins. None of these talks Turkey to tlie President except possibly Howe. All are unswervingly jlevoted* to the cause of the boss, no matter what he may decide it is.

Stories have been circulated that Professor Felix Frankfurter is the power behind the throne. He has been abroad fox* the last eight months, teaching at Oxford. The only way he has been consulted is that he was asked nearly a year ago to recommend several men for specific jobs (Landis, Corcoran, Colxen). They have had him on the transAtlantic telephone a few times. Several officials have received a few letters from him, but he is completely out of touch with the situation, and probably would not dare to offer any advice, if he had any to offer. One, Person Responsible.

Everyone here knows that the oni person responsible for the success or mistakes of the new deal is Mr. Roosevelt himself. He may have received some bad advice at times, but, apparently, he does not think so. At least he has. manifested no eagerness, in the face of critiesm, to change liis advisers. That, in itself, is a hint of how he really stands. This situation will bo clear when the history of this administration is written in retrospect. For the present, it probably will be popular to let the advisers bear the brunt of attack and defence, bocause both the defenders and attackers seem to like it that way.—(N.A.X.A.)