Thursday, May 6, 1937
THE HERMISTON HERALD, HERMISTON, OREGON.
Washington
Digest
National Topics Interpreted
Srivoi?
about:
curb on spending.
I have written about this subject
many times and I have no regret
that I have done so, because for a
half dozen years our government
has been spending money too rapid-
ly.
The President’s latest message
reviewing the budget situation in
dicates that the Chief Executive at
last has started his thoughts in the
direction of curtailed spending. In
deed, Mr. Roosevelt’s message to
congress in which he asked for a
billion and a half dollars for re
lief purposes was characterized by
quite a new note of firmness in his
discussion of the need for cutting
government costs. I think it is fair
to say that in previous messages
the President gave little more than
lip service to the cause of economy
in government. His previous sug
gestions to congress lacked force.
Not so with the current call for a
reduction in expenses. It had the
earmarks ot determination—but it
yet remains to be seen whether he
will insist strongly upon his con
clusions when the showdown with
congress comes.
The President’s message was in
teresting in several respects beside
the note of firmness, mentioned
above. He confessed, for example,
that there was no chance for a bal
anced budget in the next fiscal year.
There is no chance, he disclosed,
even for achieving the '‘layman’s
balance.” That ‘‘layman’s balance”
ought to be explained for, my under
standing of economics does not con
template more than one kind of
budget balancing, namely, income
equalling outgo. But Mr. Roosevelt,
in his campaign last year and in his
message to congress last January,
spoke of ‘‘layman’s balance” as
meaning a balance of income and
outgo with the exception of expendi
tures for relief and for retirement
of the public debt. I have heard it
described in many quarters as a
trick balance which I truly believe
it should be called since it is not an
honest balance.
In the January message, Mr.
Roosevelt talked at length about the
necessity for business taking on
workers who were then on relief
rolls. Only in that manner, he em
phasized, could there be a reduction
in relief rolls.
In the more recent message, the
President omitted any reference
to the responsibility of industry for
reducing relief rolls by re-employ
ing workers. That is not strange.
•The fact is, according to the gov
ernment’s own records, that indus
try is taking on workers at a more
rapid rate than the administration
had expected. But still there is no
hope of a balanced budget this year.
So we must look elsewhere to find
the reason. Instead of one, we find
two reasons. The first and most im
portant of the two is the fact that,
by whatever analysis you make, the
New Deal is guilty of continuing to
waste money by hundreds of mil
lions and it was not until a few
weeks ago that any serious effort
was made to choke off this drain,
assuming the current effort is se
rious.
That statement sounds complicat
ed and dull. It is not either one.
The unvarnished truth is that Sec
retary Morgenthau and the flock of
experts, trained only in theory, with
whom he has surrounded himself,
were unable to calculate what the
present taxes would produce in rev
enue. Or, to say the same thing in
a few words : Revenue receipts were
far below what the Treasury experts
guessed they would be.
Thus, the picture seems to be
clear. On the one hand, the Presi
dent heretofore has allowed the al
phabetical agencies to run hither
and yon in their money spending
spree. On the other hand, the lack
of competent financial men in the
Treasury again is glaringly shown.
• • •
To get back to the question of
curtailed spending I should like to
,
call attention to
Sound» the
President’s
Strong; but— language in his
latest
message.
He said that he proposed to use
"every means at my command” to
eliminate the deficit next year. That
statement sounds strong enough. I
question, however, that it can be
called a program of retrenchment.
In other words, Mr. Roosevelt was
content in his message to congress
simply to criticize, if not to de
nounce, extravagant outlays insofar
as new commitments are con
cerned.
During the last few weeks, Mr.
Roosevelt has called upon the vari
ous agencies of the government for
statements of their financial re
quirements and something of a re
view of what they have done with
previous funds. Considerable bally
hoo accompanied announcement of
this survey of governmental re
quirement. But again, there was no
evidence of specific determination
by the Chief Executive as to what
was like a charge of bird shot. It
scattered. There was no target
mentioned except in a general way.
There has been some talk that
possibly Mr. Roosevelt’s message
and promise to use every means at
his command for curtailing ex
penditures may have been intended
as a message to his own subordi
nates that definite orders were to
follow; that he intended his subor
dinates should see where they them
selves could lop off spending plans,
and could put their own houses in
order. I hope it works out that way.
On the other hand, I entertain very
serious doubt that such a procedure
will ever cause such individuals as
the impetuous Mr. Harry Hopkins,
relief administrator, to cut down on
his spending. Mr. Hopkins loves to
spend money. He seems to be hap
piest when he has billions to spread
around, regardless of whether the
spending plans really accomplish
aid for the destitute. I suspect that
congress alone can curb Mr. Hop
kins and the only way congress can
do so is by declining to appropriate
extra money for him.
What I am trying to say in using
Mr. Hopkins as the “horrible ex
ample,” is that Mr. Roosevelt has
taught his subordinates to spend
money as freely as they can. To a
considerable extent, he has let con
gress have a taste of new spending
morsels and what politician does not
like to spend money! Therefore, the
President is confronted with the ne
cessity of educating both his own
subordinates and congress to the
new order of conserving taxpayers’
money. If he does not accomplish
this, we will be saying in another
six months what we have said many
times—that we are confronted with
national bankruptcy.
I cannot believe that the budget
ary situation looks any different
than it did last January. The dif
ference in the picture is that Mr.
Roosevelt at last has begun to see
some of the dangers in the situation
which he either failed to see or
elected to ignore last January.
There were few who believed in Jan
uary that the tax receipts were go
ing to amount to the estimate given
congress by the President. The fact
that they have fallen short of his
calculations by four or five hundred
million is a serious thing but it is
not so serious that a remedy can
not be worked out. The remedy, it
seems to me, is a simple use of a
simple practice among Americans:
When you do not have the money,
deny yourself some of the things
you would buy if you had the cash.
Mr. Roosevelt's message asking
for a billion and a half for relief
served to get the
Relief
collective mind of
congress off the
Message
Supreme court
packing plan only temporarily. The
relief message caused quite a stir
in the house of representatives
where there has been a decided
move already to continue appropri
ating huge sums of federal money
for relief purposes, but it held the
senate off the court question no
longer than one business day.
I think there has been no ques
tion more frequently asked in my
time in Washington than: “Will the
President’s bill to pack the Supreme
court pass?”
I have watched-the ebb and flow
of the tide of sentiment in the sen
ate constantly since the court pack
ing plan was submitted. As the
situation now stands, I believe Mr.
Roosevelt has the odds in his favor.
There is probably a margin of from
five to ten votes on the President’s
side. Whether that will be the state
of affairs when a vote comes, I
think no one can foretell because
the vote in the senate is going to
be close.
Many informal polls of the senate
have been taken. The results have
varied somewhat. They have va
ried of necessity because there are
many senators who remain non-
committal, and who are unwilling
at this time to take a position for
or against the President's scheme.
One may properly ask why this
is. The answer is politics. A good
many senators do not know how
their home states feel about the
plan. That is, they are not able to
determine whether there has been
a crystallization of sentiment for
or against the thing.
Consequently, these senators are
trying to wait outside of the playing
field until they can tell whether
they can be justified in going
against presidential wishes or ca
pitulating to the President’s com
mand. It is to be remembered that
if they turn against the President,
they antagonize the administration
and particularly the Farley politi
cal machine. It is rather unhealthy
for a New Dealer or Democrat to
oppose the Farley machine.
Another reason why many sena
tors are keeping their own counael
on the court packing scheme is that
they believe there will be something
in the nature of a compromise
come out of the hearings and senate
judiciary committee consideration.
agres
k s,
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cessity for presi-
HOOSIER
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‘sd.
A Brief Summary of Events
of Special Interest to
Touring Accommodations.
Oregon, Washington and
ANTA MONICA, CALIF.—
Idaho
Communities.
For the sake of comparison
C
two of us, out lately on a little
By WILLIAM BRUCKART
trip, stayed one night at a way
NATIONAL PRESS BLDG
WASHINGTON, D C
side motor camp and the next
night at the most expensive
Washington.—Several weeks ago, governmental activity should be re tourist hotel in three states,
I reported to you the apparent ne- stricted or entirely eliminated. It rates $25 per day per sucker. |
Matt Cut dential action in
Spending the direction of a
NEWS NOTES OF
THE NORTHWEST
At the tourist camp, the company
was mixed but neighborly and, for
the most part, pleas
ant. The only really
discordant note was
a lady in the ad
joining cabin who, at
all hours, kept wak
ing her husband up,
apparently for the
purpose of telling
him another thing
about him that she
didn’t like.
At the exclusive
establishment were
many guests who Irvin S. Cobb
seemed to be suffering from severe
attacks cf nervous culture, being
fearful, I’d say, that, if ever they
behaved naturally, they’d give them
selves away. Mainly they were dull.
Waxworks, even when animated,
usually are dull.
But stopping at a $25 a day hotel
has one advantage, I find. After
ward, you can go around bragging
that once you stopped at a $25-a-
day hotel. This should be a great
help socially.
Dealing With Snakes.
A CONNECTICUT
congressman
1
is pushing an act to prohibit
importation of venomous serpents
from other countries for exhibition
purposes. His fear is that an earth-
quake or something might shake the
zoo apart and liberate a lot of dead
ly reptiles that would start multi
plying and constitute a new menace
to the lives of such of the populace
as have thus far escaped being
killed by automobiles.
Without presuming to assume that
the gentleman is a bit of an alarm
ist, I’d like to point out that he can
obtain millions of adherents for this
measure among old-fashioned Amer
icans by tacking in an amendment
to his bill providing that the bars
likewise shall be put up against for
eign-born communists.
ROSALIA, Wash.—The
Farmers*
Co-operative Is erecting a large grain
elevator here. Pouring of concrete
Is under way, and the structure will
be completed in time to handle this
year’s crop.
L.
BOISE, Ida.—Reduction of Idaho's
WPA roll to 5000 workers by June 1
will be accomplished it is predicted,
“without hardship." Fewer than
7500 men and women are now on
WPA projects.
PENDLETON, Ore.—Watermaster
Spencer reports between 35,000
and 40,0000 acre feet of water in
McKay reservoir, in Umatilla county,
and that Cold Springs reservoir is
certain to be filled.
st
MORO, Ore.—The Sherman county
farmers are told by their experiment
station staff that not only is there a
larger amount of moisture in the soil
than for several years, but also more
nitrates than for any year since 1931.
MULLAN, Ida. — Leona Harrang,
Mullan school nurse, and Hester
Chapman, Shoshone county public
health nurse, administered smallpox
and diphtheria immunization treat
ments to 60 school and pre-school
children.
WALLA WALLA, Wash.—They can
get in but they cannot get out!
Police Chief J. G. Gemmell ordered
inside handles taken off back doors
of the city prowler cars. Too many
drunks have been letting themselves
out and nearly killing themselves by
falling to the pavement.
OREGON CITY, Ore. — According
to official report, collisions in Ore
gon City between two or more auto
mobiles ran 171 in 1935 and more
than doubled in 1936, totaling 347.
Most of these new collisions came on
the detour route made necessary by
construction of the new Pacific high
way subway and the four-lane high
way a the south entrance to the city.
COEUR D'ALENE, Ida. — Invita
tion were sent out from the high
school here to 15 schools of northern
Idaho to join the school here in an
outdoor playday for girls May 8. The
program, the first of its kind in this
region, will be held at the Memorial
How Times Change.
field and city park, officials
JUST read what I once knew for athletic
- myself but had forgotten in the said. Tennis, volley ball, ping pong,
rush and bustle of these latter days. relay races and other games are plan-
LA GRANDE, Ore.—Sam Graham,
It related to the attitude which
America, considerably less than half past master councillor of Sunnyside
a century ago, held toward unescort chapter, Portland, was elected state
ed woman. For instance, as recently master councillor at the business
as 1890 not many respectable hotels meeting of state conclave of the De
would permit one of them to regis Molay in a 2-day session here. Two
ter.
other elective officers are Blair
Some time after 1900—in fact, as Warner, senior councilor of Takena
I remember, it was about 1910—a chapter, Salem, elected state junior
prominent lady was asked to leave councilor, and Pat Fitzgerald, mas
one of the smartest hotels in New ter councilor of La Grande, elected
York city because she dared to light state senior councilor. Eugene's bld
a cigarette in the public lounge.
As for women drinking at a bar— for the 1938 conclave was accepted.
well, not even the most forward-
RUM REVENUE RISES
looking liberal could conceive of so
SALEM, Ore.—Oregon’s liquor mo
incredible a sight as that.
nopoly returned a net profit of
And now just look at the darned $188,200.33 for the month of March,
things!
and $750,493.01 for the first quarter
of 1937, the state liquor control
Hardships de Luxe.
X/HEN our plutocratic classes commission reported.
Gross sales in the stores’ division
• • decide to go simple, they go
simple, regardless of what it costs totaled $638,707.73 during March.
Books of the commission showed an
’em.
A rich couple have just completed unallocated surplus balance of $912,-
a trip out here, following the ancient 477.92 as of March 31,
trails of the early pathfinders. Like
INDIANS DERATE MOVE
true pioneer stock, they roughed it
MOSCOW, Ida.—All factors will be
in specially built twin trailers, each
about the size of a pullman but considered before action will be tak
much more complete, and were en on the proposed removal of the
towed by a couple of Rolls-Royces. Nez Perce Indian agency from Mos
The servants, only six in number, cow to Lapai, Louis Balsam, field
had to put up with two much cheap representative for the bureau of In
dian affairs, told the chamber of
er cars.
During the entire trip there was commerce last week.
no dressing for dinner and thus,
Balsam has been here "sizing up”
with true democratic spirit, was the situation. Lewiston and Lapwai
the primitive plan of the expedition organizations have asked removal of
carried out. Every hardship en the agency from here to Lapwai and
countered enroute—such as the the matter has been brought up In
champagne getting all jolted up and recent Nez Perce tribal councils.
the caviar coming unglued in the
can — was cheerfully endured. An
OLD COIN FOUND
armed guard was maintained a t
RAYMOND, Wash.—Walter Foren
night to repel kidnapers and hostile of Bay Center, found a blackened
Indian tribes.
copper coin bearing the date 1707,
I wonder how Jim Bridger and Kit which revives tales of early explor
Carson ever stood it with no butler ers along the Pacific coast. He found
along—in fact, not even a second the coin while working the soli In
man.
his garden, which Is next to the his
IRVIN S. COBB.
toric old "Shaker” church at Bay
©— WNU Service.
Center. He purchased the land last
fall, but did not work the soil until
Tweeds and Peats
The famous Harris tweeds came this spring.
The coin is between a nickel and
Into being through an accident of
nature. The freezing winds which a quarter size. On the dated side are
swept across the barren islands of three crowns with the letters "CXH”
the Outer Hebrides, off the coast of and the word "OR.” On the other
Scotland, made it imperative that side ot the coin is a unleorn and
the natives have warm wind-proof, crown with the letters "R" and "8.”
weather-proof garments. With no Attempts to identify It have been
where else to turn, the women of fruitless, but It Is thought the uni
the islands took advantage of the corn denotes an English coin.
unusually thick fleece which was
the winter coat of their sheep, and
ASTORIA, Ore.—Services at As
from it they wove for their men toria formally dedicating the new
the first crude Harris tweeds. Be First Presbyterian church annex, re
cause they had nothing but the cently completed at a cost of approx!
natural dyes made from lichens and mately $35.000 were held In the au
crottle, and nowhere to steep their
wool except over peat fires. Har ditorium of the new annex last Sun
ria tweed has always been charac day night.
EMMETT, Ida.—Apricots are In
terized by a peaty outdoor odor.
These tweeds had been worn in the full bloom at Emmett, about a week
Outer Hebrides for many years be or 10 days later than usual, duo to
fore the fashion centers of the world | the cold spring. The crop will be
discovered them and elevated them greatly reduced because ot the cold
to the front rank of sports fashions. | winter, which killed about 50 per
I cent of the buds
Picking Cucumbers Out of the Air at Terre Haute.
passengers sat on top the boat,
many under umbrellas. Some fid
NDIANA is the sum of its parts. dled or sang; others read, or
Yet how they differ! Streams watched the scenery go whizzing
of planes, trains, motorcars, by as towpath horses pulled the boat
trucks, and buses whizzing at four miles an hour. This Eng
back and forth across its north and
lishman was disturbed that Amer
central parts; yet how little travel, icans should eat squirrels!
by comparison, in the south.
Through pioneer Terre Haute
In that industrial region on Lake came the old National Road. Over
Michigan which is not Indiana at it swarmed the cheering legions—
all but a prolongation of Chicago, soldiers, settlers, pairie schooners,
nothing but smoke, noise, and mov freighters, live stock, boys and dogs
ing crowds.
—off to conquer the West. Today
In the south, a serene, unhurried this early wagon trail, long but a
people whose ancestors floated down line of ruts dodging stumps and
the Ohio in flatboats, came from the mudholes, is U. S. 40. At Terre
Carolinas and Kentucky on horse Haute it intersects U. S. 41 to form
back, bringing rifles, axes, spinning one of America’s busiest cross-
wheels.
roads.
Look down, in fancy, from a drift
South of the city hovers the popu
ing blimp; imagine that here and lation center of the United States.
there, painted on the grounds in For the past 45 years it has been
huge, white letters, are signboards slowly wandering across Indiana.
on which you may read about the
Historic Four-Cornered Track.
audacious men whose adventures
Trotting horses, harnessed to light
made Indiana.
Near South Bend, La Salle sulkies, set world records at Terre
camped in 1679. At Vincennes, a Haute. Nancy Hanks, Maud S., Dan
century later, George Rogers Clark Patch, Mascot, Hal Pointer, and
gained for us the whole Northwest Axtell raced here on the historic
“four cornered” track in the days
Territory.
That tall shaft of Pigeon Roost of Bud Doble, greatest reinsman of
Memorial shows where, in 1812, his age. Now a stadium, with night
Indians slew a whole white settle ball games by electric light, rises
where crowds used to cheer gog
ment.
East of Evansville, at Lincoln gled drivers holding tight reins to
City, is the monument to Lincoln’s keep their sweating trotters from
mother, Nancy Hanks, and the boy “breaking” into a gallop.
Spirits, gunpowder, glass, this
hood home where her son Abe split
town makes them all. You see piles
rails.
Along the Wabash—the Ouabache of sand, soda, and limestone fed to
of old—are strewn the sites of big furnaces; then gobs of red-hot
French fur-trade posts, built in the glass dropping into a magic ma
early 1700’s. North of Lafayette, chine that shapes the bottles—one
the Tippecanoe battlefield, where every two seconds.
Some men are piling tall bottles
Harrison defeated Tecumseh’s
brother; and, just out of Kokomo, into a box car.
“Where for?” you ask.
a monument to Elwood Haynes, who
"Down to Key West, across on the
in 1894 launched one of America's
first “horseless carriages” on the car ferry to Havana, then east by
rail to where Cubans make Bacardi
now historic “Pumpkinvine Pike.”
In fact and fancy you may see rum.”
Oddly self-contained, this region.
still other markers, showing the
homes of such famous Hoosiers as Local straw makes packing cases;
James Whitcomb Riley, Benjamin printers make labels, farmers grow
Harrison, John Hay, Lew Wallace, vegetables, and canners do the rest.
Out at Rose Polytechnic boys
Joaquin Miller, Booth Tarkington,
Albert J. Beveridge, George Ade, build toy bridges. Some day, when
Theodore Dreiser, Charles Major, they’re full-fledged engineers, they
John T. McCutcheon, Meredith may build big ones in Bolivia or the
Nicholson, and Wilbur Wright; and, Philippines!
Saint Mary-of-the-Woods is one of
up among the scenic lakes of north-
east Indiana, in the “Limberlost” America’s exclusive schools for
region, that rustic, tree-shaded log girls. You see groups riding, clad
house home of Gene Stratton Porter. in smartest saddle-club togs, the
Story Is Shown on Carter’s Map. horses groomed slick and shiny,
their hoofs oiled. Perhaps some of
It sounds fantastic, the idea of these girls have descended from
floating over a state and reading its women who also rode horses—from
life story on giant signboards. Yet, Virginia or the Carolinas, over the
in a vicarious way, you can do it, wilderness trails, carrying babies,
for there exists a pictorial map, dreading panthers and Indians.
drawn by Lee Carter and published
Old Timers on the Wabash.
by the state conservation depart
ment, which shows in graphic de
Glimpses of the Wabash as you
tail much that has happened here ride south to Vincennes make you
since Father Marquette saw north think of the French voyageurs, and
ern Indiana in the 1600’s. This map the wild, half-naked coureurs de
was our guide over some 6,500 miles bois.
of Hoosier highways and byways.
The voyaguer had a license to
"On the Banks of the Wabash” is trade. But the “bush loper” was an
the state song. It ought to be; down outlaw in that long war for fur be
the Wabash came the French, first tween French and English. Like the
whites to settle in Indiana; this honest traders, the renegade offered
stream formed part of their long knives, beads, axes, guns, and
route from Quebec to Louisiana.
blankets for the red man’s pelts,
At Terre Haute you see a street but cheated when he could.
crowd watching a tricky machine
Traders and boats of all kinds
turn dough into doughnuts, instan used to swarm on the Wabash. John
taneously. It is hard to believe that Parsons, a young Virginian who
in the pioneer days country folks came here in 1840 to buy land,
didn’t even have matches; if they wrote: "In the fall, 1,000 flatboats
let their fires go out, they had to will pass down the river, the ma
ride over to the neighbors’ and bor jority loaded with flour, pork. . . .
row some live coals.
lard, cattle, horses, oats, cornmeal,
The sight of girls picking long, and corn on the ear. . . . They told
green, warty cucumbers out of the me of a flatboat. . . carrying a load
air lures you into a 35-acre steam- of hickory nuts, walnuts and veni
heated glass house. Inside it smells son hams."
and feels just like Manila in the
You can’t ride along the Wabash,
rainy season, hot and sticky. A
with all its traditions, historic sites,
bug’s paradise! Swarms of bees old
graveyards and monuments,
are kept, purposely, to pollinate the without
thinking of its part in mak
cucumber blossoms. Not on the
ground, but high up overhead like ing America.
On a Wabash tributary near Peru
grapes on a trellis hung the cucum
bers. Perspiring blonds and bru is the grave of Frances Slocum.
nettes reached up with long-handled Stolen by the Indians as a girl in
1778. She spent her whole life with
tools and clipped them off.
Elks’ Country Club house, facing them, refusing, when finally visited
the Wabash, stands where Zachary by her own white relatives, to leave
Taylor whipped the Indiana in 1812. the tribe. Pioneer John Parrett
Parallel with the river is the aban of Whitley county advertised that he
doned Wabash and Erie canal, its had paid Indians $2 50 to release a
six-year-old white boy, and that he
grass-grown towpath still visible.
An Englishman—a bout 1848— would keep the boy “till his par
wrote of a canal trip from here to ents, if living, and chance to see
Ohio. I» was hot. he said. All day । thia notice, may find him."
Prepared by National Geographic Society,
Washington, D. C.—WNU Service.
I