Washington, Aug. 22.
President Roosevelt returned from his Pacific cruise to a troubled country. He lett hoping that his absence would provide a period of rest and calm, during which the various New Deal medicines would have an opportunity of proving their worth in bringing about the patients return to full-and vigorous health.
He felt that the first phase of the New Deal was over. The machinery had been installed and what was now needed was for it to be tried out without any more tinkering with the wheels and belts and bolts. He had hoped, moreover, that it would run more or less automatically and that those responsible for watching over It would have little else to do but keep the parts well oiled, and would not keep referring back to him for fresh instructions as to its operation. To change the metaphor a little, he hoped that the various Administra tive heads would ce-operate harmoniously without having to rely upon the White House to act as central pin holding them all together.
An election was just around the corner, and the turmoil of an election campaign when old policies were being explained was no time to initiate new. The President had no desire to pull fresh rabbits out of his hat, or produce some new diver-slon just when "Congressmen had his original programme. The before the country was the Deal. The most which It could sustain would be for its sponsors to prove by their actions that it was not working and be for ever proposing a newer, But the President's luck deserted him while was away. The drought, which at first appeared as assistance 40, the agricultural programme of crop reduction, went to such extremes that the agricultural programme was completely upset. The other Recovery Agencies began act at, cross purposes. General Johnson, Administrator of the URA., having devoted the past year to reviving lagging industrial prices order that industry could support a higher pay roll, was definitely—opposed to any policy aimed at break-Ing down the price structure.
The Housing Administration, established on the theory of the "bargain-day sale," wished to lower industrial costs (in order to encourage greater volume) and to lower wage scales in the construction industries, where they wore excess sively high, by promise of more regular employment for more people. Mr. Moffett, head of the Housing Administration, was no. match for General Johnson, and the idea of encouraging housing construction and repairs by bargain prices was abandoned. All that was left as an_inducement was cheaper Loan rates from private organizations thanks to government guarantee of twenty per cent. on all loans.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.