Cassandra Talking

Last week President Roosevelt cheerfully reported that spring could not be far away because he had seen his first robin, his first crocus. But psychologically the rest of Washington was still in the depths of winter. "Once more," observed Pundit Walter Lippmann, "we have come to a period of discouragement after a few months of buoyant hope. Pollyanna is silenced and Cassandra is doing all the talking. . . . Within the Administration itself there is a notable loss of self-confidence which is reflected in leadership that is hesitant and confused."

For nearly two years Franklin Roosevelt treated the country to a breath-taking spectacle of political leadership. He was in the headlines several times a week with a new plan for Recovery, a new program for Reform. Congress bowed and scraped and seemed delighted to do his bidding. Brain Trusters spouted endless ideas for revamping U. S. society. Washington throbbed with excited activity and the country felt it was at last on the move.

By last week had come a change in spirit so marked that no Washington observer could miss it. The general morale of the Administration seemed at a new Roosevelt low. The country had almost forgotten the sound of the President's voice on the radio. For days at a time the front pages were barren of any real White House news. Congress, still out of the President's control, was loafing along to suit itself. Practically nothing of the President's major 1935 legislative program had yet been blasted out of committee. Inside the Administration jealousy was rampant among the President's staff officers. Some officials, cut off from the White House by a politics-playing secretariat, talked privately of resigning. The President was kept busy inviting disgruntled workers to dinner, turning his charm on them afterward, winning them back to loyalty. Because the President had not brought forth any more Recovery plans for months, the Washington whisper was that he had lost his nerve or had run out of ideas.

This state of affairs, however, failed to alarm those who knew Franklin Roosevelt from the old Albany days. He could, they were quite aware, "play possum" with rare skill, deliberately keeping in the background until "things shook down a bit" and then with one or two bold gestures reassert his leadership. Last week these old Albany friends hoped that the President was only playing such a game, that nothing more serious was the matter with his Administration.

P: Such was the tension of the times that a perfunctory, offhand remark of the President to the effect that commodity prices were not yet high enough sent reporters running to telegraph wires, sent Inflation headlines into the streets, sent stock-markets soaring for one hour last week.

P: The President's most important executive act of the week was to sign an order which put FERA's authority to condemn and purchase land in the hands of Administrator Harry Hopkins. First purchase was 5,000 acres in an unnamed spot in "the Midwest" for an unnamed sum.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.