On a Hook

One afternoon last week Clark Howell sashayed proudly into the White House offices, with a friend in tow, to see the President. Newshawks gaped as they saw the rotund little Georgian's friend, a scraggle-haired bespectacled man in a white suit, with crimson suspenders visible under his open coat. Into the President's air-cooled office marched the politically-minded publisher of the Atlanta Constitution and his friend. Franklin Roosevelt swung in his chair and, smiling just as he smiles on pauper and potentate, stuck out his hand.

"Hello, Gene!" he beamed, greeting the one man who is a match for Huey Long in denouncing the New Deal and its leader -- Governor Eugene Talmadge of Georgia. Democratic President and Governor clasped hands and began to chat amiably. Guardian angel of the peace parley was Clark Howell, who arranged it all when the President week-ended at Jefferson Islands in company with party bigwigs (TIME, July 22). In the comfortable air of the President's office Governor Talmadge sat down to explain just how terrible it was that the Government was holding up $19,000,000 of Federal highway funds rather than trust their spending to the Georgia Highway Board. As between two practical politicians, couldn't they play ball together? Considering the President's cordiality, it looked as if they could.

A few minutes later publisher and Governor marched out. "Politics wasn't discussed," said "Gene" Talmadge, casually snapping his suspenders. "Just business. We never mix the two. He assured us the money was on a hook. If we don't get it, nobody else will."

Then Governor Talmadge marched down to cement the entente with Thomas H. MacDonald, chief of the Bureau of Public Roads in the Department of Agriculture. By the time he finished that interview it was apparent that if Georgia's $19,000,000 was comfortably on a hook, it was also going to stay there for a time. The announced reason of Chief MacDonald and Secretary Wallace for holding up Georgia's road allotment was that Georgia's Highway Department is not equipped to cooperate--that the one helpful engineer in the Department had been fired. Hence Governor Talmadge was expected to increase and improve his staff of engineers. It so happens, however, that the Governor likes to boast of his economies in his highway department. He cut its overhead by $1,000,000 and got rid of a lot of engineers. Saving State money is a hobby of his. Georgia had only $7,500,000 of debt when he took office in 1933 ; now it has less than $4,500,000. He has steadfastly refused to borrow money to match Federal appropriations for relief, has done his best to stop local governments from borrowing Federal money. He has not only insisted on pay-as-you-go finance but has lowered Georgia's property tax 20%, cut her automobile license fee to $3. On the issue of Georgia's Highway Department, Georgia's saving policy and the New Deal's spending policy collided head on. But another issue, smaller and more potent, was also at the root of the matter.

O Oconee, thing of beauty

Onward flow and do thy duty. . . .

Thus a Georgia bard once apostrophized one of his State's noble rivers. The lines epitomize the feeling of Georgia's Representative Carl Vinson. The Oconee, after doing its duty by flushing the sewers of Athens, flows on down the centre of the State through Milledgeville, the State's oldtime capital, where Congressman Vinson lives. For 50 miles south of Milledgeville the Oconee loiters through territory populated, however sparsely, by Congressman Vinson's constituents, and for all that 50 miles there is no bridge across the Oconee. He wants and Mr. MacDonald wants $280,000 of Georgia's $19,000,000 spent in spanning the Oconee in the middle of that 50-mile stretch. Governor Talmadge disagrees. His partisans insist that Mr. MacDonald never mentioned Georgia's Highway Department's inefficiency until after the Department had repulsed demands that the bridge be built. They add that to build roads to the bridge would cost another $1,000,000, that the present free, state-operated ferry which the bridge would replace carries an average of only 18 passengers a day. Why should Governor Talmadge object? He was born at Forsyth, lives in McRae, not by the Oconee but by the Little Ocmulgee, has far different feelings about rivers. Said Governor Talmadge of the gentlemen in Washington: "Their reasoning is illegal, illogical and foolish. Their attitude is crazy as hell!" Said Representative Vinson of Mr. Talmadge : "He has assumed a most stubborn attitude."

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