"Flop, Mess, Tangle"

In the long history of U. S. political eccentricity, few campaign speeches have been as curious as the one which General Hugh Samuel Johnson delivered to an astonished Cleveland audience last week. The New Deal, declared the onetime No. 2 New Dealer, has made "not one inch of progress" toward solving the farm and unemployment problems. Its work relief program is a "fantastical flop." Its fiscal policies, if unchecked, will result in the "creation of floods of printing press money." Let us therefore, cried the General, re-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936.

The President, he argued, is the one U. S. leader with a will to "do something" about the economic situation. His efforts to date at doing something have resulted in "amazing blunders and failures" solely because he is surrounded by incompetent advisers and administrators.

The onetime NRAdministrator makes no secret of his conviction that President Roosevelt once had two superb aides, both of whom were "kicked in the slats." They were Hugh Samuel Johnson and his good friend & onetime partner in the plow business. George Nelson Peek. Presumably Franklin Roosevelt, if reelected, will amend his errors, set up a brand-new administration.

Meantime, last week General Johnson began a series in his United Feature Syndicate newspaper column devoted to telling the President what was wrong with his present Cabinet advisers, suggesting wiser choices. Excerpts:

Secretary of State Hull: Our foreign trade policy . . . has been a noble one --in the tradition of simon-pure old-fashioned Southern democracy. It has been conducted by a dependable gentleman of the old school, so stately, intelligent, kindly, honorable, and yet so firm . . . that it is hard to suggest that, in the circumstances, there might have been a better choice than Cordell Hull. . . . But in these hard-bitten days we needed a realist. . . . We had two outstanding Democratic world figures who answered that description--Bernard Baruch and Owen Young. ... On the economic side, our foreign policy is a failure.

Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau: "Henry the Morgue" his boss calls the Secretary of the Treasury. Morgenthau's business experience aforetime was running a farm paper which few farmers saw, and advising the Governor of New York on agriculture. . . . Maybe nobody could have done better, but in getting anybody to try at all, why did we have to get somebody who, by the very terms of his selection, couldn't even know how to start? . . . The financial and fiscal affairs of the U. S. are in the worst mess in our history.

Secretary of War Dern and Secretary of the Navy Swanson: The Administration policy was for a strong Navy. ... It was for a sensible Army, too. . . . The President was as good a naval officer as any admiral and he, personally--more than Secretary Swanson--did the Navy job. The Army did not lie so close to his training and tradition and an opportunity was lost--because Secretary Dern was too complacent in fighting Mr. Ickes for a share of Public Works. . . . Those hundreds of millions--which must be spent some day--all were set aside for Mr. Ickes not to spend, or went to Mr. Hopkins for raking leaves and boondoggling. Hundreds of millions more are being poured down the same rat-holes--while the equipment of our Army remains obsolete and insufficient. . . .

Attorney General Cummings: It is idle to guess what might have happened if old Tom Walsh had lived to be Attorney General, but it is not at all hard to see that the litigation of the New Deal is in a sorry tangle. Attorney General Cummings is a loyalist--a very great Democrat, a greater friend, and a man with an unblemished record. But ... his stanchest friend could never contend that he organized, prepared and manned the Department of Justice for the bitterest battle of litigation which ever confronted any Administration. . . .

Postmaster General Farley: Jim has about the guile and predatory instinct of a big, honest, lumbering and friendly Newfoundland . . . the only "patronage" in either jobs or works which Jim is permitted to pass to the faithful is what is left after the starry-eyed socialicians, the crystal-gazing professors and the "liberal" monopolists of honesty get through passing the pie to the objects of their fondness, favor or philanthropy. . . .

Secretary of the Interior Ickes: Why Mr. Ickes for the engineering task of remaking much of the face of the country? . . . Nothing in all of Mr. Ickes' honest lawyer's life remotely suggested that he could do such a job--and he didn't do it. It was folly to expect him to do it. ... The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers . . . might not have done the job either, but at least it had an engineer's chance to do it and Mr. Ickes didn't have a Chinaman's. Either as an aid to recovery, a construction program or a vehicle for employment, PWA is a failure--honest but complete.

Secretary of Agriculture Wallace: The farm problem ... is a business problem . . . The man of business who had given the most of study, effort and sacrifice to it in this country was George Peek. . . . For twelve years he led that long fight [for farm relief] to eventual victory in the Roosevelt election. During that time, the ruminating Henry Wallace was little more sure of exactly where he stood than he is today. He muffed supporting the cause at all for many, many years. He began by teaming up with Peek, but ditched him--or got the President to ditch him --when George wouldn't kowtow to the Happy Hot Dogs who work behind the scenes. Mr. Wallace then surrendered all mental conclusions to Rex Tugwell, who knows as much about the farm problem as Haile Selassie knows about Oshkosh, Wisconsin. . . .

Secretary of Commerce Roper: The Department of Commerce is not doing its job. It is fair to say that it is not an easy job to do. But that is an excellent reason for putting a man there who understands and can lead Business, rather than a political expert. There were plenty of such men available on the liberal side of the Democratic Party. Gerard Swope is an outstanding example. . . .

Secretary of Labor Perkins: The Secretary of Labor is a very great woman. But Miss Perkins is a social worker--not a labor expert--and the two words are not synonymous by any means. The stress of this period has discovered, in a Democrat, an ideal Minister of Labor . . . Edward F. McGrady. It may be the fault of nobody, but the labor movement in this country is a mess.

While other Administration officials fretted privately at General Johnson's honest sniping, spunky Secretary of the Interior Ickes barked at a press conference in Washington: "He a critic? Why, he's helping the Administration. Perhaps you hadn't noticed that. . . . Since the good General was bucked out as head of NRA he's been suffering from mental saddle sores."

Retorted General Johnson, off lecturing in Kansas: "Harold is a good fellow and I send him my love. But he doesn't ever have to worry about suffering from mental saddle sores because he doesn't have any place to have them."

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