State of the Union

"I wish you all a very Happy New Year. . . ."

With this ingratiating preamble, Franklin Delano Roosevelt this week began to discharge his constitutional duty of addressing Congress on the State of the Union. Surrounded by microphones, against a background formed by Vice President Garner and House Speaker William Bankhead (see cut), the President proceeded to cover assorted aspects of the Union's condition without concentrating on any one. His address lacked the fire of his historic denunciation of "entrenched greed" in 1936, the amiability of his complacent curtain-raiser to the Supreme Court fight a year ago. Its 4,000 words had, instead, a special quality of earnest persuasiveness combined with that vigorous self assurance which is characteristically Rooseveltian. His major points:

War and Peace. Without referring to the Panay incident by name, he said: "I am thankful that I can tell you that our nation is at peace. It has been kept at peace despite provocations which, in other days, because of their seriousness, could well have engendered war. . . .

"Resolute in our determination to respect the rights of others, and to command respect for the rights of ourselves, we must keep ourselves adequately strong in self-defense."

Legislative Program. The working plan which the President originally laid down for Congress last autumn contained five items of which one--anti-trust legislation--was left out of his message to the Special Session two months ago. This week, the President omitted another--Regional Planning--recommended for enactment 1) the Farm Bill, 2) a wages-&-hours bill and 3) modernized anti-trust laws. Of the first: "It is shameless misrepresentation to call this a policy of scarcity. It is in truth insurance before the fact instead of Government subsidy after the fact." Of the second (which the House sent back to Committee in the Special Session): "We are seeking of course only legislation to end starvation wages and intolerable hours. . . . Wage and hour legislation ... is ... definitely before this Congress for action." Of the third (on which he indicated a special message would follow): "Capital is essential; reasonable earnings on capital are essential; but misuse of the powers of capital or selfish suspension of the employment of capital must be ended or the capitalistic system will destroy itself through its own abuses. ..."

Budget-"The proposed budget for 1939 [the fiscal year beginning next July 1], which I shall shortly send to the Congress, will exhibit a further decrease in the deficit, though not an actual balance."

Taxes, "In relation to tax changes, three things should be kept in mind. First, the total sum to be derived by the Federal Treasury must not be decreased. . . . Second, abuses by individuals or corporations designed to escape tax-paying by using various methods of doing business, corporate and otherwise--abuses which we have sought, with great success, to end-- must not be restored. Third, we should rightly change certain provisions where they are proven to work definite hardship, especially on the small businessmen of the nation."

Recession. "All we need today is to look upon the fundamental, sound economic conditions to know that this business recession causes more perplexity than fear on the part of most people and to contrast our prevailing mental attitude with the terror and despair of five years ago."

Objectives. Having dealt grandly with as many sides of the complex subject of the general welfare of the U. S. as any one man could be expected to in one afternoon, and having made it clear, in the speech's recurring refrain, that he felt that most of his opponents were using "deception that will not long deceive" the President closed on the major theme of the New Deal's broad objectives. Said he: "A government can punish specific acts of spoliation but no government can conscript cooperation. ... If private co-operative endeavor fails to provide work for willing hands and relief for the unfortunate, those suffering hardship . . . have a right to call upon the Government. ... I do not propose to let the people down. I am sure the Congress of the United States will not let the people down."

Spying House Republican Leader Bertrand H. Snell as he left the chamber, Franklin Roosevelt cockily made him the recipient of a Presidential confidence. Said he: "Bert, as they used to say on the East Side of New York, that wasn't esking them, that was telling them."

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