Cannon-Cracker

Last week organized labor in the U. S. suddenly massed in a concerted attack on a major Administration enactment. Conservative A. F. of L., liberal C. I. O., radical Workers Alliance all rose up in arms against the 13O-hour provision of the new Relief act. They explained it was a strike against Congress, a belated lobby against a new law, but the fact remained that the 130-hour rule was written into the act at the express request of President Roosevelt's new WPAdministrator, Colonel Francis Clark ("Pink") Harrington. And Franklin Roosevelt was on record, since as early as 1935, as opposing the "prevailing wage" provision demanded (and heretofore obtained) by union labor. In signing the new Relief Act, Franklin Roosevelt noted other "hardships" worked by it (TIME, July 10), but he passed the 130-hour proviso without comment. Evidently he and his Janizariat had not realized what a cannon-cracker it would be.

WPA needed something to restore its respectability after the political smears it acquired during Harry Hopkins' regime. The 130-hour provision, to make high-priced reliefers do more work for their money (though still not work anywhere near the legal maximum of 44 hours a week for privately employed workers), earned the approval of private employers. It promised to promote efficiency in WPA. That it now produced a fierce racket from all three big political wings of Labor was intensely embarrassing. It put Franklin Roosevelt, already bedeviled by an Isolationist bloc in the Senate, on a new and unexpected hotspot.

> By four votes (43-to-39) in the Senate, Franklin Roosevelt won his bitter fight with Congress over control of the country's' money. But the end of that fight only cleared the field for a mightier one: over control of the country's conduct in case of war overseas. As 34 diehard-isolationists massed in Senator Johnson's lair under the Capitol rotunda to sign a manifesto, lines formed for the longest tussle of all between the 32nd President and the 76th Congress.

> The death and obsequies of Secretary of the Navy Swanson last week delayed the Neutrality war between President and Congress. It also opened up a new political vista. Mentioned to fill the Navy vacancy, or the No. 2 job there after moving up Acting Secretary Charles Edison, was Missouri's Governor Lloyd Crow Stark, newly famed for smacking down villainous Boss Tom Pendergast of Kansas City (TIME, April 17, et seq.). Mr. Stark, an Annapolis graduate, is now high on the White House's list of 1940 prospects. Calling him for duty at Washington would be one way of building him up nationally. Last week, with a band and a trainload of Missourians, Governor Stark set off on a Western tour which will make him better known.

> What to do about Indiana's white-headed Paul McNutt, first and boldest Democratic candidate for Franklin Roosevelt's job (TIME, July 10), was a question which Mr. Roosevelt answered last week by inviting Mr. McNutt to become, after resigning as High Commissioner to the Philippines, director of the new, consolidated Federal Security Agency. In that post, at Washington. Candidate McNutt could be kept under surveillance and control, throttled if necessary. Or he could be built up as heir-apparent if that seemed more desirable. Able, ambitious executive that he is, he could be counted on in either case to do a good job for aged pensioners, youthful school-reliefers, CCC, public health, employment service and the Office of Education. On condition that his friends be allowed to keep on booming him, radiant Mr. McNutt accepted. Proclaimed he: I am appreciative of the tremendous responsibility of administering such a program. There are some who say that it is too vast to be workable, too ambitious to be realized. I do not hold with these critics for a moment. This program can be built into human benefits unheard of, by the hard work, the planning, the cooperation and the sacrifices of citizens and sincere public officers in county, State and nation.

> A Gallup poll revealed that 51% of those voting (less in New England and the West, more in the South and Mid-Atlantic) think President & Mrs. Roosevelt should return the visit of King George & Queen Elizabeth.

> President Roosevelt conferred with tax experts from the Treasury and both houses of Congress to plan anew survey of the entire Federal tax structure, as a basis for next year's revenue act. Approved in principle by Mr. Roosevelt is broadening the income tax base (by lowering exemption) so as to bring in five or six million new taxpayers. Other features of the Treasury's tentative plan: increasing rates in the $10,000-$50,000 income brackets; lowering the maximum surtax from 75% to 60%. In charge of the new tax study: Representative Jere Cooper of Tennessee.

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