Patronage Deferred

Patronage Deferred

If politics is the art of getting people to do what you want, President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his first fortnight in office performed as a consummate political artist. His frank, cheerful, direct methods drove Washington correspondents to superlatives of praise. He had Congress eating out of his steady hand. In two weeks he put through nearly two years' worth of important legislation. His smiling facility charmed even rabid Republicans. In a dozen days 14,000 laudatory telegrams swamped the White House. Catching the temper of the times the national commander of the American Legion tried to swing its 10,709 posts behind the President the instant Congress authorized pension cuts.

But personal charm and persuasiveness by no means wholly explained Mr. Roosevelt's wooing & winning the country. It would be grossly unfair to discount the genuine desire of the average Congressman to be helpful in time of crisis. And where this desire was weak or the Congressman's honest convictions obstructive, President Roosevelt held behind his back the most puissant of political weapons-- Patronage, the thousands & thousands of Federal jobs the distribution of which Congressmen may propose, the President dispose.

Such was the nature of the moment, the President could hold, had to hold. Patronage in abeyance. There was no time to haggle over the postmastership of Jefferson's Gulch while all the country's banks were shut. Except for top-notch positions (TIME, March 20), a White

House moratorium was declared on place-seeking. While it lasted, Democratic Senators and Representatives had to be on their best behavior--and in the name of emergency the President could continue this moratorium until he got all he wanted from Congress.

Tammany Hall furnished the first horrid example of what was in store for Democratic organizations that tried to buck the White House. On the first House roll call passing the President's vital economy bill, three Manhattan and seven Brooklyn Democrats voted against it. In the van of the opposition was Brooklyn's freckled Cullen, assistant majority leader of the House, who explained that he had made campaign pledges against salary pension cuts. Said he: "I'm with the President 100% but I'd given my word to my constituents and I'm too old to go back on it now."

Boss John H. McCooey of Brooklyn, who is also a Democratic national committeeman, publicly repudiated his Congressional delegation's action, called its votes "asinine." Boss John Francis Curry of Tammany tried to weasel out of a boss's responsibility by saying that Manhattan representatives had not asked his views, that if they had, he would have advised them to stand by the President. The White House was unimpressed.

Last week James Aloysius Farley arrived in Manhattan to consider Patronage. He is four persons in one: 1) the Administration's chief patronage broker; 2) Democratic national chairman: 3) New York state chairman; 4) Postmaster General. National Chairman Farley consulted State Chairman Farley and Broker Farley conferred with "General" Farley. Result: Mr. Farley alone will handle New York jobs. Pro-Roosevelt bosses elsewhere needed to submit only one name for a job in their district; Bosses Curry and McCooey were told to submit three, with no guarantee that any of their candidates will get it. President Roosevelt had the Tammany Tiger, whose lifeblood is the public payroll, under his thumb and he proposed to keep it there.

President Roosevelt's control over Congress was so great that from one day to the next the members rarely knew what would be doing. Almost daily Vice President Garner. Senate Leader Robinson, Speaker Rainey and House Leader Byrns marched to the White House to receive final drafts of legislation to be enacted. The President gave them only one piece of work at a time, thus keeping the public spotlight on immediate action. When the economy bill looked as if it might stick in the Senate, the President adroitly sent his beer measure to the Capitol to tread on its heels, force it forward to passage.

Though King Caucus ruled both House and Senate majorities, Democratic insurgency was not completely downed. In the Senate Louisiana's boisterous Long kicked up his heels on the bank bill, openly defied the President on the economy bill. Missouri's Clark, Nevada's McCarran and Kansas' McGill also got conspicuously out of step with the Roosevelt leadership of the Senate. The President made no overt move to punish these independents, was apparently giving them rope to hang themselves. And, realizing that his "honeymoon" with the regular Democrats could not last forever, he decided to keep Congress in session for other than emergency measures--on banks, railroads, shipping, communications. Muscle Shoals, etc. etc.--to get action while the getting was good.

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