300 Congressmen

Franklin Roosevelt's business appeasement policy is only nine months old but already it is a retarded infant. It was allegedly born in a confidential memo of Adolf Augustus Berle whose present job as Assistant Secretary of State does not prevent him from braintrusting all over the lot. It soon fell out of the arms of its nurse, Secretary of Commerce Harry Hopkins, who in his oversold Des Moines speech last February failed to give it anything but words to teethe on. Last week those who should have loved the baby most dearly, shoved it in the face as a hopeless, backward brat.

This final slap was administered by the Chamber of Commerce of the U. S. at its 27th annual meeting. Turning its back on the Appeasement and the Administration (as the Administration has turned its back on the Chamber since 1934), the Chamber made a direct appeal to Congress for things that the New Deal won't give. It got no less than 300 Congressmen to come to its various dinners to hear a verbal barrage against That Man in the White House and all his works.

Principal transaction of the meeting was to elect a new president, William Gibson Carey Jr. (head of Yale & Towne Mfg. Co., hardware), who in personal contacts is a kind of fun-loving Tom Rover. Drafted because he is "a victim of his friends" where Civic Virtue is concerned, President Carey explained that to him the Capitalist is "The Forgotten Man, 1939." He is committed to winning "commonsense legislation."

Only one striking reaction came from the 300 Congressmen who came, listened and departed. It was provided by Manhattan's Representative Sol Bloom (who attended with Mrs. Bloom and Daughter Vera). Promoted to the important Foreign Relations Committee by his ex-colleague, New Deal purge victim John O'Connor, Sol Bloom has spent much of his time selling George Washington to the American people. But this time, after eating his way through an evening of Roosevelt-hating speeches, Sol got up to sell FDR to the folks. One lone, small boo came from the audience, but it found the one sensitive spot in his hide. The Blooms walked out.

Fervor was added to the proceedings by Colgate University's president, Dr. George Barton Cutten. President Cutten said: "TIME Magazine has called me 'the most reactionary college president in America.' Well, I have good company. I think God is reactionary, doing the things the same as he did 20,000 years ago. ... I suppose the young people today say He hasn't an open mind because He doesn't do things in a modern way. If He did, I suppose they would have girl babies born with hairline eyebrows, purple lips and green fingernails, and I don't know what color toenails; but they are born the same as they were 20,000 years ago. And the boy babies, if God had been open-minded, would be born with one shoulder lower than the other, so they could more conveniently lean on a shovel."

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