Out-dealing the New Deal?

President Truman sent his first peacetime message to Congress. In 16,000 workaday words--the longest Presidential message since Theodore Roosevelt's 20,000-word document in 1901--he laid out his program for peace and prosperity.

Had he read his message himself, Harry Truman, who speaks at the rate of no words a minute, would have taken more than two hours. Instead, he turned it over to House and Senate reading clerks.

In the Senate, veteran white-thatched Chief Clerk John Crockett droned through the 21 major recommendations, while bored and busy Senators drifted out. Soon only a dozen remained. Clerk Crockett adroitly skipped a sizable chunk of the message (24 pages), wound up in 23 minutes flat.

Catchall. The message was a characteristic Truman document. It was careful, comprehensive and a political catchall. There was little in it that the President had not recommended before. The news was: 1) the way he gathered all his eggs in one basket; and 2) the many respects in which he departed from his reputation as a man a little right of center and went over to Franklin Roosevelt's spot, a little left of center.

He again asked Congress for the Murray "Full Employment" bill--which even New Deal columnists like Ernest Lindley complain is grossly misnamed, because its only concrete provision is to budget the national production, employment and income. Again he asked for a permanent Fair Employment Practices Committee, for supplementing State unemployment compensation by boosting payments to a $25-for-26-weeks maximum. He bluntly called the 40-c- minimum-wage level "obsolete"--a follow-up on the disclosure by Economic Stabilizer William H. Davis that the Government hopes to raise real wages by 40% to 50% without, by some economic magic, raising prices. And he demanded a multi-billion-dollar development and construction program.

On the other side, there were words of real encouragement for business and free enterprise. Harry Truman wanted wartime controls relaxed as quickly as possible, although he injected a note of caution. He wanted a single head for the struggling three-man Surplus Property Board. He wanted war contracts canceled and settled soon, war plants cleared so that peacetime production can get up steam.

The Presidential tone was cheerfully optimistic. Looking ahead, he saw that if the nation could deal with the problems of peace as boldly as it did with the problems of war, it could soon be off on the "greatest peacetime industrial activity we have ever seen." So honeyed and inspiring were his words that the New York Daily News headlined: PRESIDENT PLANS PEACETIME BOOM.

The Reaction. The catchall message had a catchall reaction. New Dealers thought it great; the stock market jumped one to three points, reached the highest levels in eight years.

Congressional Republicans, looking only on one side of the picture, thought they had something to crow about. Cried Minority Leader Joe Martin: "Now nobody should have any more doubt. Not even President Roosevelt ever asked as much at one sitting. The scenery is new and there is a little better decoration, and he does dish it out a little easier. But it is just a plain case of out-New Dealing the New Deal." Said Representative Charlie Halleck, Republican Congressional Campaign Chairman: "This is the kickoff; this begins the [Congressional] campaign of '46. For the Democrats, it's just more billions and more bureaus."

Harry Truman, a seasoned politician, could expect such cracks from the opposition. He himself had declared that politics-as-usual were in order again. But a more serious point for President Truman was how much support he could expect from his own party. Southern Democrats stood ready to commit mayhem on the FEPC bill, other Democratic conservatives frowned on the unemployment-compensation measure. Harry Truman had a program; how hard would he fight for it?

Last week the President also: P:Awarded the D.S.M. to Harry Hopkins. P:Went to his first ball game as President. P: Received a new fez, signifying that he is a Past Potentate of Ararat Shrine, Kansas City; and a three-sided desk gadget which has YES on one side, NO on the second, and SCRAM on the third.

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