ORPHANS IN THE STORM

The summary action taken by President Roosevelt in abandoning the Passamaquoddy tide-harnessing project and the Florida ship canal would seem to smack more strongly of political expediency than of any impelling reason for their desertion. Even though it be acknowledged that the Florida project was a flagrant instance of boon-doggling, necessitated by the need of spending so much money within a given time and within such and such a place, the "Quoddy" project has been praised by engineers and might possibly have been developed on a scale with the Boulder Dam, Grande Coulce and other highly successful New Deal projects. The Congress of the United States, however, properly aware that the coming fall brings with it an election, has revealed its political astuteness by firmly refusing to spend another penny on either project. This, at a time when roughly $5,000,000 had been spent on the Florida folly, $7,000,000 on the Passamaquoddy scheme, and a good size town, called rather redundantly--Quoddy, had been crected, doesn't hold with what the late Will Rogers would have called "just plain, common, hoss-sense."

The need for cutting down on expenditures and appearing to be genuinely interested in the renascence of what Republican historians refer to as a "balanced budget", has been drilled into the consciousness of the Congress for some time. Less spending, less appropriations, less deficits, less "extraordinary" expenditures;--all these have now become the key note of congressional legislation. The President, far from being bitterly disappointed over the treatment afforded his brain-children, has realized for some time that there is a strong sentiment in the direction of economy, and is probably delighted that this pre-election liability is off his mind.

Landon may have his picture taken while riding a horse around his back yard; Borah may be snapped cantering through Idaho on a spirited nag; and even Knox may affect jhodpurs to and from the office of the Chicago Daily News. Yet this sudden burst of horse-consciousness on the part of the Republican publicity men does not mean the G.O.P. is trying to portray its prophets as members of a wealthy and notedly extravagant class. The technique may be wrong but the idea is right:--"Frugal Alf" Landon, "he balanced Kansas' budget", thirty, honest, simple.

Ever do the Republican politicians lash the flanks of the Democratic Donkey with the cry of "economy". It has caught and will spread like wild-fire through the summer mouths, fanned constantly by the bellows of such outstanding political Hamlets as Hoover, Landon, Knox and Borah; never forgetting the large and well paid machines behind these personalities. Economy will, in short, probably have more to do with the election of the next President than any other single issue. Whatever the result may be, the unloading of such unfinished and dead cargo as the Florida ship-canal and the Passamaquoddy project signalizes the beginning of a stringent economy on the part of the Administration. The age-old adage, never too late to learn, seems to have been invoked in the nick of time by that distinguished political figure, "Honest Jim" Farley.