America's Second Thoughts President Hoover's Star waxes and wanes in
be. : wilderingly Swift alternation. Ten days . ago Congress : was out of hand and the prospect of any attempt at a • balanced Budget negligible. BM on Friday the President issued a message of such vigour that economy became in twenty-four hours a national slogan. The new bonus to ex-soldiers was reported against by the Ways and Means Committee, and there is little chance now of its coming to a vote in the House. The Budget is not through, but its prospects are incomparably better than they were before the President moved. But the unemploy- ment problem is increasing in urgency every day, and the proposal now afoot to authorize the new Reconstruction Finance Corporation to make loans to municipalities for unemployment relief raises interesting speculations regarding Mr. Hoover's probable action, for he has always set his face against federal intervention in this field, holding that each locality should bear its own responsibilities. The danger of rival schemes being pushed for political ends increases as the nomination conventions (both of them take place next month) approach, but for the moment hard realities are restoring Congress to sanity. * * * *
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