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Department of
Agriculture and Adolf Augustus Berle Jr. in the R. F. C., Columbia
professors both. Senators and Representatives privately denounce them
as "second-raters" who command no widespread academic
respect, flay them as radical theorists who are about to strangle the
U. S. Government to death. Oft-repeated are the predictions that some
day the power of the "Brain Trust" over the White House will
cause a terrific rebellion within the party against its leader. But Dr.
Moley, jealous of his close association with the President, is no
radical. He believes in economic planning—just as Herbert Hoover did
before the election. He believes in private property rights and due
process of law no less firmly than does Chief Justice Hughes. For
practical politicians like "Jim" Farley and "Joe"
Robinson he has the greatest admiration. He has even expressed this
arch-Hamiltonian view: "We would have better government if
less people voted. There is no such thing as faith in numbers. The more
numbers you have, the more foolish is the result." Friends know he
is not being ironic when he says: "I am essentially a conservative
fellow. I tilt at no wind-mills." As a political technician his
job is primarily to show President Roosevelt how to do things rather
than what to do. The greatest achievement generally credited to
Technician Moley is the White House discovery of how to get around the
Constitution. The Moley method: have Congress delegate its
constitutional power to the President for a fixed period and within
certain broad limits. That principle was the basis of the Economy
bill whereby the President cut veterans' pensions which Congress was
scared to touch. On it also rests the farm bill which grants broad
authority to the President's Secretary of Agriculture. Dr. Moley
helped draft the currency inflation bill which strips Congress of most
of its constitutional power to regulate the value of money. Soon
Congress is expected to be asked to pass over to the White House, under
this Moley device, its authority over tariff rates and War Debt
payments. In two months Political Scientist Moley has found a way to
concentrate in the hands of the President greater executive power than
ever before in U. S. history. That fact alone explains why Professor
Moley is viewed with alarm on Capitol Hill.
