The first real tilt between the "Brain Trust" and the so called "practical" wing of the Roosevelt administration has re-suited in a shift of governmental agencies so as to take due account of the temperamental difficulties that had come into conflict with each other.

Assistant Secretary Tugwell of the Agricultural Department, who in some respects is the leading exponent of industrial revolution, has so far injected his views into the policies involved in drafting and administering food codes that George N. Peek, agricultural adjustment administrator, rebelled and let it be known that he wouldn't stay any longer of the dispute were not settled at once.

Secretary Wallace and the President have had many long consultations about how to patch up the differences. These were not altogether personal either, for Mr. Tugwell represents one school of thought and Mr. Peek quite another. The latter, by the way, got his experience in the agricultural implement business and Mr. Tugwell has been Professor of Economics in Columbia.

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Originally it was believed that the codes that referred to agricultural products could be handled apart from the NRA. General Hugh Johnson and George Peek are old friends. It was assumed there would be harmony on general principles. But Mr. Peek found considerable interference from Mr. Tugwell.

When the controversy was carried to the White House, the President had precisely the same kind of problem as he had when Professor Moley and Secretary Hull clashed. In this instance he was as anxious as in the first case to preserve the member of the "Brain Trust" in question. Mr. Moley finally was transferred to another department and then resigned. Mr. Tugwell has been mentioned as possibly being useful in another part of the government, but there is no need of change now that the codes which he and Mr. Peek quarreled about have been transferred to Mr. Johnson's bailiwick by executive order.

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It may be that Mr. Peek will join Mr. Johnson. Anyway it has been demonstrated that practical business folks and the "Brain Trust" do not harmonize very well and that Mr. Roosevelt will have to find some better way of keeping his official family in peaceful cooperation in the future if he expects to retain both kinds of advisers.

Just now Mr. Tugwell is under fire from another quarter--the group who are fighting the pure food and drug measure he and other college professors drafted and which Senator Copeland introduced. The opposition says there is plenty of law now to get after quack medicines and fraudulent advertising. It is therefore particularly interesting to see what the White House does about Mr. Tugwell's future relations with the agricultural department.

Many of the published versions of the Tugwell-Peek row indicated that the "Brain Trust" was on the point of revolt. The opposite has been true. The administrators and government officials who are out of sympathy with the "Brain Trust's" usurpation of power and authority were the rebels.

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There are many signs that the Roosevelt administration is being caught between the upper millstone of professorial radicalism and the lower millstone of business experience or practical cooperation with business and industry which is deemed essential to the forward progress of any economic reorganization that may be attempted. That's why the ingenious idea of removing the troublesome codes on agricultural by-products from the hands of both Mr. Peek and Mr. Tugwell is an indication of how important the President himself regards the smooth administration of the codes. The NRA itself is also adopting a somewhat more practical tone in its dealings with business. Much of this is due unquestionably to the rising tide of Congressional criticism, which means controversy in January. The Roosevelt administration is skillfully anticipating its opposition and mending its way accordingly