The Washington herald., 1914-06-09
Red6eldPs Psychological Map.

II is difficult to follow the logic of Secretary OF
Commerce Redheld when he attempted, in his speech
at Raleigh, N. C., last week. to fortify Presiden,
Wilson's diagnosis of business conditions "a
psychological condition. state of mind Rather than
helping to make the Presidents view convincing his
remarks seemed to justify the obstinate stand Of the
Presidents critics who insist that when hundreds of
thousands of men of employment because fac
tories closed and one-third of great railroads
freight cars standing idle its tracks, the de-
preston exists elsewhere than in the minds of the
people. Secretary Redheld said:
If we could place the business atmosphere of the
country on sort of commercial weather map such
as is used by the weather service should find a
curious condition. In the extreme Southeast and
Southwest would be areas where the business
barometer high All through the great central part
of the country where the bulk of wheat is grown,
would be another great of fair weather and high
pressure. Over the great cotton of the South
would be no depression, not unsettled condi-
tions but normal outlook for great unsettled condi-
favors expected to come. High barometer also pre-
walls where automobiles made in and about the
Lake Over the Northeastern States would be
found a section of low barometer and marked de-
preston If the state of mind of the different parts
of country could be shaded in coors. the-great
body of the West would be white, while an area
of dull gray would represent our Northeastern
States.
Apparently there is double meaning to the above.
Where the people prosperous there is no psych-
illogical depression" Where they out of work
the Psychological depression exists. In the great
agricultural regions there is no hunger and want to
create state of mind" In the dull gray manu-
featuring sections idle work1nen and their families
are in state of mind"
Legislation may shacle business but it cannot kill
the crops though it may curta the price slightly
by reducing the purchasing power of the workers in
the Cities but there is hungry world awaiting the
products of our fields Unprecedented harvests of
winter wheat are now ripenng in the fields and the
later crops everywhere give equal promise Nature has
provided against State of mind" on the farms.
Secretary Red6eld pointed with pride to the agri-
cultural situation adding that the States of Missouri
Kansas and Oklahoma in need of 5000 men TO
gather the harvest 1t would indeed be blessing to
the whole country the Western farmers and the dull
gray" Northeast especially if the idle armies of the
manufacturing could be utilized for the gath
ering of the harvest but if they were adapted
to work in the fields where is the money to come
from to transport them and their families to the
places where the opportunity to earn living is wait
ing, and what is to become of them when the har-
vest days over? The answer to that question
the solving of the problem of putting peo-
pie permanently work on the farms If the Secre-
tary of Commerce, the Secretary of Labor and the
Federal Commission on Industrial Relations can ac-
oomplsh this they will do thousand times greater
service to mankind than would the solution of the
agrarian land problem in Mexico.
With more men at work in the fields the country
would be better off in normal times, and immeasur-
ably so while permitting Europe to do large
share of our manufacturing for u.s.