Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-03

economic poverty1is perhaps not a
sympathetic approach. Nevertheless,
always have been, and remain, an un-
quenchable believer in tho resistless,
dynamic power of American enterprise.
This is no time-an audience CT Amer
lean leaders of business is no place-to
ta.ss of any surrender. We have known
a thousand temporary setbacks, but the
spirit of this people will never brook de-
feat.
"Our present situation is not new
experience. These Interruptions to the
orderly march of progress have been re-
current for a century. And apart from
recovery from the present depression.
the most urgent undertaking in our
economic life is to devise further meth
o0s of preventing these storms. We
must assure higher degree of bust
ness stability for the future.
THE causes advanced for these move
ments are many and varied. There is
no simple explanation. This Is not an
occasion for analysis OF the many the
cries such as too little gold or the in
flexible use of it. Whatever the remote
causes may be, large and immediate
cause of most hard times is infiationary
boorns These strike some segment OF
economic life somewhere in the world,
and their re-echoing destructive results
bring depression and hard times. Theee
mutations in currency or credit, in land
or securities, or overeXpansion in some
sort of commodity production beyond
possible demand even in good times
may take place at home or abroad-but
they all bring retribution.
Seeks Cause Of Depression.
1.-THE leaders of business, of economic
thought and of Government have for
the last decade given earnest search into
cause and remedy of this sort OF insta-
bility. Much has already been accom-
plished to check the violence Of the
| storms and to mitigate their distress
| AS a result of these efforts the period
of stable prosperity between storms is
| longer, the period of storm is shorter
and the relief work far more effective.
But we need not go beyond our sitla-
ton today to confirm the need for fur
ther effort.
THE economic fatalist believes that
| these crises are inevitable and bound
| to be recurrent. I would remind these
pessimists that exactly the same thing
was once said of typhoid, cholera and
| smallpox. If medical science had sat
down in spirit of weakened resigna-
| ton and accepted these scourges as I'M
comfortable visitations of Providence,
we should still have them with US.
This is not the spirit of modern science.
Science girds itself with painstaking re-
search to find the nature and origin OF
| disease and to devise methods for Its
prevention. That should be our attitude
| toward these economic pestilences. They
are not dispensations OF Providence.
am confident in the faith that their
control, so far as the causes lie within
our own boundaries, is within the genius
of modern business.
I'VE have all been much engaged with
measures Of relief from the erect OF the
collapse of a year ago. At that time
determined that 1t was my duty, even
without precedent, to call upon the
business of the country for co-ordlnateo
and constructive action to resist the
forces of disintegration. The business
community, the bankers, labor ana the
Government have co-operated in wider
spread measures of mitigation than
have ever been attempted before. Our
bankers and the reserve system have car
ried the country through the credit storm
without impairment. Our leading pusl-
ness concerns have sustained wages, nave
! distributed employment, have expedited
heavy construction.
What Government Does.
"The Government has expanded pub
lie works, assisted in credit to agrlcul-
ture and has restricted immigration.
These measures have maintained
higher degree of consumption than
would have otherwise been the case.
They have thus prevented large meas
| ure of unemployment. They have pro-
vided much new employment. Our pres
ent experience in relief should form the
basis of even more amplified plans in
the future But in the long view the
equally important thing is prevention.
We would need have less concern about
! what to do in bad times II we discovered
and erected in good times further SAFE
guards against the excuses which lead
to these depressions.
American business has proved its ca
pacity to solve some great human prob
lens in economics. The relation be-
tween employer and employe has here
reached q more stable and satisfactory
basis than anywhere else in the world:
We have largely solved the problem OF
how to secure the consumption OF tne
gigantic increase Of goods produced
through that multiplication OF per
capita production by the application OF
science and the use Of labor saving de-
vices. That solution has been attained
| by sharing the savings in production
I costs between labor, capital and the
consumer, through increased wages ana
salaries to the worker, and decreased
prices to the consumer with consequent
goods. Every step in that solution Is
revolution from the older theories OF
business.
I'VE may safely assume that our eco
nomic future is safe so far as 1t Is de-
pendent upon q competent handling OF
problems of productivity. But one re-
suit Is to render further advance to-
ward stability even more urgent, be-
cause with higher standards OF living
the whole system is more sensitive and
the penalties Of instability more wide
spread.
Public Looks to Bankers.
s"There is no one group Of which the
public expects so much in assuring sta
bility as the bankers, because IN the
vortex Of these storms many values lose
their mornings. Nor can any other
group contribute so much in construc-
tive thought and action to solve the
problem either today or in the long run.
Three most important relationships to
these business movements lie in the
lack of better terms, we call psychology
both that contagious overoptimism
which accelerates the imitation of the
boom and those depths Of fear and pes
sin1ism which deepen and prolong the
depression. The American banker has
come to occupy unique position in the
strategy Of stability, for he is the eco
nomic adviser of American business. He
is the listening post OF economic move
ment He In large measure makes or
tempers its psychology.
ct do not suppose the banker has
consciously sought this new function of
general adviser, but such he has be-