The Washington times., 1931-10-24
True to Type
APPEALS FOR FUNDS
NEED FRANKNESSS
AND CANDOR
.Ry GILBERT SELDES

The newspapers print diagrams OF the rise and tall
(he word rise is put in only for fun) Of stocks, and
diagrams of the movements of gold and steel and
modify prices but they have diagram Of our emo
tions about this depression which, like too-long-
lingering guest has outstayed its welcome. We want
fever chart not to show how i'll we have been and
still are, but to show when get excited about our
illness and when lie back and let ride 1t to
me that while the industrial situation may be pretty
steady, personal feelings about it in waves.
England off the gold standard and we have wave
of enthusiasm welcome change which may be a
change for the Then, nothing happens; we
suffer much or more, and the people we meet are
talking about other things
No Good Runnors
At the moment our interest in our own troubles
ought to be particularly intense but do not think it
is You can tell this fevershness by many symptoms;
of them, bad one is the sudden crop OF rumors
Every two or three weeks, a new lot out; and
apart from their vcousness there this to be noted
almost nothing of Importance has been heralded by
rumor. The Presidents suggestion for moratorium
was discussed as possible move in craftsmanship the
British abdication of the gold standard urged
remedy: neither first in the form of rumor. In
all my working days newspaper man. have heard
only solitary that worth hoot; it was,
in fact worth million dollars if had been able to
capitalize on it. It a BRIEF crcumstantial, and
absolutely accurate account of the first Russian revou
tion and heard it in London four weeks before the
Revolution took place.
haven't heard a rurnor of disaster in weeks. have
heard that certain bankers believe adjustments"
will have to take place. have heard worries about the
railroads and other things, as public monuments
But the ruor crop is low good thing, yes; only If
it means that we growing caous about things it is
unfortunate.
Three for One
The particular reason is that this is the time of the
great charity drives when every mail brings in letters
of appeal and every billboard and newspaper cartoon
rams home the urgent demand. It three men are
working and is not, the three must pull the
fourth one through. Again and again told that
this is the American tradition of hepfuness and charty
it isn because the situation has hardly occurred
before It is responsibility and what our leaders
need most to do is to create frame OF MIND Whch Will
lead us to accept it.
The Guilty and the Victims
think that the people who are writing appeals today
are hampered by feeling that they cannot say exactly
what they want to say. Facts about starvation are
easily enough to put down. and ghasty enough to read
The frankness want is in the statement that what
has happened to is the result of blunder1ng and
stupidity and outrageous greed. And we should be
told that the victims of poverty gtess; that their
minimum demands must be met without regard to the
power the weakness of governments.
No one believes that the President and the Cabinet
and Congress and State legislatures and municipal as
sembles are happy over the plight of the poor; and
hardly anyone believes that all these heads of
ment have done all that should have been done to re-
ieve it.
Perhaps our governments need publicity agents;
perhaps vast engineering and building projects are ac
tualy under way now. Perhaps the clearesC mlnos
have been invited to take counsel together and have
worked out plan for the next six months We have
heard little of these things; we have heard chiefly pla
tudes about ''the American way out of difficulties
The American Way
The American way, it seems to have worked years
ago, of action: The American contribution has
been the habit of finding work for the hands willing to
work. It has been tried with high tariffs and low in
isolation from Europe and in cooperation with Europe
And we had always thought that the American way
began with deliberate estimate of the facts. Possibly
wrong.
should feel if were appealing for funds, that my
position had been weakened because the whole idea OF
charity had been made political issue And should
somehow confess this and say that the people who suffer
the only innocent ones They asked neither charity
nor doles they did not try to force President Hoovers
hands; nor did they complain against the Red Cross
They asked with singeness of purpose which IS
pathetic and admirable, to be set to work And the
purpose of our present charity is to carry them through
the winter with that purpose unshaken.
One for Three Hundred
All of us know what few of say that the three men
now at work cannot cut their incomes by third to supply
the needs of the fourth The deficit has to be
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