Evening star., 1932-08-27
INDUSTRIAL CRISIS
.ENWS|ONED ASWAR
Hoover, Mills and Meyer Pic
tured as Leaders in New
Offensive Operation.
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

At the meeting of the Nationwide
banking and industrial committees at
Washington yesterday President Hoover
did an unusual thing He made, of
course, the opening speech. AS he con-
Cluded there was, as usual, a clearing
of ways en- the assumption that the
President would. according to universal
custom, leave the room and return to
the White House.
The President however, stepped to
chair. sat down and listened to the
speeches Of Secretary of the Treasury
Mills. Gov. Meyer of the Federal
Reserve System, Chairman Pomerene of
the Reconstruction Finance Corporation
and others, whose addresses lasted two
hours. 1t was on the Presidents part
an extraordinary departure from GUS
tomary practice.
1t would be difficult to remember an
occasion in recent years when any
President, after making his own address,
remained for the rest Of the pre- gram.
That Mr.. Hoover had important matters
awaiting him at the White House goes
without saying. Equally it goes without
saying that his remaining at the ses-
sionS of this conference implied on his
part sense Of its Importance and his
sympathy with it.
NlctOTy EnVlSl0ned.
AS one looked upon three men on
the platform. President Hoover, Secre-
tary Mills and Gov. Meyer, one had
the feeling Of seeing three heads of a
great army at moment when they
are about to enter upon victory. AS
one listened to their plain tales Of
what had been done and what is now
| being done, one saw this depression
in Nf xxyae -,
| terms Of war they talked about it. When
| a man of the practical temperament
/ and exact mentality of Eugene Meyer
describes the fight against depression
| as "a war, in its early stages defensive,
| but now offensive" he means just that.
| Fanciful imagery for the sake of or
| nateneSS has no place in the solid, sure
footed personality of Eugene Meyer.
AS Gov. Meyer talked, as well as
| President Hoover and Secretary Mills,
one saw suddenly the pattern of what
has happened, and one realized it was
warfare. To condense what Gov.
Meyer said, there were in the world i'll
March last year four great financial
powers. Great Britain, France, Germany
! and the United States. Within six
, months, two collapsed, Germany in July
last year and Great Britain in Septem-
] ber. At once, Gov. Meyer said, the
world assumed the United States could
not stand. The world began to With
draw gold from America in sums so
| large that five months of withdrawal at
the early rate would have destroyed us.
/ The world, that is individuals in Europe,
demanded that individual Americans
pay their debts. The world began to
sell frantically the American securities
it owned.
United States Fought Defensively.
| Against these furious onSlaughtS,
! America at the time could only night
defensively 1t was like Gen. Foch dur
ing the great German drives of the
early part of the great war. This de-
fenSlve war on our part was successful,
and was successful largely because OF
those three sturdy men on the platform.
President Hoover, Secretary Mills and
Gov. Meyer. America did not fall.
This defensive part OF the war came
to an end at time SO definite that
| Secretary Mills fixed it as July 27,
| barely four weeks ago. 1t was on that
day the three leaders took up the Of
fensive part of the war. the American
drive for recovery, similar to the allies
drive against Germany during the latter
part of the Great War.
Their assembly of offensive weapons
for victory was curiously similar to an
operation in war. President Hoover
and his associates organized institution
after institution, resource after resource,
adapted to attack against depression
along a dozen different fronts. One OF
| the institutions was this assembly OF
committees of business men and bank
ers in each OF the IL Federal Reserve
districts. now assembled in Washington.
President Hoover was careful to say
that much remains to be done and that
victory depends on the aggregate OF
efforts of individuals all over the coun-
try acting along the familiar American
line of Individual initiative. As the
President put it, the battle Of Chateau
Thierry has been won, the aggressive
attack of the enemy has, been overcome,
| but there remains now the forward
! push of America analogous to the last
four months of the great war. That
victory is certain, and is only mat
ter of time. could be seen in the quiet
| confidence of the President, Secretary
Mills and Governor Meyer. The three,
in their strong, dependable person.
alties, made on this audience of two or
three hundred American business men
the impression that FOch must have
made on his associates when, after long
endurance and patience, he knew the
time for offensive battle for fnal VIC
tory had come.
|