The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1933-03-17
National Topics Interpreted

demanding that IL
do something or other about the bank
ing situation and the economic panic.
Demands are being made that it fix
things up" -
The demands and appeals, the argu-
ments and the advice that is being laid
on the threshold of every office door
in the Capitol carry every known
scheme, tried and untried, for dealing
with the disturbance in the delicate.
balance of our economic and financial
machinery. Freak legislation pana-
ceas. cNrealls and patent remedies that
would put a quack doctor to shame
are offered. Few of them appear to
have been thought through as to the
ultimate result, and / gather from the
private conversations. of senators and
representatives that they are becoming
just a little bit hardened and caloused
about them.
That people everywhere are suffer
ing is known. That the people have a
right to demand that their government
do what it can is not to be denied.
But, seeing the problem from the view
point of washington, your observer is
inclined to pause and ask what can
congress do? How can congress fix
things up? What sort of magic can
President Roosevelt employ that will
start the country back to conditions
that will provide employment for the
unemployed, food for the hungry, mar
kets for the products of the factory
and farm and stability for banks?
The last congress and the last adj
ministration tried to solve the prob
lem, and accomplished nothing. No
sooner had the Seventy-second con-
gress expired than we heard assertions
from those who saw their pet legis-
lation die that things would have been
better If only their particular bills
had been enacted But the saner
heads among them know and admit
that enactment Of all of the freak
bills in the world would not change
human nature nor amend the age-old
law of supply and demand.
Whether President Roosevelt is de-
veloping an economic program that
will restore the confidence of the coun-
try in it's established institutions and
traditions, time alone will tell. It will
be slow process. A sitting down of
views of many of those upon whom
responsibility rests seems to indicate
that it may have strength because it is
slow in the making. The effects of
anything sensational are generally not
lasting, it is agreed.
From what many Republicans as
well as Democrats have told me, there
is some ground for
Starts With belief that the mere
Wide Support change Of control of
the government may
result in some revival of confidence.
Look at the thing this way: Mr..
Roosevelt convinced good many hum
dred thousand persons throughout the
country in his campaign that he could
do a better job Of running the govern
ment than Mr. Hoover had done. In
convincing them. he developed their
confidence in him. It is considered,
therefore, that Mr.. Roosevelt is start
ing out with wide support II is
claimed that the people will believe in
him and in his policies at least until
the error of his way is shown. In
other words, according to the argu-
ment as it is advanced from this
standpoint, the bulk of the people will
be trying to help themselves when
they respond to the appeal of their
President.
There has been an all-gone feeling,
a feeling of exhaustion, evident in the
months since the November election.
To put it in another form. many per-
sons showed their lack of backbone by
asking: what's the use? It is held
among many government officials that
this condition was directly responsible
for further declines in general condi-
lions.
So the hope is, as l see it. not so
much in what congress can do but in
whether Mr.. Roosevelt can conserve
or increase the confidence he built
among the people. If he succeeds,
things will slowly straighten them
selves out. If he makes some bad mis-
takes. or if congress gets out of con-
troll, many here believe we may as
well permit the depression to wear
itself out. Depressions have done
that in years gone by. History gives
no basis to expect that the present
disturbance will be any different in
that respect.
The President undoubtedly has
started off in the right direction in
holding confidence by the selection of
his cabinet members. He picked a
group which is generally conceded to
be we'll balanced between conserva-
tives and liberals That fact is made
the more apparent from conversations
which one hears among the conserva-
tives and the liberals of the Presi-
dents party in congress. The con-
servatives claim there are more con-
servatives in the cabinet than there
are liberals and the liberals claim