Evening star., 1933-02-26
Continued From First Page)

lowering the freight rate SO that wheat
could be shipped to Europe in order to
bring back gold.
In this present depression Mr.. Hoover
had all the responsibility, supplied an
the generalship. Whether because the
financial community in New York had
no leader comparable to Mr.. Morgan.
whether because adoption of the Federal
Reserve System had transferred the
banking center to Washington, whether
because most of the onslaughts came
from Europe and entailed relationships
with governments, whether because Mr..
Hoovers temperament made him a will
ing Atlas-for whatever reason, the part
, played by American financial communi-
ties became negligible. The New York
financial community did not. I think,
so much as hold a meeting until after
nearly two years. on October 4, 1881,
they were summoned to Washington by
Mr.. Hoover and asked to form the Ma
tional Credit Corporation for extending
aid to threatened banks all over the
country and for enabling closed banks
to make payments to depositors.
Not only that. 1t was from within
the financial and business community
that the worst blows ofdhe depression
came. Mr. Hoover was defending the
existing order, and out of the highest
ranks of that order came the develop
ments that made the order most diff
cult to defend Key men and key in
stitutions of the order, through mis-
takes they had made, or in some cases
recreancieS to trust, became the most
serious indictments of the system.
A very king of the existing order,
Samuel insult, symbol of business en-
terprise, of sound investment, was found
to have committed practices the ex-
posure of which caused him to flee to
Greece and resist extradition. A great
banking house. the largest and Oldest
in New England, and second or third
in prestige in New York, turned out to
have given its confidence, its trust and
the sponsorship of it's name to the most
MAGNIFICENT swindler of all time-Ivar
Kreuger. This banking house. in asso-
citation with others almost as highly
placed had sold to American investors
and institutions some 5000 100000 In
securities.
Who can estimate how many widows,
orphans, wards, pensioners and private
investors were turned by the Kreuger
frauds and the insult debacle from
being beneficiaries and defenders OF
the social order into embittered critics
of it, in many cases carried into the
resisting, ready to say that if what they
had experienced was individualism, So
cialism could hardly be worse? Who
can say how many more were led into
distrust of the existing system. into an
enlightenment which made them willing
listeners to propaganda for change by
the failure of banks, the collapse OF
industry?
Incredible Handicaps.
MI. --cnver waged the battle under
incredible hanoie-ps. Almost it is lit
erally true that the wr.oi2 world was
against him and he had very few s=v.:-s
BY a curious perversity of fate his own
name and his past experience. the very
services which had commended him
to the people and elevated him to the
presidency became q handicap to him
in the battle he now had to make
The word Hoover" had been the SYM
Dol of prosperity, the glamorous brand
word attached to those golden years
when the existing order had functioned
at its best. Now his name became the
symbol of the system not at its best
but at its worse.
The nature of the battle was such
that he could not. at the time 1t was
on. get credit for either the fighting
or the victory 1t was not merely that
takes place. not on picturesque fields
with flags and music and march anc
charge, but. rather. in the quiet of th'
closet. 1t was not merely that. The
very nature of the battle, the fact thai
such a battle was under way was ut
terly unknown to more than one ou
Of ten thousand So far as people
visualized battle at all, they saw i
only as fight against depression, will
success or failure marked by the pric'
of wheat: the quotations Of securities
the number of unemployed. Tina
battle went on, of course, but essen
TALLY that was only the troubling o
tle waters on the surface. The deepa
eosng, the defensive struggle to main
tain the American system agains
change was realized by so few. at th
time, that almost it is accurate to sa,
= V0 realized by none except MI
3ncVer himself.