The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-11-23

gency.
.NUR system of government does
~ not lend itself to this type of
coalition. Our substitute for it, in
time of war or other crisis, is to
draw into the councils of the gov
eminent and into its service indi-
viduals who have the confidence of
those who would normally be in OPP
position.
In other words, if public criticism
is to be suspended, if the ordinary
conflicts of partisanship and inter-
est are to be damped down, the
government itself must be repre-
sentative. For somewhere or other
in the governmental system oppos-
ing views must be taken into ac-
count. If they are not to express
themselves publicly, they must be
able to express themselves within
the governments own councils.
There is no way of annulling the
opposition entirely. 1t must be eff
fective in one way or another.
Either it must have the sylnpa-
thetic ear of the President or it will
break out and appeal to the people.
If opposition is overridden within a
government, then it will organize
outside of it. From this choice there
is, in a free country, no escape.
Until quite recently,s and then
only on the question of monetary
policy, the present administration
has played the game which a gov
eminent must play if it is to COM
mand the general support Of the
people. The NRA is a very good
example.
Here is a scheme of industrial re-
construction involving "a die al
changes in the distribution of power
and, therefore, of income. Now
whatever may have been the mis-
takes at certain stages of the NRA,
and to my thinking there have been
mistakes, the MIRA, after the blue
eagle campaign subsidized, has been
administered in the open and with
the representatives Of the many
parties at interest participating,
n
NOBODY has had things all his
IN own way, and everybody has
done his share of grumbling. But
everybody has had his day in court.
General johnson has been vehe-
ment. But he has been frank. The
net result is that the country is
coming to look upon the MIRA as
something which it can work out
successfully, as something to be
argued about in detail rather than
to be challenged in principle.
But in the gold purchase policy
a different procedure has been fol-
lowed From the start it has been
mysterious. 1t never has been made
ineligible. Then it transpired that
officials, who presumably should
have understood it, either did not
understand it or, understanding it,
disagreed with it. Now it must be
admitted, of course, that treasury
policies are never debated in full
public view, the speculative charac-
ter of the money markets always
cOmpelS a large measure Of secrecy
and censorship.
The British do not publish what
the equalization fund is doing from
Gay to day. nor do they say just
what precisely they are aiming at
in monetary matters. In the days
when the federal reserve system,
rather than the President, was
managing the American currency,
there was plenty of mystery and
secrecy.
Yet when full weight has been
given to these considerations it is
still true that the gold policy has
been conducted unwisely. Grant for
the moment that the policy is a
good one, it is certainly a strange
policy which the people do not I'M
derstand. If such a policy was to
be launched, was it not essential
that every effort be made to create
confidence, if not in the policy itself,
then at the very least in the men
who are to operate it? Was that
done? I am afraid not.
Mr.. Sprague says he was not con-
suited, though he was the Presi-
dents own choice for principal ad-
wiser to the treasury in these mat
tiers. Surely when a novel expert
ment was to be made, it would have
been the part of wisdom to do every
thing possible to make people be-
lieve in the men VINO are leading
them into the unknown. In no
other way would it have been posi-
bic to carry the thing through as a
national experiment without arous-
ing the kind Of organized opposi-
ton Mr.. Sprague now calls for. For
you can fight the opposition or take
1t into camp. You can not ig-
more it.
MY own view is that the chief
1V1 danger Of the gold policy lies
not i'll Professor Warren's theory
itself but in the effects of the mys-
terry and abruptness with which it
has been administered. Mr.. Sprague
declares that it is leading to unre-
strained imitation. Why? Profess
sor Warren is not a paper money
infatiOnist. Quite the contrary. Re
is a solid gold money enthusiast. If
his policy could be carried out con-
sistently it would lead US right
back to convertible gold currency.