Evening star., 1933-09-10


nj Akron. Ohio, paper wrote an
editorial listing some Of the
/ immediate Socialist demands
which he says he found in a
campaign leaflet announcing my ad-
dress in Akron last Summer To this
list he appended as his comment a
statement which he attributed to some
unknown wit who had just heard an
impressive Socialist address: IT'S all
right: but when We are ready for So
cialism, the Republicans and Democrats
will give it to U.S."
Evidently the editor is one Of the
considerable number Of Americans who
with mixed emotions find a large ele-
ment ofiSocialism in the new deal Let
me reassure the apprenhensive. In no
essential feature is the new deal So
cialist. It is rather a form of State
capitalism, form, to be sure. which
under the pressure of the emergency
isI demands which the President and
some Of his advisers have been wise
enough and bold enough partially to
take over
Even here must make some qualifi-
cations. We are still far from having
the 30hour week and the adequate
unemployment relief which Socialists
demand. The codes are by no means
of uniform value from a labor stand
point. Some of them-that in the steel
industry, for instance-are decidedly
unsatisfactory. Already there is and
there certainly will be an amount OF
bootlegging under them which by COM
parison may make the enforcement of
prohibition look like a Sunday school
picnic. Let me hasten to add, however
that the administration is aware Of this
danger and that the prevention of
bootlegging, or what Gen. johnson calls
"chiseling" will depend largely upon
consumers to organize.
Administration Open.
Where the administration itself is
open to criticism is that its economy
what 1t breaches to private employers
If the present codes are enforced there
will be an end of sweatshop conditions
in the needle trades but not an end OF
sweatshop wages for Uncle Sans own
employees, the substitute postal clerks
The cut of some $4,000, 900 in appro-
priations to valuable scientific services
under the Federal Government is mex
cusable
To say these things Is quite consistent
with recognition of the fact that an
astonishing thing has happened in
America. Simply to recognize some OF
the facts Of the machine age and their
implications for what they are, consti-
tutes revolution. We have gone far
since March 4, much farther, doubtless
than the President himself had antici-
gated. Whatever the confusions and
alarms that lie ahead, we shall not 60
back either to genuine laissez faire
private collectivism which falsely called
ago.
Escape Is Not Clear.
If we cannot 60 back to the days that
have gone, neither can we stand still
OF themselves the things that have
been done constitute no sure escape
from the perils of the hour and may
indeed intensity some of them. The
new deal has developed into an express
sion and an intensification of the ex-
cessive nationalism which holds the
world in its grip. The failure Of the
London Conference has either gone un-
noticed or been hailed with approval In
America. Yet that failure unquestion-
ably increases the danger of maintain
ing peace as well as true prosperity in
our interdependent world. 1t is fail
ure which was made more complete
and devastating because Of the Presi-
dents switch from his early and rather
vague internationalism to an absolute
refusal to consider any sort Of agree
ments which might have lessened the
war between currencies In the world.
Promptly the failure Of London was
followed by the administrations deci-
sion to use some Of the money intended
Tor industrial recovery to build to the
utterly unproductiye. We can build