The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-09-28
BY DAVIS,
Times Special Writer


i in politics and economics
the depression, the R~ooseveltian
revolution in Washington, the
tides of radical and reactionary
opinion from Europe-have not
%bewildered Frank A. VANDERBILT, a
dean among first rate hnanciers
in Wall street. Few leaders have
applied themselves so intelligently
to a study of this changing world.
His curiosity has been unfet-
tered. The first responsible cabi-
talist to examine into the tech
nocracy heresy, he plumbed and
rejected Howard SCOTS premises
and rationalizations.
He helped organize the commit
tee for the nation and largely was
responsible for it's first report adj
vocating an embargo upon gold,
but he did not follow when the
committee later urged a general
guarantee of bank deposits.
And today, in the midst Of a
mighty national effort toward re-
covery and a confusion of prophe-
cy, Mr.. Vanderlip's research, cogi-
tation and realistic discussions
have led him to a mellow scepti-
ciSm.
Unbalanced by any course he
finds ahead, the financier, ne
time financial editor, assistant
secretary of the treasury and head
of the National City bank, him.
self declines the role of prophet.
TINE stout views Of any man
Il who processes to chart the
future deserve, in Mr.. Vanderlip's
opinion, the waste basket. This
is no time for sooth-sayers and a
decline in their numbers he finds
to be a cause for ratification.
Mr.. Vanderlip's appraisal OF
trends in politics, finance, industry
and agriculture are, if inconclu-
sive. fruitful. He sees both sides
of each issue and weighs them
%tolerantly.
One generalization, l am IN
formed, he permits himself. On
that point he is firm. He holds
that the overwhelmingly import
ant need of the time is moral
leadership; a t raining which
would constrain mankind to avoid
warfare and personal greed.
He sees all about a moral bank
ruptcy more ominous than the
economic breakdown, and with less
hope of recovery. No sign of new
moral impulses and he miStruStS
attempts to legiSlate greed, menda-
city and combativeneSs out of
men. The eighteenth amendment
failed, he notes, in the relatively
trivial attempt to reform q coun-
try's vital habits.
This is not an interview with
Mr.. Vanderlip. He prefers not to
preach-lacking a specific text.
He feels, 1 am told, as humble in
the face of gathering world events
as a boy who had just mastered
the multiplication table would if
confronted with an Einstein for
mula.
His unwillingneSs to be definite
grows out of an appreciation
protounder than most observers
of the amazing complexity that
surrounds even the least of the
problems faced by the men
charged with making a new world.
What follows is an approxima-
ton of Mr.. Vanderlip's analysis
of aspects of the general situa-
ton, based on views which I have
verified to be his.
n .
Mr. VANDERBILT, undismayed,
1V1 regards the current dilem-
mas, the trends here and abroad
toward a new order of economic
life, a new state, as an unparal-
leled fux-and part of the most
interesting revolution in history.
We are, Individually, engaged in
a functional revolution in this
country. 1t proceeds at an ex-
traordinary pace; feeding on fresh
perplexities and needs for action
as it goes along. Within eight
months the face of our order has
been changed.
The NRA and the agricultural
administration are embarked on
novel experiments.
1t is strange doctrine which
dooms five million little pigs to
die to raise the price of pork and
plows under, or sets aside out of
production 10000, 900 acres of
farm land. Contrary to the COM
mon sense of the past, yet de-
feasible.
he doctrine hinges on u
tariff policy.
If We are unwilling to buy from
other countries, checking their
consumption of our goods, and
produce more than we can our