The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-09-28
PLAY H TRUMPS

TIME progress of the R is most gratifying.
Il But it will be very unwise to place the
whole burden of assuring recovery upon this
one act alone. To draw an analogy the MIA
resents the rule of the game rather than the
TRUMP cards. 1t is primarily a body OF olrec-
tions as to how to run the capitahStic economy
once recovery has been regained. Even though
It rests upon the assumption hat more men
will be put to work and that wage Levels VIII
he raised. it will be hard for industry to go
very far along these lines until increased reve-
nues are available.
The real trump cards in the game Of beat
inc the depression are those which VIII provide
mora money to buy goods and will reveal some
method of escaping, in part. at least. from the
staggering burden of debt which threatens to
crush our whole capitalistic economy. It would
o,pear therefore. that the real trump cards
are public works and imitation. 1t is high time
tn plav them if we do not wish old Man
Denression" to take the tricks as he did IN the
days of Hoover.
Therefore. one may we'll read with anxiety
the statement made by John T. Flynn IN the
New Republic that:
1T is plain perfectly now that the public
works program. as an instrument Of recovery
actually has been abandoned, if, indeed, 1t ever
was accepted seriously by the administration.
T. has sunk to the place of a mere relief
measure-a kind OF emergency 'made-work
plan to provide jobs as a sort Of substitute Tor
the dole. while the other measures OF the ad-
ministration do the actual work of recovery"
Mr.. Flvnn makes this statement after hav-
inc visited washington to make a careful first
hand study of the public works problem. He
assigns the blame exclusively to the President
himself. aided and abetted by the conservative
and conventional Budget Director Douglas.
He comedies that Interior Secretary Harold
Ickes is doing his best under the limitations
imposed upon him.
The appropriation of $1,000 900 900 was far
TOO small to achieve the desired results, even
if spent completely and rapidly. Mr.. Roose-
velts most competent economic advisers have
recommended a sum twice as large. This is a
verv significant point, for, as W. E. woodward
and others have made clear. inadequate ex-
penditure on public works gets US nowhere at
all as a mode of increasing the mass pur-
chasing power of che nation.
IF we can not actually push the country out
of the ditch and over the top, we simply ex-
haust ourselves with vain efforts when doing
anything else. We are worse OF at the end
than at the beginning.
The utilization Of this insufficient $780,
100000 has been ridiculously slow and trivial.
In spite of all the recent talk, the Hoover adj
ministration in August, 1882. contracted for six
times as much public work as did the Roose-
Welt administration in August. 1898. Even the
large Hoover public buildings program, which
II particularly would have been hard for he
Republicans to attack. has been sidetracked or
abandoned.
The public works administration was two
months behind in getting underway and, to
date: has not authorized more than half a
billion dollars worth Of new projects. Such
? 1elay is. in some cases. especially serious. The