Evening star., 1934-11-18
BUSINESS ANXIOUS
FOR COOPERATION
Change of Administration
. Attitude Welcomed as $3.50,
Harmony Is Seen.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

/, desires, but rarely is put into prac-
+. tice, as between the Government and
! business, has come to the fore again
as the slogan of an after ELECTION
), psychology.
E The meeting here during the week
Of the directors of the Chamber OF
Commerce of the United States and
. the gathering of business leaders for
2 the conferences on unemployment in
= surance gave the National Capital its
first opportunity to ascertain how
business men digested the election re-
suits.
. Virtually every one of the business
leaders comedies the popular hold
which the President has upon the
country and all are agreed that buSi-
ness must not be put in the position
Z. of obStructing the administration
. program. Hence an active effort to
. help has been inaugurated.
Always Willing to Aid.
- The truth, of course, is that with
few exceptions there never has been
a time in the last year and a half
when business men were unwilling or
w COlllC W " dOlllllSlOlI ollO
assist in making the recovery program
" a success. And the sad truth also is
that most of them found themselves
rebuffed when they tried to cooper
ate"
But in recent weeks-and it began
before the election-a changed atti-
- tude came out of the administration
itself. Instead of calling business
men by unpleasant names and at
tacking their integrity, much after
!, the fashion of radicalism in the past
. the administration suddenly found
that recovery might actually be re-
s. tarded unless a better psychology all
around were soon created. A capital
strike had been developing which
bade fair to reach serious proper
tions.
Mr.. Roosevelt by his consultations
. begun at Hyde Park, N. Y. and con-
tinued here in Washington for the
last several weeks unboSomed himself
sufficiently to picked group of busi-
ness men and financial leaders to in
dicate his feeling that, whether con-
servatives liked it or not, they ought
" WOl WILL lUCl dl aOiOAl
lest they find the in1ationiSt and the
extreme radical hammering away at
both the middle-o -the-road policies
and the conservatives, too.
Stand-off Attitude Opposed.
Business men have to some extent
begun to adjust themselves to this
viewpoint. They see in the left wing
and in the growth of unemployment
serious dangers to the social order
Hence, any possible rebuilding of the
country's' economic machinery by CO.
operation between Government and
business is much better, they reason
than a standoffish attitude on the
part of business men or an atmos-
phere of hostility created by Govern
ment officials themselves.
Some idea of the changes may be
derived from the way Undersecretary
Tugwell of the Agricultural Depart
ment talks now, after his return from
Europe He believes America coulc
well choose to be somewhat interna'
tional for awhile. This conforms tt
the rather aggressive attitude TOWARD
foreign trade being taken by Secre-
tary Hull and his able assistant
Francis Sayre, in the reciprocity ne
gotiations, and by George N. Peek in
the development of the export-im-
port banks.
There is also very decided change
for the better, in the opinion of Gov
ernment officials, toward the durable
goods industries, where most of the
unemployment has been noted. For
more than year the durable goods
group has been begging for consid-
Grafton, and it was only when the
housing program was put through
that it received the slightest en-
couragement.
Roper Is Well Liked.
The events of the last few days
have shown a cooperative attitude
on the part of business. because the
administration has shown a desire to
meet business more than half way
Secretary Roper of the Department OF
Commerce has been an instrumental
factor in the evolution of the admin
istration's new approach. He is well
liked by business men and he has the
confidence of the President besides.
The fact that Mr. Roper is a prac-
tical-minded person. who knows some
thing about business and financial
operations. His Planning and Ad-
visory Council of business men has
been meeting here this week.
Broadly speaking, the adjustment
Of business men to the New Deal is
one of resignation in part, but actual
desire, also to do anything which will
really promote sound recovery.
Budget Balancing Sought.
The Chamber of Commerce state
ment on budget balancing will, OF
course. please the administration
somewhat. since it does not ask the
gradual reduction of expenses and
especially the elimination of the idea
that mere spending is at all helpful
for any length of time 1t is the kind
of spending that is done, the kind OF
lending and the methods that may be
used to find additional sources of tax
revenue which engage the attention OF
all thoughtful observers.
If the administration were TO show
signs of placing limits on its expendi-
lures, business would say the budget
was on the road to being balanced.
Perhaps the most accurate way to
express it is that business has with
drawn its demand for a fixed date for
the balancing of the budget and has
asked instead that the trend toward
balanced budget be firmly estab-
hShed in the public mind, not by
words. but by acts of forebearance
and restraint on what has seemed to
be an unlimited drain on the Treasury
(ConyriChf 1021