Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1934-05-13


tween the two political parties
IL in the November election this
Fall and in the presidential
campaign of 1896: and I feel free to
guess with the rest.
1t does not seem that the principal
issue will have much to do with the
administrators monetary measures.
Nobody is seriously suggesting that the
dollar be put back to its former gold
content. Nor, if we buy a lot of silver.
will anybody seriously suggest that the
silver be sold. The characteristic Of
monetary conservatives is that they
wish certainty and detest change. They
will not wish to make a new change
and to produce a new uncertainty by
reversing the administrations none
tary decisions and arrangements. They
will prefer simply to let those decisions
stand without further upset. This pol
icy on their part is already apparent
and it would seem to bar the monetary
question from serving as the ladder of
the opposition party for an attempted
return to power.
Nor do I think that the administra-
tons merely regulatory traff1c-signal
legislation. such as the securities law
and the current Stock Exchange control
bill and the prospective revision of the
foods and drugs law, will provide any
dominant issues for the Republicans.
Almost everybody admits now that
Federal governmental control of the
issuing of securities and of trading in
securities and of the merchandising of
foods and drugs is desirable. The quar-
rel Is only as to the details of the con-
troll. Those details are likely to be
thoroughly settled soon by compromise.
Thereupon all talk about govern
mental despotism' will die down and
these new governmental regulatory
measures will take a permanent place
in our statute books along with the
interstate commerce law and the
packers and stockyards law and the
perishable products law and all the
other regulatory laws which, when
suggested, were feared, but which,
having been enacted, have acquired
almost universal resigned acceptance.
PLANNED Economy"
however, upon a certain third branch
endeavors. This third branch in
cludes the NJ R. A. and the A. A. A.
and the Presidents new proposed law
for omnipotent executive control OF
the tariff. These things are illustra-
tons of what is called a planned
economy" They involve not merely
governmental regulations under more
or less fixed legislative rules but in
cessant unpredictable administrative
edicts reached through bureaucratic
personal preferences. The result will
be, and already is, that this so-called
planned economy" can be attacked
by the oppositionists on either one of
two grounds.
First. The conservative opposition
lists can say that they are opposed to
all planning" and that the whole
planning" idea is nonsense.
Second The progressive opposition
lists can say that they eagerly approve
planning" as a principle but that
the actual planning" done by the
administration is a horrible outrage
upon the welfare of the country.
This analysis is not, I hasten to
say, a mere logical deduction and pre-
diction. 1t is also a description Of a
development which is already occur
ring. 1t can be noted in the
spectacular Republican primary cam
paign now going forward in the State
of Pennsylvania between Mr.. David
Aiken Reed and Mr.. Clifford Pinchot
for the Republican nomination for
United States Senator.
Price Fixing Hit.
Mr.. Reed the sitting Senator, is
scornful of planned economy and
specifically says:
Under the N. R. A. we today see
the great corporations of the country
gathered together in agreements to fix
prices for their products, with the
result that the difficulties of small
business men are much multiplied and
the cost of living of every one of us
has been greatly increased
1t will be noted that Mr.. Reeds
criticism is from the essentially con-
sentative business point of view. The
toward eliminating competition and
toward the freezing of prices, and
toward the heightening of the cost of
living All these tendencies are bad,
from the standpoint of strictly ortho-
dox competitive capitalism.
1t is to be admitted that many CAPT.
talistS at just this moment seem to
regard such tendencies with favor.
Mr.. Reeds own closest capitalistic &C
quaintances in Pennsylvania are at
just this moment quite out of accord
with him on the planned economy
topic. They are out of accord with
him because, as an immediate propo-
sition, planned economy" is hold
ing out to them a prospect of uneX-
pected profits.
Coal Price High.
Mr.. Andrew w. Melons coal COM
panies are leveling no drastic attack
upon the coal code. Under the coal
code the price of coal in the Pitts
burgh district is higher than it was
during the ultra prosperous years
1927 to 1929
Mr.. Myron C. Taylor's United States
Steel Corporation adores the steel
code. Under the steel code the price
of steel products in the Pittsburgh dis
trict has gone back to 95 per cent
of what it was during the ultra-pros-
porous years 1927 to 1929.
Mr.. Taylor has expressed himself on
planned economy" in terms that
would do credit to the extreme alleged
radicalsm of Prof. Tugwell. He has
said:
Controlled production may be ex-
pected to come about as competition
adopts justifiable price control and
sacrifices some part of production
volume in order to secure reasonable
price levels"
Exactly so! Limitation of output
Elevation of price! Exactly what
Prof. Tugwell is trying to do in agri-
culture. And exactly what Mr.. Tay-
lor proposes to do in industry. They
are not birds of the same cage, but
they are birds of the same feather.
Mr.. Reed. on the point of ECO