The border vidette., 1934-01-06
GREETING TO IS 34i

~ mas been Z year In which vast
and unprecedented experiments
have been tried. 1t has been q
year ia which governmental prob
lens and issues have, to q
greater degree than at any time
since the World War, engaged
the attention and interest of the
public. II has been a year of
trial and error, of achievement
and failure, and finally, it has
been a year Of astonishing
change.
For the first tine since govern
ment was founded. there has
been sweeping legislation to con
troll the wages and hours of the
entire working population. and
the competitive methods Of vir
tually all industry. A dramatic
and frankly experimental effort
to solve the farmers problems
has become part Of the law of
the land. The largest public
works program We have ever
known has been inaugurated.
Everything that the present
leaders of government believed
would spur recovery, has been
done. Advisors who had no pre-
vious connection with politics
have been called in-and their
plans have been accepted. Toe
whole prestige of government,
and the immense powet of the
public treasury. have been used
whole heartedly and sometimes
ruthlessly to bring Us stability
and prosperity
To say that these efforts have
been entire successes is to close
our eyes to facts. To say that
they have failed is to be unjust.
They have fallen between these
extremes. Men have been put
to work By the hundreds of
thousands--men who had had
little or 90 work for two or three
years, and had been forced to
suffer the ignomiby Of organized
charity ia order to keep their
families and themselves from
utter privasiou. Wages have ap
preciably raised aud the sweat-
shop. encouraged BY the depres
sion. has been eliminated. Child
labor is on the wane. The G. G.
G. camps. whatever their short
comings, have served to provide
thousands of young men with
useful work under army pay and
discipline. and have kept them
away from debilitating and de
| moralizing Influences.
Aud in other fields the Ad
ministration has much on which
it can honestly pride itself. It
has started q program whereby
the transportation difficulties OF
the country may eventually be
solved. It has done good
job in solidifyinR and safeguard
ing the banking structure. II
has attempted to protect the
| public against stock sWindlers
and flg- BY night promoters, who
reaped so fine q harvest 10 the
| boom years and even after. It
has created machinery seeking
to encourage home financing and
private construction.
This is all on the credit side of
the ledger. The entries on the
debit side are not less important
land it does the country and
the Administration no service to
overlook them. All great ex
perimental movements breed
errors-and Mr.. Roosevelt and
/ bis advisories would have been
a great deal more than human
had they avoided them. 1t is
unquestionably true that. in
working to bring recovery.
methads have been adopted, and
laws passed. which will make
arid some of the springs from
whence recovery must eventual.
ly how. The case of the utilities
is one in point. They are great
employers and taxpayers. They
are, by and large, one of the
most progressive influences in
the average community. Yet
the Industry as whole (owped
by millions of investors) is DO
ing politically castiRated because
of ths sins Of the few-a policy
which can profit no one.
Again, in the securities act,
certain provisions have made it
impossible to issue legitimate in
dustrial securities-thus depriv
ing business Of capital it sorely
needs, depriving workers Of
potential jobs, and depriving the
public of q place to Pot its money