Evening star., 1934-04-15

Any one may discuss the accomplishments OF
the first Roosevelt year, however unintelligent
much of the discussion may be- but no one is
SO we'll qualified to tell of the basic principles
and aims underlying the reconstruction pro-
gram and to measure achievement according
to these aims as the President himself. This
he does in "On Our Way which seeks to set
forth simply the many significant events of a
very busy year" At the beginning the Presi-
dent takes cognizance of the oft-repeatcd word
revolution" in connection with his policy.
Oabels are hard-and-fast things and are often
used glibly by persons who would be dlscon-
certed if asked to define them) He says:
"Some people have sought to describe that pol
icy revolutionary; perhaps it Is. 1t is reVo-
lutionary, however, only in the sense that the
measures adopted and the purposes that they
seek differ from those that were used before.
If it is a revolution, it is a peaceful one,
achieved without violence without the over
throw of the purposes of established law and
without the denial of just treatment to any
individual or class" The term New Deal, he
says, combines the implications OF the Square
Deal and the New Freedom 1t is neither
Fascism nor Communism.
The plan of the book is both chronological
and logical It's material to a large extent
composed of presidential messages and
speeches, is very concrete, without argument,
and with only so much explanation as is es-
sential to clarity. In the foreword state
ment is made of three interrelated steps which
an epochal date. The first ito eliminate
special privilege il the control of the old eco
nomic and social structure by a numerically
very small but very powerful group of indi-
vduals SO set in authority that they dominated
business and banking and government itself"
The second was to attack crime and graft. The
third was to seek a backward swing of the pen
Cuum ''in the direction of a wider distribution
of the wealth and property of the Nation
Only planning extensive and intensive, could
hope to accomplish these objects and the first
year of the Roosevelt administration has seen
planning on colossal scale, and, in SO short
a period an astonishing amount of reali-
Zation "On Our Way" begins with the swear
ing in of the new cabinet and ends with the
Presidents broadcast address to the Boy Scouts
of America, February 10, 1884 In between are
the Civilian Conservation Corps, the agricul-
tural adjustment act and its operation, Fed
eral relief Federal financing in various forms,
Labor Committee and the Public Works Ad-
thority, Federal protection for owners of mort
gagged homes, the reopening Of the closed banks.
the N. r. A. and codes the abandonment Of
the gold standard, the international economic
conference the repeal of the eighteenth amend
ment, the recognition of Russia, the new tariff
legslation-truly Of the most crowded and
momentous years in our history. 1t is per-
haps not too much to say that every citizen of
the United States who wishes to be awake
and alert to the period in which he is living
should read the Presidents book. 1t will, of
course be read by thousands in foreign coun-
tries.
THE ROOSEVELT YEAR A Photographic
Record. Edited by Pare LorentZ. New
York: Funk & Wagnalls Co.
THE printed word has had honorable
record and to most of us still seems impor-
tant but pictures are croWding it badly for
first place in both education and recreation.
Will the short cut of pictures sometime en-
tirely replace the longer and more varied route
of verbal expression, bringing a reversion to
the primitive, cropping art of picture writing?
We hope not. Meanwhile, why worry? Let us
enjoy the pictures, especially when they tell a
significant story as THE First World War;"
edited by Stallings and this present book which
records photographically a year of President
Roosevelt's administration. Twenty-one sources
are acknowledged by the editor, among them
the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Federal
Civil Works Administration, the National Child
Labor Committee and the Public Works Ad-
ministration. The pictures are alphabetically
indexed In time they extend from January,
1888, to midnight of March 4, 1884.
The first picture, which bears no caption,
is of a wretched family living in a makeshift
shelter, in the construction of which are recog-
nizable scraps Of board tin, canvas and limo
1eum. Two full pages follow of scenes among
the unemployed of large cities, with the head
ing I'VE Were Waiting for March" The
last two pictures show an industrial plant with
smoking chimneys and factory interior with
busy workman running machine; its head
ing is "The Second Year Lay Between Them
The scenes-over 400 of them-are economic,
political, social, and some that can only be
called miscellaneous. There are several tech
nocracy pictures. Who remembers technocracy?
Miami, Mayor Cermak zangara-these tell a
tragic story. closeup of President Hoover
and PreSident-elect Roosevelt on their way to
the Capitol, March a. 1888, reveals serious
hon nlyc nf ho 1fru