Evening star., 1934-07-01
BY OWEN L. SCOTT.

Really at WOTk running Lne IeVO-
lution"-if one is being run from
Washington-is not DR.. Tugwell, or
Gen. johnson, or Harold Ickes, or
even Henry Wallace. Rather it is
quiet, modest, efficient and hard
working individual who has been less
in the public eye than any of the
really important new dealers. In fact,
Chester c. Davis, administrator Of
the agricultural adjustment act, sell
dom causes his name to flash on
newspaper front pages.
Yet Chester c. Davis is the man
who makes the wheels go around in
the most daring and probably the
most important Of any of the expert
ments now being conducted here. His
job is to rebuild the economy Of s.
000,0 900 farm families. So quietly is
he doing this job that not many aside
from newspaper men and his own
associates are aware OF the part he Is
playing In a vast and vital enterprise.
There are signs now. however. that
the big battle staged by opponents Of
the new deal is about to open on the
hustings and in the courts. The
point of attack is to be the A. A. A.
In picking a fight it Is well for the
opposition to realize who 1t Is that
they are to tackle.
Chester Davis came up among the
mighty last Winter when clash OF
ideas between the liberals led by DR..
Tugwell and the so-called conserva-
tives led by George N. Peek, then ad-
ministrator of A. A. A., resulted in
Peek's retirement. Davis had been
the former administrators right-hand
man. He Immediately became the
right-hand man of the men who had
been opposed to Mr.. Peek. That was
because he does the work and is
neither interested in nor affected by
intrigue of factionalism.
The A. A. A. administrator today
sits in the middle of more headline
makers than any Of the other promi-
nent officials. On his right Is Henry
Wallace, Secretary Of Agriculture. On
his left are DR.. Tugwell, DR.. Mordecai
Ezekial and Jerome Frank, all lead
ing brain trusters and the center OF
attack from new deal opponents. Soon
he Is to have back with him another
brain truster, M. L. Wilson, an old
friend and the author of the domestic
allotment plan of farm relief which
Davis Is putting to work. It was VIII
son who sold this plan to President
Roosevelt.
When DR.. William A. Writ, the
Gary, Ind, school superintendent, was
on the warpath, seeking to corner the
Stain or the Mussolini OF the new
deal. he directed his verbal attacks at
this group Of farm relievers. But he
did not include Chester Davis. Still,
1t is Davis who takes the theories
of Tugwell. the ideas and plans Of
Wallace, the facts and figures OF
Ezekial, and the dreams Of Wilson
and molds them into something real
that actually is working on the cotton
farms. in the wheat fields and
throughout all Of the diverse sectors
of the country's farming industry.
DR.. Tugwell this past week was dis
cussing the magnitude Of the task
confronting the National Government
in seeking to reshape the country's
economic system so that it will work
smoothly again. Referring to agri-
culture, he said:
There is nothing to reconstruct,
because nothing has been built in the
past. Agriculture can proceed along
the road to cooperative action from
beginnings which are wholly sound"
Chester Davis now is busy building
a new foundation under agriculture.
In that process nearly 100000 farm
ers have entered into contracts with
him. These contracts bind farmers to
do things they never have done in the
past. They turn half Of the farmers
Of the Nation-its most rugged indi-
vidualists-into voluntary co-opera-
tors, This alone is an achievement
that would have been thought impos-
sible not long ago.
In addition, Davis has just about
the whole of the American population
paying taxes on foodstuffs to provide
the funds with which to entice farm
ers into cooperating. With those
funds he has rented 100000 acres
of once productive farm land and is
keeping that land out Of use. Then,
besides all that, the A. A. A. admins
traitor is about to assume the job Of
policing 1000 900 cotton farmers to
make sure they do not market more
cotton than Congress said they could.
He will have the same job to perform
for several hundred thousand tobacco
growers.
Those are weighty tasks. affecting
millions of people. How does Chester
Davis face them2 Does he imagine
himself a Stain, remaking a nations
peasantry? Or Is he In the mold Of a
Hitler determined to regiment every
farm and every farmer?
Hardly. All he sees in his job Is
an opportunity to increase farmer in
come until this vital part Of the Ma
tons population can again have .