The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-10-04
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

THE New Deaf has been in operation more
l. than year. The time has arrived when
it not only is possible to write history Of its
achievements, but also to make at least tenta-
tive appraisal Of its character and prospects.
Such is the purpose of Louis NJ. Hacker in his
excellent "A Short Story Of the New Deal"
(CroftS. s1.75) Mr.. Hacker, as co-author Of
the best one-volurne history of the United States
since the Civil war, is admirably prepared, by
his earlier studies, to appraise the New Deal
as the latest stage in the evolution of American
| society. Nowhere else have I read so intelligent
brief Characterization as the following para
graphs:
obviously the New Deal has been neither
revolutionary nor counter-revolutionar Its
rationale may be stated in the following group
Of propositions:
The New Deal has recognized that the
American economy has slowed down and that
the forces within it no longer are in equilibrium.
Opportunities for capitalist enterprise have con-
| tracted-the population has ceased expanding
there new great industrial fields to be
opened up, oversee markets have been shut of
by high tariff walls or are already being closely
worked by hostile imperialist nations-and CAPT.
talisn actually is confronted by fall in the rate
Of profit.
Control has shifted from industrial capital
ism to finance capitalism with the emphasis
therefore no longer on legitimate economic eX-
on Lle OF llNeSLOIS anu
the wrecking Of properties); the spread between
capacity to produce and ability to consume con-
Stantly widens; imperialism reveals its inability
without deadly international warfare-to pro-
vide all the needed outlets for surplus capital.
The world market for our agricultural products
has largely disappeared and decline in farm
land values has set in"
MOT only have new jobs for white-collar
~ and professional workers virtually become
none existent, Mr.. Hacker continues, "but there
is surplus rather than dearth of industrial
labor as we'll Glass lines have been drawn
clearly; the danger of class hostilities no longer
is remote, but already in evidence.
Under the conditions of a free market, the
owners of the means of production, because of
their greater strength and organization, could
continue to maintain themselves perhaps for a
long time, but their security would depend upon
the steady debasement of the standards of living
of the other classes in society.
This, it must be plain, eventually would lead
to the creation of conditions favorable to either
revolution or ounter-revolution, but the philoSo-
pliers of the New Deal, abhorring the thought
of violence and having no conscious class inter-
estS of their own, have refused to agree that
the mechanism has run down. They will wind
it up again and, having done that, will suspend
in balance and for all time the existing class
relations in American society,"
The private ownership OF the means OF pro-
duction is to continue but capitalism is to be
stopped from exploiting on the one hand, the
producers of its raw materials and, on the other,
its labor supply. Agriculture, despite its over
capitalized plant and its virtual restriction to
the domestic market, is to get a large enough
return to allow for the meeting of fixed charges
and the purchase of capital and consumers
goods"
"XXTAGE earners, although in a machine
w economy there are too many of them in
the white-collar and laboring groups" he adds,
"are to be assured employment and at least
means of subsistence if not incomes conducive
to decent standard of living.
THE New Deal, to put it badly, assumed
that it was possible to establish a permanent
truce on class antagonismS. The device it was
going to use was the restoration of purchasing
power through the application of an idea known
to antiquity and the middle ages-the just price
Glass antagonisms were to be charmed away by
the use of the magic device of the just price,
that is to say higher price level all around"
At the conclusion of his valuable work, Mr.
Hacker is of the opinion shat the New Deal has
not worked out satisfactorily. The main reason
is that the President has not been willing to
move rapidly enough Or far enough to bring
about that indispensable mass purchasing power
upon which any recovery under capitalism must
depend
Facing the various roads which Mr.. Roose-
welt possibly may dissemination, FaScism or i'm
periasm Mr.. Hacker inclines to the belief that
we are likely to f1irt with industrial and financial
imperialism, thus running into the grave danger
of foreign war