Evening star., 1934-11-11
OF RICHBERC
CONSIDERED SIGNIFICANT
mo. Man" Held Actually No. 4 Officer
of Administration, But His Power
Is Admittedly Widespread.

have around him than the con-
Servatives.
Among all the high officials who
have easy and informal access to the
President I think, offhand, Of only
one who belongs, on the whole, on
the conservative side. That is Mr..
Joseph P. Kennedy, chairman Of the
securities commission. G feel like
interfering note Of apology for
writing this way about matters OF
personality, but when a country has
personal government to the extent
that America now has, the personality
of the President and of those about
him counts to some degree like it used
to count in the courts of absolute
monarchs)
The recent administrator of NJ r. A.,
Gen. Hugh Johnson, was on the
whole a conservative influence, in
spite of the explosive violence of some
of his utterances, and in spite of the
decidedly not conservative quality Of
some parts of NJ r. A. The President,
up to certain time certainly enjoyed
having Gen. Johnson about him. and
that human equation measurably in
f1uenced the course of events.
The position Mr. Richberg will now
have is, speaking loosely broadening
Of that which Gen. johnson had. For
while Gen. johnson was officially only
the administrator of N. r. A., the
force of his personality was such that
his influence went beyond that. To
some extent, without doubt Mr.. Rich.
berg will serve the President as Gen.
Johnson served him: will take the
responsibility for actions and utter
ances which the President would
like to see tried out on the public,
those trial balloons" which states
men in all countries sometimes put
out quietly and indirectly, as feel
ers," not traceable to themselves. II
the public reacts unfavorably to the
feeler, the man who puts it out suffers
IN popular eSteem-but his superior
has received valuable information. To
the extent that Mr.. Richberg COM
bineS adroitness with his loyalty, he
may avoid finding himself, a year or
so from now, where Gen. johnson now
Is, in exile.
Attitude on Affairs Important.
Granted that the new co-ordinator,
Mr.. Richberg, will have much power,
as unquestionably he will have. the
matter Of his bent, his attitude on
public issues, becomes pretty impor-
tant.
The one really deep issue before the
United States at this time is whether
We shall follow a course consistent
with our familiar tradition about So
clal organization, or whether our
course will lead us toward funda-
mental change Of the type that has
come already in three important Eu-
ropean countries. No word in our
current political vocabulary Is more
loosely used than radical" For a
rough definition, let us say that the
word radical should go with a per-
son who would deliberately like to
bring about basic change in our form
OF social organization or our form of
government, or both. Let us confine
the word radical" to those who would
deliberately prefer communism or
socialism to what America already
has
If we confine radical" to this mean
ing. Mr.. Richberg is not a radical,
The most serviceable picture of Mr..
Rlchberg's political and social beliefs
can be seen by remembering that
% years ago he was very active
and quite prominent as Roosevelt
Progressive"-a Theodore Roose-
welt Progressive" know of no reason
to suppose that Mr.. Richberg has
materially changed his ideas since
his early period as an acolyte Of
Theodore Roosevelt. And neither
Theodore Roosevelt nor the Pro-
gressive party he abortively formed
IN 1912, was communist or socialist
What those early associations Of
Mr.. Richberg contemplated was,
mainly, restrictions upon business.
Possibly restrictions upon business"
is not the right term. A primary
doctrine sin Theodore Roosevelts
Progressive party was that the anti
trust laws should be modified, that
business should be permitted to COM
bine into mergers, subject to %. K"
of such mergers by a Government
authority. This old doctrine of
Theodore Roosevelt and his Pro-
gressive party is quite similar to a
large part of N. r. A. No doubt
Mr.. Richberg during the 10 months
he has been second man to Gen.
Hugh johnson as head of N. r. A.,
has felt that he was battling for the
same objective that he fought for
under Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.
q should add-brief1y because I can
not do more-that think N. R. A.,
if retained in its present form, would
carry America toward faScism.)
Knows Conflict of Views.
Also Mr.. Richberg, since he has
had power, has gone through the
common experience of men who have
spent half a lifetime as "outs" bat
tling against the "ins" Responsibility
has had its customary way with him.
Mr.. Richberg was not in the Roose-
welt administration a year before
some of his former associates were
reviling him little and some of the
true radicals in the Roosevelt admin
istration were looking upon him as
renegade, a reprobate and a de-
terrent to the really radical purposes
of some of the minor members of the
administration.
No. Mr.. Richberg is not a radical
in the true sense of the word-he will
not consciously take America toward
socialism or communism. But 1t is
desirable to add that America can
be taken in one of these directions
by the unconscious and unintended
results of steps taken by the admin
istration. If the administration makes
it too difficult for business to recover,
and If therefore the depression and
the large amount of unemployment
is too long prolonged-in that event
we can get radical departure without
its being intended.
(Copyright, 1934)