Evening star., 1934-05-13
NEW DEAL HELD
WAR UPON MISERY.
TugWeII Urges Tolerance in
Addressing Class at
OberIin.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
OBERLIN, Ohio, May l2.-Dr. Rex
ford G. Tugwell, Assistant Secretary
of Agriculture. told the graduating
class Of Oberlin College tonight that
the American people are engaged In
"a war against misery, against pow
erty, against human stupidity"
He called the new deal "the first
great national counter offensive in
that war against human misery" and
declared at Is the essence OF the new
deal that its practitioners are honestly
trying to find ways to establish the
security and abundance to which our
resources entitle Americans. And we
ask for the tolerance on the plea that
we are preparing the way for the more
expert work which you may do"
Must Face Paradox Together"
Tugwell said college students and
the American people cannot escape
the realization that something rather
appalling has befallen our civilization,
when the plenty which we are so
abundantly equipped to produce auto
matically causes Nationwide misery,
suffering, destitution and hopelessness,
whether it has come home to you
through personal privation or only
through observation"
I'VE al Of us have to face this ter
rible and baf1iing paradox together
and to find the means for its resolu-
ton"
The "old order" Of business, eco
nomics and politics became calam-
itous to the entire Nation" and the
people decided that something had to
be done, he said.
Possibly we should not have tried
to make American institutions work
There are quite few, I know, who
seriously consider that Democracy, fol-
instance, Is a proven failure, but
personally do not think we could have
done otherwise than we did-to ex-
tend the Democratic process to those
areas formerly ruled by industrial
autocracies, and to prefer human be.
ings to the things which human beings
use.
Many Demand Return.
1T Is very strange to me, though
perhaps familiar to students Of abnor-
NAL psychology, that there are today
in this country still a considerable
number Of irrational people who dc
not realize that something more than
an ordinary presidential election took
place in 1882, and who now are clam
oring for a return to kind of civili-
zation which is as archaic as the OK
cart and the windmill"
The present era Of American life
Tugwell declared, "is dedicated to the
proposition that every American should
be given a chance to obtain a decent
living in a country which has solved
the problem of scarcity"
The Assistant Secretary, who was a
professor Of economics at Columbia
University before going to Washington
said that in the past economists could
not investigate protective tariffs, the
profit motive or unemployment insur-
ance because these were matters OF
public policy and public law and were
properly outside the control Of aca-
demic experimentation"
Newspapers To Be Textbooks.
He expressed belief that in the
future standard courses in economics
and politics will be conducted with
no textbooks other than those supplied
by the daily newspaper and when the
students will examine the professor
instead of the professor examining the
students ."
The greatest service college students
can render to themselves and pos
terity, Tugwell added. Is Ito love your
country well enough to live for it and
to live for and In it with that inde-
pendence Of private Judgment, that
hospitality toward all phases Of real
ity, and that refusal to let yourself be
bullied into acceptance of the unac-
ceptable which we like to think of as
American"