The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-06-14
Liberal Viewpoint
BY DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

TT recently was my privilege to have a pro-
= longed luncheon discussion with one of the most
distinguished of European publicists, who is now
on a short visit to the United States. In addi-
ton to his wide learning and literary note, this
man is also famed for his acute, but usually
friendly analysis of American traits.
Rejecting somewhat ~leiSurely upon the causes
and continuance of our current depression, he
suggested that perhaps the main trouble with
America is that it was suffering from the poker
face malady."
He went on to explain that Americans as a
group seem to have an unusual proclivity for
pretending to something which is contrary to
recognized facts. We are unwilling to face real
iy and delight in d~eceiving our associates. We
usually end up by d~eceiving ourselves, though
we may remain quite unwilling to admit the
fact.
Our foreign critic was uncertain as to just
how this observation-disclosures had conquered
America.
Perhaps, it was because of the popularity of
poker and its resulting permeation of our gen.
eral outlook on life.
NR, he suggested, the facts of American eco
" nomic evolution may have just naturally
made us poker-minded and given the game in
evitable popularity amongst us.
For example, the frontiersman usually lived
a poverty-stricken existence, but believed firmly
that there was gold across the prairies or on the
other side of the mountain ridge. He thought
more of the dream than of the harsh realities.
My friend went on to describe the poker
psychology. A poker player may draw to a five,
SEVEN, eight, but he will affect an air of con-
fdent conceit which could only be justified by
holding three aces.
If he f1ops on the effort to fill, thu having
in his hand an utterly worthless collection of
cards, he may try to bluff his way out of the
hole by assuming an optimistic nonchalance as
sumedly based on the possession of four kings
and a wild deuce. ,
good poker playing, the supreme artist in the
game is one who is a master of the most refined
expressions of bluff and pretense.
just how this applies to the American scene
is not so difficult of comprehension.
Throughout the gambling orgy and bogus
prosperity of 1926-29, we were everywhere pub
licly p~roclaiming that we were maintaining a
sound economy which was impregnable in the
face of any impending challenge. Prominent
professors were not wanting who declared that
we had reached a new permanent high level of
prosperity"
Yet the honest men among us knew that we
were walking a tight rope over Niagara Falls.
Paul Warburg warned us that in spite of our
pretense to holding a royal flush, the best cards
in our hand were a seven spot of diamonds and
the five of clubs.
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l. which should have been the envy of any
man who ever sat himself down to a card table,
but he did not choose to run. He knew well
enough that he had no four aces in his fist.
Today, the poker-faced recovery enthusiasts
like Donald Richberg assert that we have turned
the corner when more than II, 900, 900 adults are
out of work, and when the increase in mass pur-
chasing power since March, 1888 has been rela-
lively slight when compared to the minimum
needs of the times.
How far we are from providing the purcnas-
ing power necessary to insure recovery may
quickly be dlscerned by noting that even the con-
ditions of 1928-29 did not suffice to assure per-
manent prosperity or to save us from collapse.
On the other hand, our pirates and bourbons
assume an air of solemn pretense relative to the
alleged RECOMMENDATION and restrictions on bust
ness when, if they have the slightest capacity
Tor realism, they must recognize that Roosevelt
has given them rope enough to hang them
selves with.
Ignoring the collapse of the American econ
onny on the first of March, 1888, they proclaim
that any recovery which we have enjoyed is due
to the good old business principles which landed
us in the bank holiday.
Not only in economics, but also in politics
and law do we adopt a poker-faced evasion of
facts. We assert that a document worked out
as a temporary expedient for 100000 farmers
and shopkeepers a century and a half ago can
not be improved upon.
Our bank wreckers assume an air of Mortified
amazement over the doings of bank robbers.
Poker may be a noble game, but it's attitudes
are not those of the sound social science which
we shall need to pull out of the present mess.
No sare chemist would insist that he was han
ding mineral oil when he actually had in his
hand a beaker of nitroglycerin. 1t is high time
that a similar realism should pervade the marts
of and the halls OF statecraft.