Evening star., 1934-03-11
BY MARK SULLIVAN.
THE administration is following

L not fully developed yet At
least the later steps of the
policy ERE not apparent yet. What is
attempted in this article is to find out
what the later steps will be. Those in
charge OF the policy. those who in
vented it and are carrying it out, are
Secretary of Agriculture Henry A.
Wallace and Assistant Secretary Rex
ford Guy Tugwell. In the opinion Of
many, this is a situation in which the
assistant DR.. Tugwell, is at least equal
in power to the chief, Mr.. Wallace.
When mani am speaking of
Prof. Tugwell-occupies what he calls
one of the strategic Positions" in
Government, especially during pc
riod of change. his economic theories
become highly important. Prof. Tug
wells official rank is that of Assistant
Secretary of Agriculture His power,
however. extends far beyond that
ordinarily rather obscure post. David
Lawrence. experienced observer of
Washington. says that Prot. TugWell
is the most important man in the
administration"
Another Shrewd observer, Repre-
sentative Harold McGugin of the
third Kansas district. while he does
not like Prof. Tugwell's ideas and ac-
tivities, comedies that the professor
lis the dominant personality in the
Agriculture Department; I have a
high regard for his forceful PERSONAL
ity; gay him the compliment of be-
ing the master mind in the admins
tration's agricultural program"
Prolific Writer.
Representative McGugin has been
looking up records in which Prof.
Tugwell has expressed his economic
convictions. The record is copious.
Since DR.. TugWell became a Govern
ment official he has appeared to be
cautious in his utterances: but he has
made many speeches. and previous to
year ago. while he was a teacher
at Columbia University. he was a
prolific writer.
Representative McGugin's survey of
Prof. Tugwell's utterances begins
with speech the professor made a
few months ago in which DR.. TugWell
said:
What is done tthat is. the admin
istration's farm policy up to date) is
merely to keep a part of each field of
each farm out of use. 1t seems to me
obvious that this cannot be the char
acteristic feature Of permanent
policy"
So far DR., Tugwell is speaking of
such devices as plowing under one
row of cotton out of every four, or
paying farmers to reduce their acre
age of wheat and corn. This. Prof
Tugwen says. is not enough. and he
proceeds to suggest what will come
next.
Private control has failed to use
wisely its control of land. For
the first time the Government is
thinking of the land as whole. For
the first time we are preparing to
build land program which will con-
troll the use of that greatest of all
natural resources not merely for the
benefit of those who happen to hold
title to it. but for the greater welfare
of all the citizens in the country"
"Those who happen to hold title"
are the farmers. And I suspect that
II American farm owners knew the
implications of that paragraph from
Prof. Tugwell they would be pretty
thoroughly alarmed about what Prof.
Tugwells program will ultimately do
to them. 1t points plainly toward
one ultimate end-toward getting rid
of the private ownership of land.
toward the wiping out of all boundary
1npc tnu-a rI i,,,,,
of farm land into great State owned
farms operated on the Russian sys-
tenn. That may not lie Immediately
ahead: it may not be the second step
nor the third. But there is a law
of sequence in the way revolutions
are carried out. Each step makes the
next step inevitable. And the final
step of the present revolution, if it
is not interrupted. must be Govern
ment ownership of all farm land
Representative McGugin SO thinks,
and, indeed, it is impossible to think
otherwise.
sentative McGugin finds other pas
Sages in Prof. Tugwell's recent
speeches:
Toward the turn of the century
doubts began to arise, some few ques-
tioners began to ask whether use of
land solely in the interest of each
individual. holder was the only pos
sible way to proceed. Possibly the
criticism of Karl Marx and Henry
George had begun to awaken the
skepticism. even if many had not &C
Cepted their conclusions"
From these and other utterances of
Prof. Tugwell, Representative Nc
Gugin has come to feel like Edmund
Burke. Representative McGugin warns
the Kansas farmers that the price
of liberty is eternal vigilance on the
part of the people,
Russian Influence.
For several years previous to en-
tering the Roosevelt administration,
DR.. Tugwell, as a teacher at Co.
lumbia, was prolific writer. It is
impossible to read his books and
pamphlets without coming to believe
that the professor prefers the Russian
system to the American one. True.
he never quite says this in so many
words. But, reading his books, one
lnfers that his caution of utterance
was due to prudence-it was risky
in 1925 and thereabouts for a college
teacher, or any one in America. to
express approval of the Russian sys-
TEN. Yet beneath the qualifications
with which Prof. Tugwell softened
his utterances, one sees pretty clearly
q preference for the Russian system.
The following sentences are taken
from passages here and there in sew
eral books that Prof Tugwell wrote.
The first is from his Experimental
Control of Russian Industry:
Il incline to the belief that the
humanity achieved industrial balance
in Russia is more likely to attain the
objective of necessities for all before
luxuries for any than is our own COM
petitive system. Perhaps their (Rus-
siam forms of control may also pro-
duce. in some ultimate future. more