The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-03-13
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES -

YESTERDAY considered the query Of John
L w Davis as to who is going to give the
American people their orders under the new
dispenSation envisaged by Mr. Roosevelt. Sug-
geSted that, perhaps, our orders in the future
will come from the elected representatives of the
American people, rather than from the male
factors of great wealth."
In short Mr.. Roosevelt may try TO supplant
plutocracy by democracy The representatives
OF the American people may not save U.s. but
they can not very well ruin us as thoroughly as
we were wrecked by the plutocrats.
Let us now turn to Mr.. Davis arguments
against the new deal. His position is an I'M
abashed defense of rugged indiWdualism. In
words which might have been uttered by John
Locke in the seventeenth century, by Adam
Smith in the eighteenth, or by Herbert Spencer
in the nineteenth, he says:
Wisdom in government I submit consists
in discovering the natural economic laws and
following then-not in devSing haSty eXpedients
whereby they may be circumvented."
The depression came because our governors
1outed the dictates of rugged ndividualism:
1T was not brought on by the observance of
ancient rules and principles, out, the effects of
the World war aside, by their deliberate dis
obedience. We ate, we drank and were merry
until memorable laws claimed their penalty"
We can not escape, according to Mr. Davis,
by bold experimentation, based upon the best
social science of our day. We must go back to
the old rule-of-thumb methods, which preceded
C116 CRASH VI 1873. L nave no 1a1Cn IN the pro-
sale process of following paths marked out by
reason, conmon-sense and the past experience
of mankind"
IT is worth hardly the space required to fay
l. once more the decaying corpse of rugged in
dividualism
This belief in natural laws" which benevo-
lently and automatically govern our economic
processes is pure superstition and mysticism. The
IF Ii0o+
of the astronomical laws discovered by Sir Isaac
Newton to economic and social affairs.
Even in the seventeenth century it was a
hypocritical subterfuge employed by merchants
who wished free trade but were not honest
enough to say so and to fight out the battle on
its own merits.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
this doctrine is an even more contemplate smoke
screen, designed to give speculative pirates and
tories the freedom to ravage and destroy the
American economy in a quest as selfish, futile
and anti-social as the aspirations of old King
Midas himself.
We should like to ask Mr.. Davis just how the
depression came about through "disObeying" the
system Of rugged individualism. And who dis
obeyed it? Was it Mr.. Davis former chief,
Woodrow Wilson? Was it Harding Coolidge or
Hoover, all of whom worShipped at the shrines
of indiVidualsm? Was it the Melons, MorganS
and MitcheDS who grew fat as a result of the
special privilege they enjoyed under its do
miniOn?
IF there is one single thing which is certain
about the old system of politics and economics
which preceded 1929 it is that rugged individ-
ualism held absolute sway in the councils of
both state and speculative finance. Its inevi-
table fruits were the suffering, misery and col
lapse we have had to endure since its chickens
came home to roost
What about the end of the rainbow which we
are to reach a result Of following paths
marked out by reason, common sense and the
past experience of nnankind?"
On this point we do not have to resort to
any guess work. We know all too we'll just
where these paths led us in the past. They led
us to March g. 1888, and the most precarious
moment that American capitalism has ever
known. Where was Mr.. Davis sojourning from
October, 1929, to March, 1888?
Mr. Davis ends with beautiful little figure
drawn from the world of two birds, the bees
and the insects when the wind has blown
over the ant-heap the ants will build it again,
never fear if they are given time"
Once again Mr. Davis f1unkS as debater and
has chosen his words unwiSely Ants, indeed
might rebuild after a storm But has anybody
ever heard Of grasshoppers or locusts building
anything? Those whose dominion Mr. Davis
defends can not be fairly compared to the ants
without slandering the latter. These noble little
insects are noted for their constructive industry
Those to whom Mr.. Davis would turn over the
country quite literally the locustS and grass
hoppers who have brought a plague to our
country and laid waste our fair fields
What Mr.. Roosevelt is aiming at is to give
the ants break. 1t is high time they got it.