Evening star., 1934-12-02
BY J. b. PRIESTLEY.

NEW YORK, December 1.-These
notes are based, Of course, on a brief
and superficial experience. But they
are the notes of an unbiased observer,
who for some time now has been paid
to notice things.
Let us begin with the general ap-
pearance Of the United States. 1t
does not show as many signs of the
depression as I expected it would
When I was here last, the slump had
just begun, and notice a number OF
comparatively small differences be-
tween then and now. Thus, things
seem to be cheaper and people more
anxious to. have your custom than
they were before.
Possibly in my hurried journey
across the continent I have missed
the places that have suffered worst,
but certainly I have seen remarkably
few signs Of real distress. I could
take you to places in England that
are thousand times worse than any,
thing I have seen here, whole dis
tricts in our industrial north that
have been murdered by the slump.
If their equivalent exist here. have
missed them. Though, mark you,
there are regions in the United States
that obviously have a wretchedly low
standard Of living, and apparently
have never known anything else; hor-
rible little towns composed of wooden
! Shacks, roads all mud and ruts, tin
cans and the rusted skeletons of mo-
tor cars. Such regions, however, have
not been changed by the depression.
They were always like that.
Loyalty to President.
Most OF the people I have listened
| to. from New York to Arizona, have
| a curiously mixed attitude toward the
, political authorities. First. they hare
loyalty to and affection for the
President himself. No British states
man commands such loyalty and af-
| fection. No member of the present
British government deserves them
People give Mr.. Roosevelt the
| credit for making a great creative ef-
! fort. Our world is in more need Of
such efforts today than 1t is of any
| thing else, for We have arrived at a
| time when the organizers of social
economic and political life are CEN
, turies behind the skilled producers,
| the engineers, the manufacturers, even
the very farmers.
England Is muddling along fairly
| successfully at the moment, simply
because England is a small, compact
and still very rich country, but no
! such creative effort as Mr. Roosevelt's
is being made in England, and I have
been delighted to discover that he
still has his citizens behind him.
But along with this personal loyalty
to the chief there goes a tremendous
suspicion Of the Government" When
you are talking in railway dining
cars, hotel lounges and the like. you
do not ask man to define his terms,
SO that do not know exactly what
is meant by this Government" 1t
seems to represent an unnamed bunch
Of extravagant and perhaps crooked
politicians. who care about nothing
but taking great wads of the tax
payers money and spending it reck-
lessly.
have heard a great deal of grum-
bling on this score, and I have found
it difficult to convince my American
friends that even now I pay more in
taxes than they do. but the ordinary
American citizen seems to be thor
oughly awake today to the evils of
the "spoils" system, and is tired, at
least, of the loud-mouthed, glad
handing politician, anxious to give
out jobs to his pals and to treat pub
lie money as If it were something he
had won in sweepstake.
On the other hand. like people in
other democratic countries, he still