The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-01-13
Business Policies On Trial

When the administration turned its at tention recently to the nations commun- ications systems = its telephones, wire less, telegraph and radio networks - Washington dispatches pointed out that three courses were open to 1t. 1t could leave everything just as it is. It could set up an inclusive monopoly under fairly strict government supervision. 1t could take the whole business over under a straight-out government ownership and operation scheme. Significantly, it was reported that the preponderating sentl- ment in the administration leaned toward the second of these three courses.
 All this is interesting, not only because the fate of very large industry is in- volved, but because this particular case IS a pretty good sample of the choices open to us in connection with all industry. No matter what we choose to call the policies which go to make up the New Deal, 1t IS pretty clear that eventually the govern ment's attitude toward industry in gen. eral will have to follow one of these three lines. The choice will depend less on the ideas of the officials at Washington than on the sentiment of the country as whole. In the last analysis, the admin istration can do only what the mass ot Americans want it to do; and the ques- tion now is, What do the American people want?
 There are grounds for suspectlng that the ordinary citizen has his doubts about the wisdom of going ahead with the old system of every man for himself. On the other hand, there is very little reason to believe that there is any widespread demand for government ownership. But ho mi ohnl0n n0OnOnOIV nn0or government control - is something so new, and contains so many chances to make mistakes, that plenty of people have their doubts about it, also. The truth or the matter probably is that the ordinary citizen hasn't made up his mind yet. Fortu- nately, he still has plenty of time to decide.
 For the program now being followed IS in the nature of proving ground. We are going to see how these things work out Tn actual practice. Certain parts of the MIRA will let us see how monopoly under federal supervision works; such things as the Muscle Shoals experiment will give us a look at government operation; our own memories will tell us about the let-thlngs- alone plan. By the time the present ad- ministration is due to go before the elec- torate for a verdict, we ought to be ready to decide WhIcn Scneme we WISH Io auoP1 as a settled long-range policy.
 Good blended whiskey will be available by mid-spring, reports Dr James M. Doran of Washington. That is certainly an admission that the majority of blends now being sold are not quite what they should be- Better still they are not quite what we should be drinking. However, there doesn't seem any way to prevent them being sold without doing grave injustice to the thousands of legitimate dealers throughout the nation who stocked them in good faith. Dr Doran, who is supervisor of the Distiller's Code Authority, claims too that more reason able prices will prevail by spring. We'll, we can believe that. The edge will have worn off of legalized sales and there won't be quite the unprecedented demand for liquor as there is right now. And people will be more discriminating. They will perhaps have formed opinions about various brands and will demand their favorite, even wait for it, if it isn't car ried in stock And by that time the nation will be ready to give the bootlegger a good battle for control of the liquor business of the states. We can't see how Uncle Sam will lose.