Evening star., 1934-02-25
BY MARK SULLIVAN.
- HOSE Of US who write about the
New Deap' from outside, es-
pecially those of us who are
..- IL III. 4. IA L.... Il

HOSE of US who write about the
New Deap' from outside, es-
pecially those of us who are
i unsympathetic 10 II, have al
ways felt little reluctant to
speak as plainly as we have thought.
have long felt, for example, that the
New Deal, If carried through to its
end along lines now actively under
way, would have results shocking and
painful to some Of those sections and
groups Of persons who now most ap-
plaud it.
Specifically it is my conviction that
If the present program Of the admin
istration about cotton be carried on
to its inevitable conclusion, that end
would include comparative depopula-
tlOn Of large sections Of the South
eastern States. To express it with in
territorial extremeness, to put it
frankly in words that are sensational
in order to attract attention, should
say that cities like Atlanta. Green's
boro and Charlotte would become
mere gateways to great national parks,
the parks to be made up out of land
taken out of cultivation by the Federal
Government To suggest that these
cities would be reduced to the status
of selling hot dogs and souvenirs to
travellers in the national parks is
frankly little fantastic, yet it is no
more fantastic than some processes
which are actually under way.
Since I have hesitated to say this
sort of thing / am relieved to find the
substantial equivalent of it in a
formal statement given out during the
past week by Secretary Of Agriculture
Henry A. Wallace. Mr.. Wallace is
an absolutely candid man. He knows
the end of the processes now under
way and he does not camouf1age them
for the purpose of disarming opposi
ton to them Mr.. Wallace, in his
America Must Choose" lays an al
tentative before the country and pro-
poses, rather cautiously and tenta-
lively, a variation from the path We
cussion by Mr.. Wallace is not the text
of the article 1 am now writing. I
quote from Mr.. Wallace merely
enough TO show his agreement with
me about the destination toward
which the present agricultural aspect
of the New Deal is moving.
Millions to Be Shifted.
Secretary Wallace says that, as an
end and accompaniment Of what the
administration is now doing, there
will be "a shifting Of millions of
people from the farms of the South.
1t may be necessary after a time to
shift part of the Southern popula-
ton. We must be prepared to make
permanent the retirement of 40 to
100 million acres Of crop land"
The Government at Washington as
administered by President Roosevelt
is a curious mixture of old American
individualism and new collectivism,
mainly the Russian type AS a process
it goes by a series of jerks-flrst a
long step toward collectivism and then
shorter step back into the old Amer
ican way.
The advances toward collectivism
are longer and more permanent. They
come from the radicals, the brain
trust. The occasional back-tracks to-
ward the old American system are
mainly Mr. Roosevelt's own. These
annoy the brain trust little but not
much. The radicals have consistent
plan, they know exactly where they
are going and they are getting there
rapidly.
The lack Of pattern in the Wash
mgton picture as a whole Is due to
one of Mr. Roosevelt's traits of tenn
perament and mind. He has, to an
extraordinary degree, susceptibility to
suggestions. We all have acquaint-
ances like that. they are to be found
in any Office or group-lay new idea
before one of them and he glows with
enthusiasm. Some of the intimates
Immediately around Mr. Roosevelt are
familiar with this trait of his, and are
alert to see that new ideas are not
put into effect until after opportunity
for examination by critics.
Occasionally some conservative who
has access to Mr.. Roosevelt presents
him with an idea that belongs in the
orthodox category Of economics. Be-
cause Mr. Roosevelt Is natively con-
servative himself, he puts it in effect
For a moment we have a spasm of
conservatism. But it is the radicals
who make steady headway. They
know the technique of revolution
such a man as Prof Tugwell has
studied the recent revolutions in
Europe painstakingly and knows the
technique of carrying America from
individualism to coIlectivism as min
utely as a farmer knows the technique
of raising a crop. The process of
carrying America toward collectivism
goes forward along the lines of a
consistent plan. The occasional back
tracks toward the old American sys-
TEN are intermittent, unrelated and
ineffective.
President Conservative.
To put the picture another way:
Mr.. Roosevelt himself is instinctively
conservative-though with his ma
tive conservatism modified strongly
by temperamental bent toward ad-
venture. In the circle around him
are Two groups. i Ilc ldOlCdlS al c
adroit, resourceful and persistent
consequently their pressure on Mr..
Roosevelt to go their way is the more
effective.
If it be asked why the conservatives
around Mr.. Roosevelt are not equally
effective, why they do not counter
and successfully resist the moves of
the radicals, the answer is that the
conservatives are intellectually less
alert, temperamentally more stodgy.
The conservatives, men like Secretary
of State Cordell Hull, Budget Director
Lewis A. Douglas and few others
are consciously Democrats. Being
Democrats, they regard the mere fact
of the Democrats being in power as
having an importance Of its own.
Consequently, they hesitate to rock
the boat that bears the party fortunes.
It is an advantage to the radicals
that they are not Democrats nor men,
bers of any other familiar American
party or group of political thought.
They are intellectuals wholly and their
only preoccupation is to carry Amer
lea as far and as fast toward collec-
tivism (mainly of the Russian type)
as Is practicable.
To complete the comparison be-
furoop tho radical and the cOpServa-