Evening star., 1934-03-04

6OuTCcS WIlcu tl1Coc CCutCIS WCnt
numb, they beat helplessly against
their prison walls. Prosperity without
stability was endurable In Q new and
uncrowded Nation. It is no longer
tolerable in q crowded land, where
vast fixed populations are brought i'm
mediately to the point Of starvation
when employment fails.
Nor can stability be achieved with
out planning, without permanent con-
trolls and without careful balancing
Of all the main elements Of national
life-without replacing some Of our old
rage for individualistic freedom by
a new rage for social justice, even If
1t lessons freedom. What Is the use
of bringing back prosperity In 1884
merely to see 1t flower into q new
hysteria of imitation and speculation
and into another and possibly far Bit
terer season Of panic and depression2
To talk Of the success or failure Of
the definite practical features of the
Roosevelt program is as yet absurdly
premature. It Is but fairly launched.
Not one year, not two, but at least
three or four will be required to show
whether this or that individual ex-
pertinent will succeed, whether this or
that goal will be reached by the
means proposed. Opponents and sup
pOrters may still hurl facts and fig
ures at each other with equal plausi-
bility. On the one side men can
point to millions re-employed, to
wage rolls increased, to production
figures and sales figures rising, to
higher prices for cotton and wheat.
On the other side men may point
to difficulties and breakdowns in the
crop limitation program, to delays in
the public works program, to waste
In the civil works activities, to dis
trust Of the monetary measures.
There are some dangers, widely dis
cussed for q time, which have en-
phatically not been realized. The
talk Of dictatorship has died away.
1t Is true that Congress in 100 days
voted II powers to the Executive
but most Of the transfers were tenn
porary. 1t is true that for a year
the division Of powers between exec
utive, legislative and judiciary
branches contemplated by the Con-
stitution has been abrogated-but
that division has seldom really ex-
listed anyhow.
The alleged danger Of q great bu-
reaucracy has likewise proved much
exaggerated. It has certainly not yet
appeared.
Cost Produces Uneasiness.
On the other hand, certain dangers
and difficulties, at first unforeseen,
may emerge. The heavy cost Of the
program has produced a growing un-
easiness. 1t will certainly grow much
more rapidly still unless the Presi-
dent shows tbs same courage in
checking certain forms of expendi-
ture, notably for the c. w. A., that
he showed in facing the veterans.
1t Is an achievement meanwhile to
have abolished child labor. 1t is an
achievement to have shortened hours
in SO much of industry. Foreign ex-
perts have long told us that In many
industries the United States has been
slow in abbreviating the working week
and has Jagged behind the ration
allied industries Of Great Britain and
other lands. Our industrial equip
ment being the most efficient in the
world. we should logically be the
worlds leader in reducing hours
The same principle applies to agri-
culture. Because our farming at its
best Is the most efficient in the
world. We have reason to regard with
approval instead of alarm Secretary
Wallace's idea on "the complete con-
troll, acre by acre, Of all Americas
farm land. with only rich soil used
for farming and the remainder de-
voted to forests, recreation, residence
and the like"
1t is a distinct achievement, again
to have added perhaps 1000 900 men
already to the ranks of organized
labor. There are European nations
In which 80 or 40 per cent of the
wage earners are unionized, and II
is deplorable that in the United
States the number has heretofore not
reached even 10 per cent.
There can be no doubt that Sec
retary Wallace was right when he
said:
THE things this administration has
done thus far may seem spectacular
but they are only faint foreshadow-
ing Of some Of the things which will
| ultimately be necessary before the
United States has finally made for
herself her new, true place In the
family Of nations"
Not Revolutionary.
Yet these initial steps are in nc
sense revolutionary. Nothing could
better illustrate the essential con-
servatism of American thought than
! the rather silly use of that word in
connection with them. The two chief
innovations of the administration in
/ its first year have been the A. A. A
| and the N. r. A. The one is an
attempt to plan an overextended
sprawling and destructively competi-
tive agriculture: the other an attempt
| to rationalize an equally overexpend-
ed, unsymmetrical and lawless indus
trial development. Both are built upon
ideas and principles long familiar to
students.
Under the A. A. A. America is now
engaged in a gigantic experiment in
balancing the farm output. Looking
back over the year we must remem-
ber that this experiment was neces-
sarily launched in haste. Pushed by
time, the administration even had to
destroy part of the growing crop OF
cotton. The pig-corn program, ini-
tiated by a slaughter Of small pigs,
has been frankly described by Di-
rector Davis as "a rought stab" in its
first phase.
The Government had time to act
more carefully in organizing its wheat
program. But all the programs should
be expected to do much better In
1894 than last year, and still better
in 1885. If the experiment as q
whole succeeds. we shall exchange
empowered farming for more
largely pastoral, more balanced, more
leisurely agriculture, we shall take q
long step toward the ideal Of pleas
anter, more rational, more balanced
America.
In industry we have witnessed the
application of compulsory codes OF
practice to stop waste. to destroy such