Evening star., 1934-01-30
Mr.. Mills Program,


A call to the Republicans to resist
the breakdown of the guarantee given
by the American Constitution that in
dividual rights shall not be destroyed
by arbitrary power Of government was
sounded by Ogden Mills d New York
at Topeka, Kans., last night. Mr. Mills,
former Secretary of the Treasury in
the Hoover cabinet, potential candi
date for the Republican presidential
nomination, went into the heart of the
great agricultural West to deliver a
detailed criticism of the Roosevelt ad-
ministration and the Roosevelt policies
at time when President Roosevelt ap-
pears to be at the zenith Of his power
and influence To many Mr.. Mills
address may seem to be merely "a
voice crying in the wilderness" A
careful reading of the address, how
ever discloses that Mr.. Mills has ac-
tually outlined program for the Re-
publicans in opposition to the Demo-
cratic administration a program that
may be carried into the coming con-
gressional campaign and later into the
national campaign Of 1886.
Mr. Mills program calls for firm re-
sistance to plans for making permanent
the emergency" relief program Of the
administration. 1t calls for a limit to
the outpouring of Government or public
funds and for the sterilization of the
dollar 1t calls halt to the building
of bureaucracy which will dominate
every business and activity of the
American people, a bureaucracy which
Mr. Mills visualizes as engulfng the
entire country. And finally it calls for
a revision of the tariff so as to en-
courage international trade; for an
abandonment of strict "nationalism"
and any effort to limit American pro-
ductien to American needs alone.
The Mills address is in effect a de-
tailed challenge to the Roosevelt ad-
ministration. 1t might have emanated
from the lips of an old-fashioned DEM
ocrat. 1t warns against efforts to
change the whole social and govern
mental system Of the country, against
the establishment of a dictatorship,
with the President sitting as dictator.
That, he declares, will be the ultimate
result of a planned economy upon in
dividual liberty.
One Of the gravest dangers to the
country, as Mr. Mills sees 1t, lies in the
willingness Of the people, or many
groups of the people and millions OF in
dividuals, to accept gratuities from the
Government, thereby establishing a
system of living at the Government
trough which will be difficult if not
impossible, to break down. With the
Government pouring out billion dol
lars a month, and a great part Of it
going in such gratuities. this danger is
becoming greater day by day. AS long
as the Government Is in a position to
make such expenditures and as long as
it is willing and continues to make
them, the political power of those in
charge will continue. In the end, how
ever, Mr.. Mills contends that such q
system will break down because Of the
failure of Government credit, and with
such failure will come disaster to the
people such as they have never before
experienced. Never before, MIR. Mills
said, has the Government undertaken
to shoulder the burdens, the ills of all
the people of America. Public faith,
he said, is being purchased by public
works, by gifts of money to city dweller
and to farmer.
Mr.. Mills disagrees positively with
the efforts of the N. R. A. to bring
recovery through the increase OF wages,
costs and prices before production and
employment have been increased. The
natural, the economic and the sane
manner of procedure, he contends. Is
first to increase production and en-
ployment. The New England Council,
he says has reported that increased
labor costs have increased sales prices,
diminished production and increased
inventory" Mr.. Mills is not attack
ing proposals to increase wages or
prices. What he does attack Is the
method sought to attain these ends,
and he charges that the attempt has
been made to put the cart before the
horse in this procedure.
The Republican speaker did not deny
all virtue to the emergency program
of the President. Nor did he. deny
that the program might be beneficial
What he insisted was that the pro-
gram continue 10 be regarded as an
emergency program and that as soon
as possible the country return to less
governmental control of business and
of all the activities of the American
people.
Gorpnonv'c now government pOpS