Evening star., 1934-04-15
FLOUNDERINC POLICIES
NEED PRESIDENTS HELP
Failure to Provide Jobs and Confusion
Over Price Level Targets for Oppo.
nents of Roosevelt Psegram.

resentative Kelly the restoring of the
flow of employment by public con-
structional pumps. Its public expen-
ditures method joins its monetary
method in stopping short of its OBJ
jective and in leaving the new dealers
pondering disappointment and seek
ing a substitute.
Planning Method.
The third method has been plan
ming" economic planning as evi-
denced in the A. A. A. and N R. A.
The spectacular beneflcent services of
the N. R. A. in the elimination of
child labor and in the education Of
American industry to the idea that
there is proper minimum worx-wage
and proper maximum work-day will
never be forgotten by the industrial
historian of this country but are now
indeed already in the industrial his
torian's province. The immediate
problem of the N. R. A. is to cleanse
the codes of provisions which raise
prices and check consumption faster
than recovery can raise purchasing
power and expand consumption.
On that problem the administra-
ton has acted so tardily that the
initiative in it has been grasped by
Senator Borah and Senator Nye and
other congressional critics who are
we'll on their way now toward per-
suading the Congress next year to
give the whole N. R. A system
body blow by reinstating in our stat
ute books the, full force of our anti
trust legislation against price fixings
Once more-in this matter as in the
other matters mentioned-the admin
istration finds itself not on the ag-
gressive but on the defensive
In the A. A. A, meanwhile, the
advance in planning" is now headed
not by Secretary of Agriculture Wal
lace but by those twin planners from
Alabama, Senator Bankhead and
Representative Bankhead The Bank
head cotton bill takes the voluntary
agricultural planning of Mr.. Wallace
and carries it to its absolutely logical
conclusion of compulsory planning
1t obliges the individual cotton planter
to abide by a plan whether he in
dividually likes the plan or not.
Central Command Needed.
Any other sort Of national planning
is surely mere play upon words.
The general staff of our Army, when
it drafts war plan" does not pro-
pose consultation of the Illinois Ma
tional Guard as to whether or not it
will conform to it. Planning, if it is
done at all in any actual sense, must
be done by a central command, mill
tary or industrial The Bankheads
may be utterly wrong in ultimate eco
nomics. They are utterly right as
logicians in the administration i'm
mediate planning method
But the administration accepts the
Bankhead bill only because it politi-
cally must, and it swerves from ap-
plying the principle of it to agricul-
ture in general. Again it f1inches
from its own portrait in the mirror.
Coming then to the fourth and final
new-deal method, we see regulatory"
measures such as the securities act.
the foods and drugs bill and the Stock
Exchange control bill. In all these
outstanding instances of this method
the original provisions contrived by
able and enthusiastic new dealers
have been subjected, or are now on
the point of being subjected to dras-
tic amendments by congressional
analysts
These analysts are moved promarily
not by technical knowledge, but by
their appreciation Of the reactions
and sentiments of the concerned pub
lie. There has been strong public
criticism and now there is strong
congressional amendatory zeal The
new-deal innovators are pushed into
the wings The spot light is taken
by legislative revisers and modifiers, 1
who in some cases are wholly sympa-
thetic to the new deal, but who in
other cases are covert enemies to it
and are endeavoring primarily to en-
compass its downfall.
Such are the actualities of the poll
tics OF the new deal in Washington
today. The new dealers last year
were in motion. Now, more and more. |
they are in trenches; and, more and
more, 1t is the enemy, super-new deal
or anti-new deal, that is in motion.
Mr. Roosevelt needs now much more
than his radiant popularity He needs
all his superb tactical skill at new
political plays and all his supreme
strategical vision of new social issues
and aims. He must again attack.
Will he? I surmise, since he is what |
he is, that he will.
Russia Will CaIITT 6