Evening star., 1935-04-14
NEW DEAL CRISIS SEEN
IN"REVOLTN CONGRESS
Party Leaders Ready to Seize Control
of Legislation and Turn Country Back
Into Normal Way, Observer Says.


has an unusual susceptibility to new
ideas-an idea. because it is novel,
fires his imagination.
In the train of Prof Tugwell came
the others who, with him and Prof.
Moley, composed the brain trust"
And in the train of the principals Of
the brain trust came small army of
minor professors and other young IN
tellectuals who, after Mr.. Roosevelt
became President, largely manned the
second rank of Government offices.
The influence Of these was great. The
Offices they had, while minor in rank,
were key points at which decisions are
made. Also, some Of these young in
tellectuals became the craftsmen who
wrote the legislation that makes U,
the New Deal.
Radicals Confident.
The radicals were perfectly conf
dent of their power. They intended to
conduct America through revolu-
ton, and they called their intention
by that name, revolution without
physical violence. but nevertheless a
revolution. They we're sure OF them
selves. and because of their intimacy
with President Roosevelt, sure Of their
power. Congress they almost ignored,
except as pawns who must enact meas
ures that the intellectuals wrote. The
Democratic leaders in Congress did
not revolt against the low valuation
that the intellectuals put upon them.
Privately they we're dismayed, pri-
vately they were appalled, by much that
was done; but in the spirit of those
early months they enacted the meas
ures the intellectuals sent to them.
The young intellectuals were COM
pletely confident of the subservience
of Congress, and had like attitude
toward the courts, including the Su-
preme Court-so far as they gave any
thought to the courts. During the
early months of Mr.. Roosevelt's presi-
dency it was commonplace among the
intellectuals to say that if the Su-
preme Court should be so recalcitrant
as to interfere with what the intel
lectuals were doing, why, Mr.. Roose-
velt would attend to that. He would
have his subServient Congress enlarge
the Supreme Court from its present
9 to IL or Is or Is and he would
fill the new seats with intellectuals,
thus making a majority to support
whatever legislation the intellectuals
wrote. do not know that Mr.. Roose-
velt himself ever entertained this
notion, but it was ordinary and fire.
quent in the talk of the minor New
Dealers. The notion was put in print,
Z ixxrkan sNz1
to the early "cockiness" of the New
Dealers, and to the change that has
taken place. Today the New Dealers
would not venture to ask Congress
to enlarge the Supreme Court, and
the Democratic leaders in Congress
would resent the suggestion.
The intellectuals were happy and
exuberant lot during those early
months: they were going to "go places
and do things" and they were going
to take America with them.
President Hesitated.
Mr.. Roosevelt, after he became Pres
ldent, started out with the brain
trust and the young intellectuals as
his guides of policy and action. Very
early, however, trait of caution in
him led him to hesitate about going
| the whole distance that some of the
radicals wanted. The decision-which
accounts for much of today's con-
fusion-came while all the banks were
closed, during March, 1888. The wish
OF some of the radicals was that the
banks should be kept closed perma-
/ nanflu fhot Ia 20
society and government in America
should be treated as a thing dead
and gone, and that new conception
should be built from the bottom up,
with the ground made clear by the
permanent closing of the banks. 1t
could have been done at that time.
BY the decision Mr. Roosevelt made
to reopen the banks the country was
| committed to a path that is part old,
part new. He took some steps which
contemplated restoration of individ-
uallsm, but he took others. recon-
mended by the intellectuals, which
contemplated collectivism. That is
where we have been since March,
1888, and we still are. 1t is a oues-
ton whether it is possible for Amer
lea or any other country to be part
lndlvidualiSt and part collectivist.
Lincoln said, on a previous occasion
when America was at a crossroads,
that the country could not endure
part slave, part free. Such epigrams,
even when they come from Abraham
Lincoln, are not always as true as
they sound. Within limits, nations
can be part one thing part another.
Actually, America had been for 70
years part slave, part free.
Irreconcilable Condition.
But there are conditions that are
mutually exclusive, that cannot exist
side by side. suspect that individ-
ualiSm and collectivism are such a
pair of irreconcilable conditions. The
principles from which the respective
conceptions of society spring are so
dlametr1cally opposed that it is
doubtful if any country can have a
form of society and government with
part resting on each of the two
principles.
If President Roosevelt should CON-
tinue to have the aScendancy over
Congress that he has had so far. IL
Congress should continue to accent
and enact measures as written by the
administration, in that event we
should probably continue in the effort
to be part individualist. part coll
lecttviSt. Mr.. RooSevelt's future
course would be like his past one, a
step to the left followed by a step to
the right.
If. on the other hand, the Demo-
cratic leaders in Congress should re.
sumo their prerogative and RESPONSE.
bility, we will have a course con-
siStent with the American tradition,
a course that will modify our indi-
vidualism but retain and conform to
the fundamental principle of it. At
present the strong tendency is for
the Democratic majority in Congress
to take over the writing and enacting
Of legislation. This disposition on the
part of Congress to recede from its
SubServiency to the Executive is en-
couraged by the independence recently
shown by the other branch of govern
ment, the courts.