Evening star., 1935-03-17
ECLIPSE OF LONG SEEN
In PROSPERITY RETURN
Roosevelt Leftism Held Encourage.
ment for Notwithstanding, Although
Plans Are Virtually Alike.

form was dangerous. that it might
make recovery impossible
AS TO that, however, the true an.
swer Is almost certainly that some
how, some time, recovery will over.
come any and every handicap that is
put upon it. There was a cycle of de-
preston. and while that cycle con-
tinued nothing could stop it. There
Is now a cycle of recovery and prob
ably nothing can stop that either. 1t
can be retarded, and has been. The
low point of the depression was
reached in July, 1882, so that the up
ward course has now been under way
| nearly three years. If the degree Of
the recovery is disappointing, that is
partly due to the fact that a depres-
sion so deep and calamitous requires
long time for recovery. Partly it is
due to the unwillingness of the Roose-
welt administration, during its early
months, to foster recovery. Had the
administration ignored reform and
concentrated upon opening the way
for recovery, we should have been
farther ahead
But while the period Of recovery
may be made shorter or longer, the
fact Of recovery is as certain now as
the fact of depression was five years
ago. Some time. somehow the forces
| Of business recovery will overcome
even the impedimentS put deliberately
in its way by the mistakes of states
men; it will break through, or leap
over, or crawl under, or detour around,
or seep through every obstacle and
hurdle. 1t may possibly be distorted.
as 1t would be by imitation If that
should come. But of the coming of
recovery We can say what President
Coolidge said about the coming of
better weather. To one who remarked,
I think it's going to stop raining"
Mr.. Coolidge said. 1T always has,"
May Threaten Chances.
Aside from the threat Huey Long is
to the country, he is, in more direct
sense, a threat TO Mr.. Roosevelt politi-
cally. That menace, Mr.. Roosevelt can
hardly escape. If Huey Long chooses
to organize a party of his own and
run as its candidate for President in
1886, he will get a large number of
votes, and practically every one Of
them will be a vote that Mr.. Roose-
velt would otherwise get. The number
of Long votes might readily be large
enough to put Mr.. Roosevelt's re-elec-
ton in some danger. What has hap.
pened is that Mr.. Roosevelt. by radi.
/ cal utterances and actions during the
/ early part Of his administration, aided,
of course. by the conditions of the
| time, recruited an army, an army Of
! the left. Now Senator Long has
stepped in and taken command of q
large part of the army. Mr.. Roose-
welt should have known this would
happen, through Senator Long or
some one else. No matter how far
| Mr. Roosevelt might go to the left,
some one else would go farther. No
matter how extreme the Presidents
proposals. others would outbid him.
When the President proposes $4,000
100000 for relief, Senator La Toilette
raises the bid to $4,000 000,O 900.
For Mr.. Roosevelt politically the
problem now is whether he can. by
his course during the coming eighteen
months, direct to himself or hold to
himself sufficient number of con-
Servative votes to balance the radical
ones that will be taken away from
him by Senator Longs third party If
he has one. and also of Senator
La Follette's party, if he has one, and
by such other radical movements as
may arise.
In two respects has Mr.. Roosevelt's
exuberance done harm to himself and
to the country. The violence Of his
attacks on wealth. on what he and
Mrs. Roosevelt call the 'overprivi-
legged" has given rise to Huey Long
and Father Coughlin. At the other
end of his political rainbow the
extravaganza of the hopes he excited
about the more abundant life" has
given rise to the venerable DR.. Town
send and his Townsend plan" BY
no possibility can the hopes of the
millions of adherentS to the Townsend
plan be Satisfed-as a matter of fact
it is going to turn out, and even the
comparatively mild old-age and un-
employment insurance that Mr.. Roose-
velt proposed when he got down to
the concrete plan-even that is going
| to need to be modified.