The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-02-04
Liberal Viewpoint
by DR.. HARRY ELMER BARNES


THE delays, disappointments and compromises
| l. associated with the New Deal have encour-
aged the assumption by others of the Messianic
| role that was once monopolized by Mr.. Roose
| vet The new Messiahs offer the same definite
| and rapid realization of Utopia which was i'm
| piled in Mr.. Roosevelts speeches early in his
Administration.
do not refer at the present time to any of
the communistic or conventional types of ex-
IRENE radicalism, which do not seem as yet to
have captured the popular imagination to any
marked degree. I have reference to the leaders
and programs which do not directly represent
orthodox socialism. To such the people seem now
quite ready to listen in large numbers.
The big four among the heretical prophets
in the United States today are Huey Long, Fa-
Their Charles E. Coughlin, Dr. F. E. Townsend
and Upton Sinclair
Senator Long is campaigning for national
| support on a general soak the rich" program,
revolving around the proposal to contscate all
fortunes of more than a million dollars.
Huey has cashed in heavily on the failure of
his party chief to deliver the goods and live
up to his early promises The flop of the New
Deal has given him critical ammunition which
he has by no means overlooked. Few have
slammed into the Administration as did Huey
in his national broadcast short time ago.
LIS opponents seek to laugh him off the
i i map but his feats in Louisiana indicate
that he not be taken joke in any society
where shoWmanship and personal determine
ton count. He has far more impressive record
than Hitler had, say at the close of 1881, and
compared with the Nazi chieftain, he is
Vertabe Colossus Of intelligence and culture.
A little of Father Coughlin's show has been
stolen of late by DR.. Townsend but the Royal
Oak priest still has wider hearing than any
other Catholic in human history. Not even the
att he of q
thirteenth century was listened to with rapt
attention by anything like the same number
who tune in on Father Coughlin every Sunday
afternoon.
Apparently sensing the fact that he may
slip in his hold as time goes on, simply because
the people seek something new, the father SEEM
ingy anticipates this slump and attempts to
forestau it by bearing down in more dramatic
and forceful fashion upon the major mogulS of
predatory finance. Not even the most acid
spokesman of the old popuiSm was ever so
fearless and colOrful a critic of our financial
| overlords-at least before anything like such an
audience that of Father Coughlins.
Whatever his exaggerations in overemphaSiz-
ing monetary issues, his philosophy of money is
certainly not more wide of the facts than those
of his opponents. And he is certainly dead right
in putting his finger upon the major weakness
of the capitalstic system, namely the dominion
of finance capitalism. His Union for Social
Justice may yet turn out to be something with
which the country will have to reckon seriously.
TIVE Townsend plan for old-age pensions on
Il an almost fabulous scale has, for the time
being at least, seized the spotlight in the inter-
est of the discontinued masses of the country,
particularly those over so years of age and those
nearing that magic line. Our grotesque ire
SponSibility. in dealing with the problem of old
age in this country has made it possible for the
doctor to galvanize public attention to an al
movement now be stopped, short of some
reasonably adequate program for old-age pen
sions.
Upton Sinclairs EPIC plan has had the edge
taken off it slightly as the result of his recent
defeat, but he and his followers have retired in
good order and claim to be consolidating their
forces for another and more effective attack. He
certainly called attention to the absurd diSuSe
of available capital plant while people are Ian
gushing in unemployment or being demoralized
by public doeS
If by some strange freak of fortune or gen.
eralShip, these four men should link up their
forces, it would be hard to stop them. If Huey
should make a drive Cor the presidency, prom
Using Father Coughlin the Secretaryship of the
treasury, Sinclair that of the interior and Town
send that of labor, let US say, this would indeed
be challenge to the New Deal compared to
which the Republican threat is gentle gust of
wind.
And it is no idle guess that, if Mr.. Roosevelt
does not buckle down and take steps which re-
move the causes of discomfort, he may in 1886
or later have to reckon with some such coai-
ton as this, which for better or worse might
very well sweep the country