Evening star., 1935-03-17
BY MARK SULLIVAN,

count OF Mr.. Roosevelt. Much that
Huey Long is saying now has been
said by President Roosevelt a little
while ago-what Huey is doing is
largely to translate into the language
Of Zle cane brakes what Mr.. Roosevelt
said before him in a more cultured
Harvard and Groton English. The
sentiment is the same. only the word
ing Is different. Not that what Huey
Long says is any more provocative and
rabble-rousing than a sentence Mr..
Roosevelt spoke in his message to
Congress as recently as January last
I'VE find our population suffering
from old inequalities, little changed by
past sporadic remedies In spite Of
our efforts and in spite of our talk
we have not weeded out the over
priviledged and we have not effectively
lifted up the underpriviledged"
Is the ordinary man, especially one
rather in despair, without money or
a job, to be blamed if he assumes that
what Huey Long says is the same
thing that Mr. Roosevelt means?
Huey says, simply and directly, Share
the wealth" President Roosevelt says
vaguely and circumlocutiously Gin a
message to Congress) that America
must have "a permanent readjustment
of many Of our ways of thinking and,
therefore, of many Of our social and
economic arrangements"
Little Difference.
Between these expressions by Mr.
Roosevelt and Senator Longs share
the wealth there is some academic
distinction. But the average man is
not far wrong when he fails to see
any real difference. Mr.. Roosevelt s
weed out the overprivileged" means
to take some from those that have
much. His lift up the underprivi-
legged" means to give to those who have
little. True. Mr.. Roosevelt would &C
complish the division by slow and
gradual processes. while Huey Long
creates the impression that he would
go out at once and take wealth away
from those who have much and give
it to those who have little. Huey
could not do it, Of course. His attempt
would merely bring paralysis of
America as going concern and the
end would be not sharing of wealth
but a sharing of universal poverty.
Even more than Mr.. Roosevelt him
self, some of those around him have
given out sentiments and phrases as
likely to stir up class feeling as any
thing Huey Long is saying. Some
sentences from utterance made during
the early days of the administration
by Mr.. Donald Richberg, Secretary of
Agriculture Henry Wallace and Fed
eral Emergency Relief Administrator
Harry L. Hopkins were as apt to cause
shivers to friends of the existing social
order as the most provocative slogans
that Huey Long is now emitting.
Long Delegation Seated.
Mr.. Roosevelt and those about him
were not alarmed about Senator Long
when, at the Democratic National
Convention about to nominate Mr..
Roosevelt, they urged the convention
to seat the delegates from Louisiana
brought by Senator Long. as against
the delegates brought by Longs rivals.
A scene at that convention. which
must now give Mr.. Roosevelt some dis
taste, consisted of Huey Long and Mr..
Roosevelt's son with their arms about
each other in mutual delight over the
nomination of Mr.. Roosevelt. An
other scene at the same convention,
for which Mr.. Roosevelt was not re-
sponsible, but which must now give
pain to orthodox Democrats. was
Father Coughlin, then not SO widely
known, invited to the platform. throw
ing his curiously hair-raising voice
into one of the most rabble- -rouSing
speeches Of his career.
What I have said about the degree
of Mr.. RooSevelt's past responsibility
for the present phase of Huey Long is
necessary to say as a matter Of un-
derstanding existing conditions. Yet,
feel like apologizing for saying it.
OF all the agencies that have at all
times held the world back, one of the
most potent has been recrimination
about the past. The only question
worth considering is what Mr. Roose-
velt and the rest of us ought to do
about Huey Long now.
For both Huey Long and Father
Coughlin, there is one sure cure. 1t
consists Of business improvement.
Once we are back to normal prosperity
both the Louisiana "Kingfish" and the
Detroit priest will be as completely
forgotten as Jacob Coxey of Coxeys
Army and the many others who rode
the waves of turbulence in past de-
pressionS. II Mr. Roosevelt wants to
escape the menace of Senator Long,
let him abandon that presidential at
titude which Mr.. Walter Lippmann
has called punitive and terroristic at
tacks on private business"
Attitude Possibly Abandoned.
Most of us here in Washington
think that, for the present certainly,
Mr.. Roosevelt really has abandoned
this attitude. And while many of the
radicals in his administration have
not abandoned it. they have become
discouraged, or tired. or partially con-
verted to a more conservative course.
In department after department
either the conservatives or the milder
of the radicals are coming to the top.
In the Department Of Agriculture a
purge" has evicted several of the
more strident and forceful radicals.
In the Securities and Exchange Com
mission the chairman, Mr.. Joseph P.
Kennedy, has convinced his associates
of the need of permitting the flow of
capital into industry to be as free as
the too radically written law can make
it. N. R. A., so far as it is reenacted
at all in June, will omit three-fourths
or more of the restrictions that have
hampered the revival of business.
Throughout the whole administra-
ton Mr.. Roosevelt shows signs of hav-
ing learned costly lesson. He started
out to hold recovery back in order to
put reform forward on the theory,
presumably, that only while the
country was sick and fiat on its back
would it accept the reforms that the
radicals pressed upon Mr.. Roosevelt
and which he pressed upon the
country. That course was dangerous
from the beginning. As early as the
end of 1893, after Mr.. Roosevelt had
been in Office 10 months, he was