Evening star., 1935-02-03
NATIONAL FUTURE FACES
TWO OPPOSING FORCES
Battle Lines Drawn Between Normal
Trend and Revolution Plan
of New Dealers.

will end it. Borrowing will end, and
therefore the process of imitation will
end, under the following condition:
private industry must increase in vol
ume to point where 1t takes most of
the unemployed of the Governments
hands; and this increased volume of
business must be attended by profits
which will produce taxes, with which
taxes the Government can pay its
bills, and thus stop borrowing.
There Is evidence lately that Presi-
dent Roosevelt knows this to be the
only condition that will avert dis
astrous imitation. And there Is evi-
dence that Mr.. Roosevelt, knowing
this. is willing to take the steps
which will enable private industry to
increase in volume and make profits.
AS for the average citizen, If he
wishes to keep an eye on the barome-
ter of imitation, he can do so by OBJ
serving the state of industry. So long
as the present squirt is maintained,
the likelihood of imitation decreases.
If again, business slows down. likeli-
nOOQ OF lnIldLlOn Will go up.
Working for Changes.
The final question is: What about
the forces making for fundamental
change in the American form of So
ciety and government? The answer
is. those forces are actively under
way. The persons within the admin
istration, or close to it, who believe
in such change, are still working
eagerly to bring 1t about. The forces
have not slowed down-except as a
return to normal state of mind may
later cause the country to kick funda-
mental change out the door. If the
country could visualize, could see
ahead, to what must be the ultimate
effect of the process now under way
in this field, the country would be
shocked.
The forces making for change in
our social forms, and ultimately IN
our form of government, have cumu-
lative, rolling SNOWFALL effect. Once
started, they tend to perpetuate them
selves. The first step compels the
second, the second compels the third,
and so on, until the revolution Is COM
plete.
A New Dealer who started one of
these forces in motion. and now finds
himself holding bear by the tail, Is
the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr.. Wal.
lace. He began with voluntary re-
striction of the amount Of cotton each
farmer may grow. At first, the plan
must be voluntary-never would he
put the American farmer under COM
pulsion. But he did. He found him.
self caught up by the natural law
which says that such changes, once
started, tend to go on invincibly.
Also. at first Mr.. Wallace said that
the regimentation he was pressing
down on us would be ended or modi-
fed by restoration of exports of farm
crops, by increase of international
trade. But international trade has
not materially increaSed-and as a
close observer of Washington, I have
not noticed Mr.. Wallace trying very
hard to increase it. He believes in it,
so he says-but his actions 60 on step
by step to put America on a basis of
isolated nationalism, smaller produc-
tion Of crops and RECOMMENDATION of
the farmer under harsh rules. In
his recent article in Golfers Maya.
zine Mr.. Wallace says: THE i'm
pediments to international trade are
multiplying"
Would Wipe Out State Lines.
Mr.. Wallace, with the air of aban-
doning international trade, giving ii
up as hopeless, now proposes a step
that is startling indeed. He would
transform America utterly. AS re-
Spects national affairs, he would wipe
out State lineS-he does not make this
specific in his present proposal, but by
inevitable implication it is there. He
would transform us from a Republic
and a political democracy into what
he calls an economic democracy.
Each group of farmers raising a par
ticular crop and each industry would
vote on matters pertaining to that
crop or industry. There would be
what Mr.. Wallace calls economic
town meetings" For the adjustment
OF differences between industries and
groups he would have at Washington
a continuing staff of longtime
economic counselor" whose power
over industry would be equivalent to
that now exercised by the Supreme
Court over all fields. Everything per-
tanning to industry would be taken
out OF the hands of Congress and
vested in the organization Mr.. Wallace
proposes. He does not say he would
abolish CongreSs-on the contrary, the
canny precaution of his Scotch blood
makes him careful to say Congress
would be preserved. But under the
system Mr.. Wallace proposes, Congress
would last just about as long as the
Italian parliament lasted after italy
adopted Fascism. And that was about
II years. The similarity, the near
identity between MIR. Wallace's proposal
and the italian cooperative state
would startle America If America knew
what is going on.
In N. r. r., as we'll as in A. A. A.,
the self-perpetuating, self-enIarging
tendency is present-though N. r. A.
has come under a popular diSapproyal
oO OkldO It's cADdtlSlOO may
be arrested. AS respects wages, N. r.
A. began by fixing only the minimum
The range of wages above the min
imum was to be left to the normal
process of negotiation between en-
ployer and emplQye. Never, never
never, Gen. Johnson used to tell his
press conferences, would N. r. A.
undertake to fix any wages except
the minimum. But aready many codes
fix wages above the minimum. And
N. r. A. has called a policy hearing
on employment provisions in codes. y
In its announcement the N. r. A,
board says: 1T is important to de-
termine the effect which inequities in
wages above the minimum have.
And to ascertain what the solutions
should"
In spite of all, optimism is justified
by the one condition that can give
confidence, the revival of industry.
That is under way at this moment
strongly, but no one should let him
self doubt that both the forces making
Tor imitation, and those making for
cnange in our social system and our
form OF Government, are still active,
Thew can still ta royerres r.,,4 49,