Evening star., 1935-02-03
By MARK SULLIVAN.

tlonal future. One set makes
Il for return to normal-not, of
course, normal wholly iden-
tical with what we formerly knew, but
nevertheless normal not basically
changed. The other set Of forces car
ries us toward at least two kinds OF
fundamental change, one fiscal, the
other social and political. To estimate
the present status Of the tug-o'-war
between these sets of forces Is the
purpose of the present article.
For cheerfulnesS sake, consider first
the forces carrying us toward normal,
They are quite powerful and they are
always at work, though, of course, their
momentum varies from time to time
The low point of this depression was
in June and July, 1882. We are there
fore more than two and half years
on the way toward recovery. So long
lapse of time since the low point is
itself an assurance. We are well on
the way out of what we have been
calling "the depression" If any dis
aster happens to us noW-and, Of
course, it may-it will not be part of
the depression; it will be a different
kind of disaster.
At this moment the forces of re-
covery are moving more strongly than
at any time before. The indexes of
business, as a whole, are better than
at any time since recovery began. Of
there is an apparent exception to this
statement it is the period during 1888
when we had fitful spasm of business
activity, in part the early rebound from
the bottom. and in part the anticipa-
tion of currency inflation)
Farmers Have Been Aided.
Some of our advances can safely be
regarded as permanent. For example
few farmers are now in fear of losing
their farms to the mortgage holder or
the tax collector. It has been a year
and half since the newspapers car
ried stories about posses of neighbors
preventing foreclosure sales. (Those
incidents were always more sensational
IN the newspapers than they were in
fact) With the return of peace of
mind to the farmer has come a psy-
Geological change that is of the
highest wholeSomeneSs and impor
tance. A farmer who feels secure in
the possession of his land is a believer
in private ownership of property and
Is in other respects conservative.
Farm families compose more than
a fourth of our population. Added to
those are city and village home own
ers who have been given added Sc
curity of possession BY among other
agencies, one of the most useful of
the New Deal institutions, the Home
Owners Loan Corp, which has
financed expiring mortgages for long
period at reduced rates of interest.
BY these two influences alone, regard
for private ownership of property has
been so strongly buttressed among so
large number of people that it is
difficult to think of the private owner
ship principle being seriously under
mined by anything ahead of us.
Revolution" Is Proposed.
The forces of recovery have been
under way for a sufficient length of
time and are now going forward with
sufficient momentum as to suggest
that we are coming out of the recent
depression much as we came out of
that of the early 1905.
But to any comparison between the
present situation and that of the
1905 there is an exception-and the
exception Is so large as to make the
comparison almost without value as
a guide to the future now The def
V,5ta onI fi,So1 opliy1r nf rto Iaprne
sion of the early 1905 was the defeat
of Bryan in the presidential campaign
of 1896. But in the present case, our
contemporary Bryan was not defeated
he was elected. do not know how
President Roosevelt may feel about
this comparison with Bryan. The facts
more than bear it out. All that
Bryan wanted to do was to reduce
the value Of the gold dollar Mr.
Roosevelt has done that-and in ad-
dition has a purpose that Bryan had
not. Bryan never wished to bring
about material change in our form of
government, or in our social system;
on the contrary, Bryan had an old
fashioned loyalty to familiar Ameri-
can institutions and traditions. Mr..
Roosevelt wishes to bring about what
he calls permanent readjustment of
many Of our social and economic ar
rangements." That is Mr. Roosevelt's
own phrase for his purpose; some who
are close to him, and who influence
his actions, call their purpose by
stronger words, including the word
revolution"
As to Mr.. Roosevelt, there is some
evidence to suggest that he has re-
Gently modified. this plan of his ad-
ministration, but the wish of some of
his followers to bring about what they
call revolution Is the dominating goal
Of their lives; it is not abandoned,
and is not likely to be abandoned will
tngly.
Imitation Forces Working.
Turn now to the forces that pull
America toward fundamental change.
One of these forces is in the field
Of fiscal measures. The destination
toward which 1t pulls us in imitation.
BY imitation" as used in this article,
mean the sort of imitation which
WO0iu 1CuuCC tIlC value VI IllC OOlldI dS
the franc was reduced in France. The
French imitation was roughly 80 per
cent from value of roughly 20 cents
to one of roughly cents. A corre-
spending imitation in America would
carry the dollar from its original 100
cents, so to speak, to 20 cents. Al
ready there has been formal reduction
to 59.06 cents.
The forces that make for imitation
are still under way. Imitation itself
ts under way. The addition of four
billion dollars to our national debt,
now in process of enactment by Con-
Rress, Is an act of imitation, and a
considerable one. To express it in a
way the average man will under
stand-though he will never compre-
hend it fully until violent imitation is
actually upon us; every new dollar
borrowed by the Government takes a
minute fraction off every dollar at
present in the citizens pocket. The
process Of borrowing alone-if 1t is
kept up long enough-will bring in
dation.
As to when the borrowing will stop,
no one knows. Mr.. Roosevelt does not