Evening star., 1936-03-08

pllilOtlS, one euOrJ canoeing out an
other. and the whole mass writhing
with jealousies, ambitions and intrigue
BY December 6: IF the New Deal does
not promptly get back to honor and
faith and sure intent it is done.
The popular feeling is that you can't
trust it-and why should you? This
Boy Scout communism won't go down."
BY December II the general thinks
the New Deal is "done'-it will be
defeated in the coming election. THE
present New Deal is everywhere re-
garded as the single visible threat to
better times; if 1t does not turn right
now. it will surely turn wrong in No.
vember."
BY December 26 lis it significant
that this was the day after Christi
mas?) the general is a thoroughgoing
rugged individualist. He has been
travelling in the West and Southwest,
the country of Andrew Jackson, Sam
Houston and Gen. Custer. Gen. john
son, Illuminating upon these early
American worthless. is deeply i'm
pressed. He reflects: They were
apostles of action. They asked favors
from nobody. and from God approval
only. -. I wonder what they would
say of all the alphabetical angels and
ministers of grace? l don't really
wonder. knoW-but such language
went out with the old-time Army pack
trains
Calls New Deal Socialist.
BY January the general seems
ready to admit the New Deal is So
cialist. AS if he apprehended a calam-
itous end for it. he disavows any part
of his own in it: Il gravely protested
an inflltration of inexperienced young
Socialists into practical control of an
administration not elected as Socialist.
-. That is almost political fraud"
And when Mr.. Roosevelt delivered
that message to Congress on the state
of the Union (Which turned out to be
a rather violent exposition of the state
of the Presidents mind) the general
was candidly and forcefully condemna-
tory: The state of the Union report
to Congress was rabble rouser. :.
1t wasn't pretty . deliberate appeal
to passion i. the joy of every advo-
cate of class hatred here and in Rus
sia :. makes him chief of the factions
of discomfort"
In printing these detached passages
about the President from Gen. john
sons articles, should add that again
and again he treats Mr.. Roosevelt
with gentleness, says the President Is
the best leader in sight for what the
general calls the liberal forces" of
the country, makes a distinction be-
tween the President and the New Deal.
The distinction won't hold, and
think Gen. Johnson, when he tries to
make it, is practicing a conscious care
that is inspired by loyalty and tact.
The occasions when he lets himself 20
are the ones on which his criticism of
the President emerges frankly. When
he tries to save the President he is
obliged to look away from the facts.
For example, he says, October 30 last,
that 'the financial and fiscal affairs of
the United States are in the worst
mess in our history" Then the general
puts the blame on Secretary of the
Treasury Henry Morsenthau. At Mr..
Morgenthau he throws the biggest
bricks in his vocabulary: Mr.. Nor
genthau's business experience afore-
time was running farm paper which
few farmers saw, and advising the
Governor Of New York on agriculture"
But Gen. johnson must know that Mr..
Morgenthau does not determine fiscal
policies-it is the President who does
that.
AssafIs Lower Officials.
If Gen. Johnson is sometimes care
fully easy on the President. and alter
mates his condemnations with mild
praise, he is not that way about the
subordinate New Dealers. To char
acterize them he scrapes the bottom
of his deep vocabulary of objurgation.
I quote some of the generals charac-
terizations, because the opinions of
former No. 2 man in the Government
about his former associates are proper
and necessary subjects of news and
comment. But I should add that I
would not myself use terms so strong.
In the generals inflammatory judg-
ment, nothing in Mr.. (Secretary of
the Interior) 1ckes' honest lawyers
life remotely suggested that he could
do such a job-and he did not do it;
it was folly to expect him to do it.
. Mr.. (Secretary of Agriculture)
Wallace then surrendered all mental
to Rex Tugwell, who
knows as much about the farm prob
lem as Halle Selassie knows about
Oshkosh, Wis. :. Rex Tugwell's un-
balanced nonsense :. Mr.. chairman
of the Federal Reserve Board) Eccles,
who is in charge of imitation.
There have been plenty Of expert
ments at the hands of dewy-eyed
dreamers, but may all angels and min
listers of grace defended us from this
one. 1t is like turning human heart
over to tinker for surgical opera
tion-the substance of the United
States put at the mercy of bucolic
and opinionated theorists, with full
power to act. It can't be true; it is
just nightmare"
About all this, what must we think?
one of two alternatives:
Either (a) Gen. johnson is man
of sound judgment and therefore his
present opinions about the admins
tration are valid and important;
Or (b) Gen. johnson Is not man
of sound judgment-in which case
things must have been pretty wrong
when he was No. man in the admin
istration.
Copyright. 1867