The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1936-11-26


ford Guy Tugwell or to look behind
those earnest epistles in which he tells
the President he will be con call" and
the President tells him he hopes to
"call' him.
Nevertheless it is hard to permit DR..
Tugwell to go without some effort to
express the feeling caused by his re-
tirement as a statesman and his choice
of another field for his activities. For
nearly four years, literally millions of
people have been intensely interested
in this brilliant young man. To many
he has seemed an intellectually tiger
ish person who teemed with vast
schemes for the remodeling of the
nation along lines so far advanced as
to be but dimly discernible to the ordi-
nary eye. Of all the New Dealers his
was the widest and most colorful
vision; he had the most glorious
dreams.
He it was who envisioned world
in which happiness would be univer-
sal-except for obstructive critics"
in which "every hill would be green
and all the rivers blue" He it was
who coined that thrilling phrase "The
More Abundant Life" and exhorted
the farmers and workers to nurse
their righteous wrath and "irresistib-
ly surge forward" against business
greed. 1t was he who predicted how
unpleasant the plutocrats would find
being "disestablished" and devised the
most ingenious means for redistribut-
ing the wealth of the economic
royalists."
And now he joins them. Now he
goes into-of all things-the molasses
business. He has become part Of the
great, sweet, syrup industry-with an
office in Wall Street. 1t is enough to
convince almost any idealist that this
is humbug world. One after another
our illusions fade. For example, i'm
mediately after the campaign in
which the Du Points were depicted as
diabolically plotting to wreck civiliza-
ton by encompassing the defeat of
Mr.. Roosevelt, an engagement is an
nounced between a Roosevelt son and
a Du Pont daughter, which seems to
mean that the Roosevelts will visit the
Du Points and at least some of the Du
Points will visit the White House.
And all will be merry and bright-as
it should be.
And now DR.. Tugwell, whose great
heart was supposed to beat stanchly
and exclusively-for the common
people, and whose efforts to infame
the farmers and workers against the
big business boys were so widely ad-
vertised, has become one Of them
become a molasses man, a sugar i'm
porter, big executive of rich cor
poration. It is extremely battling to
the simple mind. Had he gone back
to the college cloister; had he retired
to the top of a mountain, there to
ponder and pontificate; had he become
a lecturer or gone in for art, the
drama, literature or religion, it would
be easier to understand.
**x
But molasses! It makes the whole
Affaire de Tugwell seem unreal. 1t
makes those who considered him
either a malign or a beneficent in
fuence; who grew indignant over his
efforts to array class against class;
who were disturbed by the cost of his
resettlement experiments and doubted
the soundness of comforting so much
power to spend so much money upon
so young and inexperienced man
it makes them all feel foolish.
***
To some people DR.. Tugwell was a
shining hero; to others he was a red
devil. It is not easy to reconcile
either with the molasses business
not that there is the least thing wrong
with the business, but it just does not
seem, even remotely, either heroic or
devilish. Most people will wish the
Doctor success in his new and some
what sticky field, regardless of what
they have felt about the soundness
of his national planning views. A
good many of Mr.. Roosevelt's friends
will be glad when he has gone-con-
slider that he was a Roosevelt LA
bility, not an asset. The general opin-
ion is that the President, while he
stood by DR.. Tugwell under fire like
good friend, was wise not to put
pressure upon him to stay-that he
will be even wiser not to call him
back from the molasses game. Few
believe he ever will.
Mr.. and Mrs. J. A. Clark and son
Frank, Mrs. Blanche Fowler and Miss
Virginia Marshall. all of Uniontown,