Evening star., 1936-05-04
The Issues.

New Deal leaders sneer, frequently, at
conditions which prevailed in this coun-
try prior to the crash of 1929. And yet,
if a national vote were taken, if a refer
endum were had as to whether the
people would exchange their present
condition for that prevailing in the six
years preceding the depression, the result
would scarcely be fiattering to the New
Dealers. To restore he conditions which
existed prior to 1929 will, however. re-
quire something more than a mere
referendum.
Today there is some revival of business
but there are still, it is reported, nearly
100000 unemployed workers. Today
there are millions on relief-either
direct relief or the relief accorded
through the operations of the w. P. A.
Today the expenditures of the Federal
Government and its deficits are growing
greater instead of smaller. The Secretary
of the Treasury recently warned the
Senate Finance Committee, now consid-
Cling CllC dJlOll 1CW tdA Ulll,
that the deficit for the current fiscal year
promises to be nearly $6,O00000,O00
and that the public debt would go to the
$4,000, 900, 900 mark.
The measure of recovery in this coun-
try, after all, is employment, private en-
ployment on farm and in factory. Under
no theory can the government provioe
recovery merely by the expenditure of
the peoples money. And yet the expendi-
ture of the peoples money through gov
ernmental agencies continues to rise.
The effort to spend the country out of
debt is doomed to failure. The effort to
restore prosperity by taxing one group
of citizens and passing the money to
another group is not likely to be long
effective. In the end there will be no
group to tax, no group that has any
thing left to tax. Only by the produc-
ton of goods, on the farm and in the
mill, can the Nations capital and income
be restored. Government effort to cur
tail production, no matter how we'll in
tentioned, cannot restore values. The
economy of scarcity never made a nation
or family wealthy and happy.
Waste of Federal money-which is
taken from the people in taxes direct
and indirect-in reform experiments is
no way out of the difficulty. Business
cannot operate successfully when directed
only according to theory. 1t cannot
operate in competition with govern
mental enterprises. 1t cannot operate
and will not operate when private in
dustry is eternally fearful of new Gov
ernment control.
Next November the people will go to
the polls to decide whether they wish
four more years of the New Deal or
whether they desire less Government in
business, a more determined effort to
limit Government expenditures and an
attempt to balance Government income
with Government spending. The prob
lens involved are for the worker and the
farmer as well as for the capitalist.
Already there is hanging over the country
the threat of tax burden such as has
never before been borne by the Amer
lean people. Indeed, the tax burden,
national, state and municipal, is already
very great. Today's taxes fall on the
rich and the poor alike-and the burden
is much heavier for the poor. They will
continue to fall on all the DeOple no
matter which way the Government may
turn in an effort to distribute the bur-
den. The issues of the campaign will
remain, when all is said and done, Gov
ernment spending and Government in
reference with the business of all the
people.