Evening star., 1936-09-07
troll Of some sort over the economic

troll of some sort over the economic
system.
Well. then, why don't they 60 out
and buy dark cravats and vote for
Roosevelt? Maybe, in the end, they
will, but meanwhile, such New Deal
ishness as they have Is shot through
with . great many serious reserva-
tions.
They believe that the present ad-
ministration Is. as far as efficiency
goes, one Of the worst we have ever
had. They think that 1t Is wastefui,
extravagant, extremely debonair about
the taxpayer. and full Of crackpots.
Nearly everybody Mows somebody
who sat for years on the Boulevard
Montparnasse, or in Greenwich W.
lage, until he was called to Washing
ton to advise the Government on the
preservation of wild life. They don't
like Mr.. Farley at all. and they Sc
riously doubt the idealism of the Bos-
ton, Chicago. Maine or Louisiana sup
porters of the President.
But behind all this there is some
thing else, far more important. This
is "a premonition that this admins
tration is farce or something, that
everything isn't always what it seems,
and that something is being put over
on them. They aren't Communists
or Socialists or Fascists or Laborites.
They believe in private enterprise,
accept the capitalist system and
want to see it work with more JUS
tice, more evenness and more intel
ligent control. They wonder why, If
the Government needed to expand
Government spending, to get money
into circulation, it did not expand
normal governmental activities. Why
in the world it allowed schools to
close or be overcrowded, while it set
up brand-new educational agencies,
why men were dismissed from an es-
tablished Government bureau under
the economy bill and then rehired in
q brand-new agency.
See Test Tube Attitude.
They are convinced that WASH
ington Is full Of people, some of them
in positions of authority, who believe
that the traditional social and eco
nomic system is doomed anyhow, and
that anything done to hasten its de-
mise and prepare for another one is
a step in the right direction. They
think that the relief administration
has not been concerned primarily with
taking care Of the unemployed, but
has been trying to do other things
raise the American standard of hv-
ing. experiment with an economic
system of production for use, revive
and popularize the arts. And they
are convinced that to try to do all
these things and call it relief Is dis
ingenious and dangerous.
They definitely don't like the w.
P. A. 1t is not the cost that bothers
them most, since they accept the c.
c. c. Hence the feeling that under
the w. P. A. totally different sort
of work society is being set up, par
allel to the existing society, at war
with it and capable, in the long run,
Of undermining it. They don't want
to give mandate to continue or ex-
pand that rival society. If they did
they wouldn't be Mrgwumps. They
would vote for Norman Thomas.
On the whole they would like to
see this administration go out. They
have thought that Gov. Landon was
their man. But they want to be sure
that certain gains that have been
made will be consolidated. And that
is just what they are beginning to
doubt. They are afraid that the
baby is going to be thrown out with
the bath.
(Copyright, 1850