Evening star., 1936-02-24

LAWS Of SUPPLY
Brookhart Tops Town Hall
Meeting by Attack on
Wall Street.

i lie eCOllUtlllStS Iidu d IeNclIy dt tllc
Town Hall last night, and then former
Senator Brookhart of Iowa said what
was really wrong with the country
was Wall Street.
DR.. Leverett S. Lyon, executive vice
president of Brookings Institution.
and Dr. Mordeicai Ezekiel. assistant
chief economist of the defunct Farm
Board, but lifted by the New Deal to
the status of brain truster" and now
chief economic adviser to Secretary of
Agriculture Wallace, discussed the
subject Scarcity or Plenty - What
to Do About It?"
1t had been proclaimed as debate
and the main ball room of the Shore
ham was we'll filed, but the two
speakers hastily disclaimed any in
tention of debating, explaining that
profound questions were never settled
that way. They had simply discus
sion in mind, they said. and as a
matter of fact. agreed up to point.
Lower Price Level Urged.
DR.. Lyon reflected the viewpoint of
the Brookings Institution which
wants, in brief. lower prices with
existing wage scales. DR.. Ezekiel pro-
posed system" under which there
would be an abundance all around, a
balanced life, obtained through CO.
operation to insure higher incomes
for the farmers and the lower sal
aried groups.
He thought the "late lamented' A.
A. A., as he called it, tremendous
effort along the lines he had in mind,
but he gave the impression that ne
considered the N. r. A. "fop' be-
cause when it increased wages it also
increased prices. He left the impress
sion that instead of having an N. r.
A. and an A. A. A. for the country
there should be just one plan to main
tain the roundabout life in both in
dustry and agriculture. He insisted
his system" should be set up within
democratic processes.
Evades Compulsion Query.
Representative Hope of Kansas
asked him if he thought his system"
would work without compulsion. He
rather evaded the question by smiling
ly saying it could be made attractive
to industry.
DR.. E. Dana Durand. member of the
Tariff Commission, said he though the
depression had served some good in
that it had set such brilliant minds
as those of Drs. Ezekiel and Lyon to
thinking" But inasmuch as busi-
ness men did their own business, did
not DR.. Ezekiel think it would be
better to let them run them without
too much governmental interferece
with a view to getting men back to
work? DR.. Durand wondered II 1t
would not be better for us to work
out of it, with the Government doing
such things as necessary to amellorate
distress, and then apply our best
minds to preventing another one.
DR.. Ezekiel said past recoveries had
led to other depressions which his
system" was calculated to prevent.
A questioner from the audience said,
in effect, that it made him tired to
hear Drs Ezekiel and Lyon say what
was wrong with the country when it
was the financial system that was
wrong
Brookhart Cites Russia.
Brookhart, who wanted to take all
questioners on, said he didn't mind
being called pink, radical or Bol-
shevik," and asked if any country had
made such a record production as
Russia under the five-year plan, DR..
Lyon said this country had done
pretty well in that respect from 1925
to 1928. Representative Hope asked
Brookhart if he thoguht the average
Russian were better off than the aver
age American. Brookhart replied there
was no such thing as an average"
Americana few have it all" and the
rest "have none"
Brookhart, Ezekiel and Lyon all
dwelt upon the premise that 2 per
ceuv of the people in this country
have 80 Der cent of the income. This
prompted repul .crs at the press table
to argue that good way to end this
seeming problem would be to eliminate
the 2 per cent and the SO remaining
ner cent would have all the income,
which. however. would only be 20 per
cent.
Robert Lincoln O'Brien, chairman
of the Tariff Commission, presided.