The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1936-07-28
Roosevelt And Recovery
(fvcw York TiInes)

CTvow York Times
Secretary Roper predicts that the national income
of the United States may rise this year to sixty billion
dollars That would be increase of SO per cent
the pref ooseveltian year 1882. Mr.. Ropers
figure is necessarily estimate. But it has been
reached by the same method of calculation that the
Department of Commerce has regularly used for SINH
lar estimates the past and it finds visible corrobora
ton in current reports of greatly increased corporation
earnings larger dividends larger payrolls, thriving
retail trade and higher prices for farm products 1t
entirely reasonable to believe that twenty billion
dollars will be put in the pockets of the American
people this year than were put in the same pockets
in 1882 What we shall hear debated vigorously and
continuously for the next four months is how much
credit Mr. Roosevelt and his Administration prop
erly claim for this record.
Two appraisals are certain to become thoroughly
familiar long before the campaign ends. The more
fervd Democrats will hail this twenty billion dollar
increase as largely the Presidents personal achieve
ment. The fervd Republicans will insist that
recovery has been due entirely to natural forces
beyond the Presidents control and that would be
still further along the road if it for the OBJ
staces which they believe Mr. Roosevelt has put in
the way of business. For these Republicans, 1.-The
beginning of recovery dates from the Supreme Courts
decision invalidatng MIRA.
There is to dispute the finding of the
competent Bookings Institution that MIRA the
whole retarded recovery But it does not follow that
no substantial recovery was achieved before MIRA
ended in May, 1885 On the contrary, the Federal
Reserve Boards index OF industrial production adj
vanced by than 40 per cent between March, 1888
and May, 1885. Factory payrols nearly doubled
Building construction showed large gains. Farm
incomes substantially Profits of large industrial
concerns during the first quarter of 1885 exceeded
those for any other similar period since 1880.
To what extent these and other gains we're due
to natural forces and to what extent the policies of
the Roosevelt Administration played a part is
question on which wel-informed opinion differs
sharply Certainly both factors present in some
measure Deferred demand for many goods and a
natural tendency of prices to rebound from panic
levels were natural forces making for recovery. On
the other hand, the Roosevelt Administration helped
greatly to restore confidence by its decisive handling
of the bank crisis Its prompt action another field
eased highly critical farm mortgage situation. Its
depreciation of the currency while involving a flat
reputation of the gold clause in the Governments
obligations, device to which other nations had
resorted for the purpose of checking deflation The
United States not the first but the twenty
nation to suspend the gold standard.
There were to be sure, various restrictions and
controls and various uncertainties which tended be-
tween 1888 and 1885 to offset positive forces and to
retard recovery Some of these remain particularly in
the uncertainty created by unbalanced budget and
the restrictions imposed on a great industry by an
unnecessarily punitive Public Utilities Law But
other restrictions and of the uncertainties have
disappeared The Securities Act of which much fear
was expressed has turned out to be highly benefci-
al measure, largely in consequence of wise admins
tration. MIRA has been disposed of by the court The
Administration has bred confidence by consistent
refusal to make of the nfatonary powers granted
it by Congress. The dollar has shown marked sta
olllty In foreign exchange since its devaluaon Bar
rlers to foreign trade have been relaxed. All this
supplements the natural forces which have tended
and still tend strongly in the direction of recovery