Evening star., 1936-12-13
Attitude of Doubt
Among New Dealers
BY OVEN L. SCOTT.

ences being held to shape future Gov
ernment policies, remarked privately
during the past week:
II believe that am losing my en-
thusiasm for this job. Since election it
seems that there has been q let-down
Of desire to do the things that had
seemed important to some Of us. This
may be one result of the fact that Presi-
dent Roosevelt has been away. But
maybe, too, the time has come to get
out and try to make pile of money"
This attitude Of doubt about the course
now to be followed is becoming wide
spread among many of the capable
young men who were attracted to Gov
ernment service by the appeal Of the
Presidents reform policies and who now
are wondering If an entirely new phase
of the New Deal has not arrived.
Some are influenced in their attitude
by the example Of DR.. Rexford Guy Tug
well, who found himself maneuvered
out Of the official picture. But others
really believe that the period of excite
ment and of adventure in Government
has passed, to be succeeded by a quiet
period Of consolidation, in which they
are less interested.
One other young and important on
cial, with a record of achievement in
administrative work as well as in politics,
Is in this group. He revealed the other
day that his present intention is to stay
through the coming session of Congress
and then to 60 back home to try to make
a name for himself in the newspaper
business, in law and In politics. His
attitude was expressed as follows:
"The big job now is to perfect the
experiments set under way during the
last few years, rather than to start new
ones. The next period definitely Is to
be one Of consolidation and co-ordina-
ton. That means fancy knife-work as
officials and agencies fight for position.
It isn't in my line unless there seems to
be something vital at stake. So guess
1t Is time to move on"
These two expressions represent
samples Of a fairly general reaction that
has set in during the last few days. The
men concerned are not college profess
sors, or essentially brain trusters. but are
individuals of ability who have been at
tracted by what President Roosevelt set
out to do.
When he finds what is going on among
his younger aides, Mr.. Roosevelt may
change their minds by discovering in
teresting new jobs for them. Otherwise
the Government definitely would be the
loser.
But there is no blinking the fact that
a new phase of the New Deal is at hand.
From now on the country can expect
more emphasis on dollars and less on
doctrine.
For the last three years the Govern
ment has been gambling with expert
ments intended to start the wheels OF
private industry turning rapidly. This
involved expenditure of vast sums Of
money. Whether or not due to those
expenditures, the fact Is that business
expansion is under way on broad scale.
Now the problem is to control the forces
set in motion.
A different technique and a different
approach are called for.
One example of the shift in position
is provided by the treatment of the
relief problem. While relief recipients
and taxpayers may not have known it.
the method of dealing with this problem
has not been entirely humanitarian in
motive. The relief population served
essentially as guinea pigs" for trying
out an experiment in depression
breaking.
That experiment involved Government
spending on a big scale to fill the gap
left by the contraction Of private spend
ing. The unemployed provided the ma
chinery through which Government
spending could quickly make itself felt
in the producing industries Of the coun-
try The money they received was spent
almost Immediately, of necessity.
But with business revived, the func-
ton of the unemployed as spenders OF
money borrowed by the Federal Gov
ernment is less important. In fact. it
even becomes a danger, as threat OF
imitation So, instead of moving heaven
and earth in an attempt to stir up a
business boom, the planners are pre-
pared to move heaven and earth to
control the boom that they think they
now have set under way.
Oficials as q result, are inclined to
be hard-boiled in dealing with unem-
ployment. They definitely became so
hard d-boiled prior to last Wednesday
that q violent kick-back occurred, both
in the ranks of the unemployed and IN
the ranks of local officials.
Arbitrary cuts were ordered in w. p. A.
personnel, with State administrators
told that they had definite number
of dollars to spend and would be forced
to adjust the number of their workers
to the total of the dollars. But it
turned out that the order was easier to
issue than to execute. The howl that
went up was loud enough to reach Presi-
dent Roosevelt out at sea, and Harry
Hopkins, w. P. A. administrator, rushed
into print with modified plans.
The result is to cast some doubt on the
ability of the Government to carry out
the second phase of its recovery theory.
The basic theory has been that large
scale spending Of borrowed money would
be continued only long enough to prime
the pump of industry. Then the Gov
ernment would pull out, before starting
any runaway imitation, to let industry
carry on under its own momentum.
The present phase OF this experiment
Is described off1cially as follows:
MANY people, observing that imitation
in various countries in the war and
early postwar period conceded with
unbalanced budgets, have expressed fears
that an unbalanced budget here might
likewise result in imitation. The inf1a-
ton period is characterized by rapidly
rising prices, speculative inventory buy
ing, shortage of labor and increasing
ineficiency. It Is obviously condition
to be avoided at all hazards.
tho vuor ond INST .waP coSac of