Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-07-10

discouraged or made outrightly i'm
possible the entry Of new competitors.
Under some N. r. A. codes it was
illegal for anyone to start a new
enterprise without first getting the
consent of the code authority, which
in many cases was made up mainly
Of persons already In that line Of
business, who naturally did not well
come new competitors. Under Triple
A no farmer could raise cotton, pota-
toes or tobacco unless he was already
established as raiser Of those crops.
All this was the opposite Of such
voluntary cooperation as America has
known. Persons engaged in the con-
siderable number of cooperative enter
prises already existing in America,
felt that N. r. A. and Triple-A dealt
harshly with them and tended to make
their existence difficult and their
growth practically impossible.
Before we can understand the new
suggestion, it will be necessary to know
Just what kind of cooperative organi-
zation of society Mr.. Roosevelt and
Mr.. Wallace mean. Is 1t to be CO.
operation In the form in which Amer
lea is already familiar with it? That
Is, voluntary organizations embracing
as many persons as care to join? Or
Is it to be cooperation, so called, in
what is really a form of government
neutrality-suspicious. to be organ
lied by the Government, with every
fn III ond n0y,annfftinY1
by private individuals made illegal?
The latter, as the formula for q new
society, would be as strange to Amer
lea, as repugnant to American prin-
ciples and traditions, as N. r. A. was.
Has N. r. A. Been Abandoned?
If Mr. Roosevelt has really aban-
doned N. r. A. and Triple-A, the fact
has high importance. Until very re-
Gently. he seemed committed to this
principle, seemed to believe it was in
evitable and indispensable for Amer
lea. In his book On Our Way" pub
lished in 1884. when N. r. A. was still
strong, he said: History probably will
record the national industrial recov-
cry act as the most important and
far-reaching legislation ever enacted
by the American Congress. 1t repre-
sents a supreme effort to stabilize for
all time the many factors which make
for the prosperity of the Nation, and
the preservation of American stand
ards" 1t was his cleaving to N. r. A.
| that led him to speak as he did
against the Supreme Courts decision
invalidating it, and to say that the
principle OF N. r. A. was an invincible
force against which the Constitution
and the Supreme Court cannot sue
cessfully stand.
However, it Is mere guesswork to
| speculate on whether Mr.. Roosevelt
has abandoned one objective and
taken up another. Guesswork is in
herent in the Interpretation of events
when one man has as much authority
as Mr.. Roosevelt has, both as Presi-
dent and as head and prophet Of the
New Deal.
We know what Heaven and hell will
| bring;
But who can guess the mind Of the
king?
To say that Mr. Roosevelt does not
have marked continuity of intention
is merely to repeat what he says him
self He emphasizes it as a virtue. It
underlies his own picture of himself
as the quarterback of a foot ball
eleven who does not decide upon the
next play until he sees the result of
the preceding one 1t is inherent in
his praise, in his Baltimore speech, of
a program Of do something; and
when you have done that something
if it works, do it some more; and If 1t
does not work, do something else"
Well. good many persons would
concede that N. r. A. has not worked,
either as a practicable formula for a
new economic order" in America nor
as an advantageous position on which
to stand for reelection
(Copyright, 1866