Evening star., 1937-11-14

began moving from their occupations
to evade them. The state stepped in
with legislation to compel various
classes to stick to their jobs. But even
the heavy taxes did not furnish suffl-
cient revenue and imitation was re-
sorted to, with repeated devaluation Of
the currency. The denarius, which
had been worth 20 cents under Angus
tus, fell to II cent. This imitation went
far toward destroying the middle class
and increased the wretchedness Of the
poor. Only the sharp spectators
profited.
Hence" says Rostovtzeff. "arose the
social and political catastrophe Of the
third century in which the state, rely
ing upon the army or, in other words,
upon the lower classes, defeated the
upper classes and left them Inundated
and beggared. . Nor did the lower
classes gain anything by their victory:
slavery and financial ruin were their
portion"
Near the close of the century came
an energetic and able new dealer, the
Emperor Diocletian. BY drastic regi-
mentation he attempted to stop the
universal decay. To check the infla-
tionary rise Of prices his government
adopted rigid price control over more
than 100 articles, including. Of course,
food and clothing. Death was the
penalty for evasion. Price control re-
quired control Of wages. The attempt
10 inforce uniform prices and wages
throughout the empire ran into the
same difficulties that have been pre-
dicted for the uniform wage and hour
bill advocated by President Roosevelt.
Prices and wages that might have been
fair for one region were grossly unfair
in other parts of the empire.
New Restrictions Ordered.
Business men and farmers, facing
ruin. fled from their businesses and
their farms The government clamped
down on them with much more in
elusive regulations than hitherto had
been attempted, and sought to compel
them to carry on.
Thus, as DR.. Frank points out,
Rome became totalitarian state, with
the renters bound to the soil in serf-
dom; the workers bound to their guilds
in virtual slavery. and the guilds
completely controlled by the state
Diocletian, rather than Augustus, was
the spiritual ancestor of Mussolini.
Under this system of compulsion
with individual initiative stifled, and
burdened with the weight of vast
bureaucracy that came to include
half the population. the great Roman
civilization went down. 1t was only
an empty shell that the barbarian in
vaders found when they finally swept
over the land.
What are We, then, to conclude
about the new deal policies in Rome?
Ignored Masses Misery.
1t would be fair to say that, so far
as they were constructively effective,
they tended to mitigate distress and
to help the nation through emergen-
cies They did not meet the funda-
mental problem Of providing q gen.
orally prosperous society with fair
minimum standards of living. In the
failure to build such society through
an industrial civilization the well-to-
do classes largely were responsible.
They never developed enlightened, in
telligent and aggressive business lead
ership. In their complacent selfish
ness they ignored the misery Of the
mass of the people and made no real
conscious effort to improve the COM
mon Let.
But certain new deal policies con-
tributed to the ultimate crash. The
Capitalization of power in q paternal-
istic government sapped the feeling of
social responsibility and blunted ini-
tiative. The pauperization of large
numbers Of people through indiscrimi-
nate relief was destructive. Rome edu-
Gated its citizens to believe they could
get something for nothing. A continu-
ously unbalanced budget called for
mounting taxes that strangled business
and produced an imitation ruinous to
property owners, both large and small.
Finally under the governments last
desperate attempt to save disintegrat-
ing economic system through univer-
sal control and regimentation the
whole social structure of the empire
collapsed.
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