Evening star., 1937-03-07
THREE TRENDS BACK
ROOSEVELT POSITION
Fun d m entail Changes in Social
Thought Have Been Transpiring
All Over World.

checks on speculation and individual
profit making activities of many sorts.
The mass of the people seem quite
willing to pay this price. There is
powerful recalcitrant minority. but
the main trend of contemporary
thought is in favor of comprehensive
measures, "socialistic" though they
may be, and inimical to property
rights though they may appear, as
only thus can the recurrence of seri
GUS depressions with widespread un-
employment. social maladjustment and
individual suffering be prevented.
Natural Resources in Danger.
The third trend in modern opinion
is the output of the belief that our
great natural resources are in danger
of premature exhaustion through
WaSteful practices which have become
established under the regime of free
individual effort. The deposits of
coal, oil. natural gas. and minerals
have been exploited with all too great
success There has been an excessive
competition in production. leading to
overproduction and the crudest forms
of waste. We have today guilty
feeling that we have been acting like
clumsy children in eXhausting our
unique fuel deposits in order to ac-
complish results that could have been
attained without so much consump-
ton of irreplaceable natural wealth.
Similarly, the destruction of our
forests and the depletion of the soil
through the erosion of streams. large
and small, is now felt to be an in
excusable waste of the cosmic placen-
tai organs that enable mankind to
draw suStenance on this rocky and
infertile globe. If the best of our top
soil is to be washed into the salt
water, it seems clear that the men Of
America cannot be supported on their
present level of living by the Sus-
tenance that can be grown on the
sandy and barren areas that will re-
main.
This question of the conservation
Of our soil. our fuels, our forests. and
our water supply strikes the modern
minded man as vastly more impor-
tant than any constitutional or legal
question whatsoever, and he is i'm
patient with the legalities which have
prevented very largely the Inaugural
ton of proper conservation measures
up until the present time.
In very broad way, we may say
that the New Deal is an attempt to
satisfy the demands of the three trends
in public opinion that have just been
sketched The New Deal measures
have a marked socializing tendency,
aiming for example, at the main
tenance of comfortable living on the
farms, the protection of the great
masses of laboring men, and the regu-
lation of finance and industry to pre-
vent speculative losses in the savings
of the people, and to prevent in
dustrial developments that for one
reason or another seem socially un-
desirable.
Insurance Sought.
Then again, the New Deal attempts
to find the means by which the re-
currence of depresSions can be avoided
or minimized It therefore seeks to
provide insurance against unemploy-
ment. to limit speculative abuses. to
stabilize prices by comprehensive
policies calling for perpetual govern
mental interference with markets. and
to increase the buying power Of the
masses through higher wages and in
creased mass production Lastly, the
New Deal has very broad, though
somewhat shapeless, projects for the
conservation of our natural resources.
1t may be fairly said that some of the
most notable difficulties in connection
with these plans are legalistic. They
are caused by the battling division Of
legislative power between the Nation
and the States, and by the fact that
permanent public administration OF
our natural resources will exhibit in
evitably a "socialistic" and BUREAU
cratic character.
All of the above classes of legis-
lative measures trench upon indi-
vidual liberty in the field of economic
effort. 1t may be remarked paren-
thetically that they do not limit per-
sonal freedom in the pursuit Of
happiness" in any significant way,
except in the field of economic rela-
tions. But they limit the business
man in his familiar proft-making
activities. They involve enormous
costs which through taxation fall
largely upon accumulated wealth.
though the masses of the people also
have to bear. part of the burden. But
the main thing to notice is that all
three of the above trends are here
to stay. They are deep and funda-
mental trends. They were not created
by President Roosevelt. They are not
confined in their operation to the
United States. They have exhibited
a tendency to grow and become more
urgent in their demands upon govern
mental officials. They cannot be e'abol-
ished or checked permanently by any
number of judicial decisions. The
position of the judges with relation
to these trends is very much like that
of King Canute in the too familiar
story which describes him as at
tempting to sweep back the approach
of the tides and the waves of the
ocean.
Trends Held All-Powerful.
The obvious conclusion which the
practical politician, as distinguished
from the legalist, draws from the sit
uation above described Is that these
great trends in contemporary public
opinion must prevail, more or less
imperfectly, sooner or later, and it
is thought by many that the sooner
the newly perceived objectives are
measurably achieved, the more satis-
factory will be the consequent po-
litical and social adjustment. Since
the legalistic efforts to preserve the
old system of social organization and
of business activity in its entirety
cannot be ultimately successful. it
seems to the practical politician that
the efforts of the courts to stay the
advance of the socializing trend are
sure to produce nothing but confusion,
waste of energy and bitterness. The
u. &I,0 tArry