Evening star., 1937-12-09
MIR. Douglas Remedy.

OF the various remedies which Lewis
w. Douglas proposes to ward off depres-
sion, collectivism and possibly war, the
most important by far is the elimination
of suspicion and i'll will which have
grown to large proportions between the
administration and business. Mr.. Doug
las, President Roosevelt's first budget
director, couples with his plea for saner
relations suggestion that there be
tempering Of the New Deal reform poll
cies.
When Congress met in special session
November Is, the President sent mes
sage to the Senate and House in which
he laid great stress on the need of conf
dent and cordial cooperation between
the Government and all citizens and be-
tween all citizens and the Government.
His message was interpreted as a friendly
gesture toward business. More, however,
than gesture is needed, as Mr.. Douglas
suggests. There remains too great hesi-
fancy by the administration, for exam
Pile; an unwillingness to act without de-
lay in the matter of unfair and unwise
taxation which it initiated. Perhaps the
habit of f1aying nameless economic
royalists" and other nameless princes
Of privilege" is too firmly fixed.
At the present time it is not question
n fyip +I,o
either the administration or the country.
It is questioned stemming recession"
OF business and preventing another de-
preston, perhaps even more serious than
that of 1882. In this crisis, chief reliance
must be placed on business and industry.
Business and industry hold back under
the constant threat of greater Govern
ment control and heavier tax burdens.
The life blood of business is capital 1t
Is through capital that business expands
and gives employment to the millions of
workers. If capital is afraid 1t goes into
hiding.
Congress has been in session for nearly
a month. A subcommittee of the House
Ways and Means Committee has for
weeks, even before the meeting of Con-
gress been studying the undistributed
profits tax and the capital gains tax, with
view to their modification. A bill deal
ing with those taxes could be put
through now-if the leadership was will
ing. But the leaders turn their backs
fatty on doing anything now" The
"now' legislation is not by its nature de-
signed to encourage business, proposing
as 1t does to raise wages and the cost of
production at a time when business is
falling off and to subsidize farmers on a
large scale in order to keep the prices of
food up.
Mr.. Douglas recommends that the tax
structure be modified to permit the for
nation of capital. This is just another
way of asking politely that the adminis-
tration stop killing the goose that lays
the golden eggs. And, finally, Mr.. Doug
las, recognizing the need of rebuilding
the foreign trade of the country, urges
cooperation with Secretary Cordell Hull
In his program of reciprocal trade agree
ments. There must be a widening of
American markets, Mr.. Douglas insists,
even If it means suppression of some
private interests for the benefit of the
public welfare. This last suggestion will
not sit well with opponents of the re-
ciprocal trade agreements. But if any,
thing is to be done to smash trade
barriers erected between this and other
nations, Mr.. Hulls policy is the only
alternative to general revision of the
tariff laws. And that would result in
loud demands for increased instead of
lower tariffs.
Unless the country is willing eventually
to limit its markets to what it can sell at
home it must fall in with some plan of
removing trade barriers.