Evening star., 1937-11-02

- e business 333:3: 8
men themselves
must be sold on
the fundamen- %
tails. David Laurence
Can the PreSi-
dent bury the hatchet and get to-
rether with business? The effort has
been made several times, but each
time it has been followed by more
bitterness and more attacks by Mr..
Roosevelt, which in turn have engen-
dered a countertrend of bitterness on
the part of the business men.
Certainly the economic system can
not function unless Government and
business fully understand each other,
or at least agree as to what the poll
cies of the Government mean in
economic terms.
May Realize Gravity.
The events of the last few weeks,
indicating depression in business is
here or we'll under way toward a much
more serious situation few months
hence, might seem to have brought
the President to a realization of the
gravity of the whole problem. But
when he insists on talking in po-
litical terms, when he brings up his
old campaign vocabulary about the
one-third of the population who are
supposed to be 'ill-housed, ill-nour-
ished and ill-clad," it is apparent that
the President is not ready to talk
practical terms with the business men
Of the country, but is still bent on
harassing them for political purposes.
From whose viewpoint, asks the
President, are the published reports
coming about the Importance of re-
vising the capital gains tax and the
undistributed surplus tax? The infer
ence which Mr.. Roosevelt plainly
wishes drawn is that if you talk about
tax revision you are thinking only of
the profiteers and that you cannot pos
sibly have any humanitarian instincts.
AS matter of fact the day is not
far distant when some demagogue will
rise to prove that Mr.. Roosevelt, we'll
intentioned though he is. has done far
more damage to the average man and
his future than any single man in our
present generation.
Would Find Artificial Stimulus.
And the demagogue will not have to
prove his assertion any more con-
cretely than Mr.. Roosevelt proves the
many loose statements he makes about
the economic royalists. But if such a
demag:Sue were so careful as to ad-
duce facts, all he would have to do is
take the direct increases in the cost
of living caused by the Roosevelt
Administration-the diminution in real
Wages-and tell what it has meant
already. Also all the demagogue would
have to do is to take the reports
coming in on unemployment in various
parts of the Nation and show that
they are traceable to an artificial
stimulus carried on for four years
without the slightest regard to a
permanent substitute motive power
for the economic structure.
Who creates the jobs that make
employment possible? Mr.. Roosevelt
will some day be asked that question
on the stump as he seeks to defend his
policies. The job makers of America
are the people who have saved their
own money or have made a reputation
for honest investment of the funds
of others who have saved money. The
record of the last few years shows
that capital has been frightened-the
Job makers have been driven off. Is
an administration friendly TO the
average man if it scares away the job
makers?
MIR. Roosevelt is right when he asks
from whose viewpoint the cry for tax
revision is coming but he is wrong
when he assumes that the question
Is one-sided one. Every bit of evi-
dence by recognized economists shows
that the tax burden goes down the
line to the persons Of smallest income.
Is Mr.. Roosevelt really interested in
the poor? For four years he has spent
vast sums, but today unemployment
Is growing rapidly and the real wages
IN the pay envelope are being reduced.
The proposed minimum wage and hour
legislation has a lofty purpose but it
VIII bear hardest on the poor man. AS
Tor crop control, the administration is
talking about levying processing taxes
70 bear the cost. This means taking
money from one group of poor people,
who can ill-afford to pay the processing
taxes, and paying it to the lowest
income groups in the farm population.
The only way that there can be
real interest in the plight of the poor
man is to make it possible for the total
business of the country to increase so
that there is more production. The
home market alone, it is conceded
can absorb more goods. Purchasing
power is generated by an increase in
wealth produced and in the utilization
Of capital for the creation of jobs.
The amount Of new capital being
doated through the S. E. c. is negli-
gible. Whether it is the restricting
done by the S. E. c. for purposes other
than attacking fraud or whether it
Is due to the generally unfavorable
market situation created by the un-
balanced budget and hit-or-miss meth
ods Of handling fiscal finances, the
fact remains that capital isn't being
turned over sufficiently to create new
industries and new jobs or to take
care Of the shortages in goods and
services which America has been ex-
periencing for seven years.
An increase in purchasing power
indeed real upward swing Of unprec-
edented proportions-wi come some
day when either the present incum-
bent Of the White House or some fu-