Evening star., 1937-10-10

~ a question and calls on COL
4 umnists to answer The ques-
tion is personal to the columnists.
There is general agreement among
number of outstanding commentators
that important forces are at work in
this Nation which point toward the
possibility of revolution and dictator
ship But there is also another
noticeable and peculiar thing very
common among these commentators:
1t is their unwillingness to place the
responsibility for these deplorable de-
velopments where they know it belongs.
-" They write vigorously and effect
lively about the dangers flowing from
the attack made upon the Supreme
Court; or they oppose various other
developments which they believe point
toward a dictatorship-and then, they
weakly say in effect that of course
they do not fear Mr.. Roosevelt, but
they tremble to think what the next
President might do = $ The commen-
tators are for some reason unwilling
themselves to come to grips with the
conclusions logically flowing from their
analyses If they will not face fact
that stands out in all its nakedness,
how can they expect their readers to
do So?
For itself, the Missouri paper de-
clares its own belief that Mr.. Roosevelt
Is the author of the movements toward
dictatorship, and that therefore Mr..
Roosevelt is the man to be challenged.
Thinking that way, the News asks the
commentators to explain themselves.
A Columnist Answers.
answer for myself. I have said,
as others have, that America is being
taken toward a one-man, totalitarian
form of government. I have not said
that Mr.. Roosevelt is doing this con-
sciously and Intentionally. have not
said the opposite of that, either. !
have not said anything about Mr..
Roosevelt's mind. 1 have refrained
deliberately. To shrink from positive
assertion about any mans mental
processes is an individual idiosyncrasy
of my own. To know, with exactness
or confidence, what is going on in
any mans skull is impossible. Often
the man himself does not know.
The relation between a mans ac-
tions and his motives is obscure and
mysterious. A learned and authorita-
tive psychologist named Freud wrote
several books about the distinction
between the conscious" and the sub
conscious" Other than to express
my opinion that Mr.. Roosevelt is to
an exceptional degree dominated by
his subconscious mind, prefer to say
nothing.
Furthermore I have refrained from
ever attempting any comprehensive
picture of Mr.. Roosevelts personality
I have refrained because the motive
of an accurate and balanced picture
OF any personality-even that of a
fairly simple man-is a formidable
task; it requires space scope it re-
quires fine discrimination and great
pains. The difficulty is greater in the
case of Mr.. Roosevelt because his
personality is so complex, so unusual
Roosevelt Complex"
One of Mr.. Roosevelt's biographers,
who is completely friendly to him and
has been close to him over long
series of years, Ernest K. Lindley, in
his Roosevelt Revolution" observes
that Mr.. Roosevelt is an extremely
complex person He) reminds
you Of no one else" Il wonder il
Biographer Lindley understood how
much he is saying when he SAYS that
Mr.. Roosevelt is like no one else. A
statesman whose processes of thought
Ix~,1
pattern is. it seems to me, statesman
to be dubious about)
I have occasionally undertaken tc
detach single concrete asp It's of Mr.
Roosevelt's personality and to write
about them. Even this have done
with some misgiving, because there is
risk of misleading in describing one OF
any mans qualities without at the same
time describing his other qualities
With this introduction, rather pom
derous I fear. venture to describe as
see 1t trait in Mr.. Roosevelt which
has the effect Of taking America in
the direction Of dictatorship.
Yearns to Be "Tops"
1t is not that Mr.. Roosevelt likes
1t is rather-if you grasp the distinc-
tion-that he likes to be the biggest
thing in sight, indeed the only big
thing in sight. He cannot endure hav-
ing another chanticleer on his hay
stack, nor can he endure that any
other haystack be as high as his. And
rnght there is where he pus.les toward
destruction Of the American form OF
government. For the American form
OF government contemplates that there
shall be three haystacks of exactly
equal height-the Congress, the presi-
dency and the Supreme Court.
Instinctively Mr.. Roosevelt's ego
drives him to try to elevate himself
above the other two. This drive by
Mr.. Roosevelt takes the country away
from the American form of govern
ment. 1t takes America in the direc-
tion Of one of the other forms OF
government that have arisen recently
in Europe. AS the departure from the
American system is not wholly con.
scious on Mr.. Roosevelt's part, neither
Is the movement toward one Of the new
European forms. Indeed, I doubt
whether Mr.. Roosevelt fully under.
stands the American form or the dis
tinction between 1t and the Fascist
and Communist forms.
LunGeS Two Ways.
Far from Mr.. Roosevelt taking Amer.
ica consciously toward fascism or con.
sciously toward communism, he i,
doing something different. He is tax.
ing America away from the American
form, taking us in a series of lunges
and plunges. Some of the lunges gt
toward communism, others toward fas.
cism.
There are some who say that Mr.
Roosevelt, surveying the haystacks
and dunghills in the world, and the
roosters who crow upon them, ex-
tends his vision to Europe and con.
templates Stain on his haystack Of
communism, Mussolini and Hitler