Evening star., 1937-10-30
CONTRASTS. AT WHITE HOUSE
Two Magazines Have Instalments Touching New Dealers
Which illuminate System-Neutrality Bill and Efforts
Keep Out of Wars.

Germ Of the White House staff is sd-
vertisement of New Deal aims.
He says Of the Executive Man
sion: Here is located the headquar-
ters Of the New Deal missionary work;
here is the source to which all bureau
Gratis turn for inspiration; here is the
inner chamber in which the schemes
for new America are hatched with
virtually no effort; here are situated
those publicity-minded persons who
analyze all propaganda campaigns In
advance"
Farther on he remarks: "The re-
suit Of ceaseless vigilance has been 10
make of the White House a small but
compact Federal propaganda bureau,
whose personnel. publicity activities
and political influence grow in the
same manner and at the same pace
as those OF the regular Federal estab-
lishments."
Mr.. High sees the White House per-
sonnel in much roster light, how
ever. He says, summing up his piece,
that the survival of the Presidents
counsellors is dependent upon their
ability to entertain, their cleverness
to converse, the usefulness of their
particular stock of knowledge, their
enthusiasm to go the way the Presi-
dent is going, their facility to adjust
themselves to his moods"
If it were a less dignif1ed person.
age-or a less democratic one-than
the President of the United States
whose staff was under discussion, IL
might be thought that Mr. High Is
telling us that the boys and girls at
1900 Pennsylvania avenue are just
happy crew OF yessers. But that
would, assuredly, be an unkind inter-
probation. The tone of all his articles
has been one of utmost good cheer.
1t is only by way of throwing their ex-
treme optimism into relief that the
reviewer places beside ii Mr.. Carroll's
sour summing up of the Rooseveltian
propaganda output.
In essence" he says. there is no
difference between such tactics en-
ployed in America and the tactics
employed abroad by Stain, Hitler and
Mussolini" Oh, how unkind! How
harsh and incorporated
/ BEFORE leaving consideration ol
Mr.. Carroll's article, however the
reviewer feels constrained TO mention
the point which he makes about thf
New Deals great stream of propa-
ganda-radio. magazine, motion pic
ture, press release sand the like. The
point is that it is largely illegal. He
quotes the United States Code in tive
passages to prove his point. One says
that no money appropriated by any
act shall be used for compensation
of any publicity expert unless specifi-
cally appropriated for that purpose"
And the other specifies that all print
ing, binding and blankbook work foI
all departments shall be done at the
Government Printing Office. That
these stipulations are not observed in
many agencies under the New Deal. he
fatty charges. He also charges that
the motive behind very great deal
of the Rooseveltian propaganda Is To
keep alive that spirit of class hatred
which, many writers believe. has been
the characteristic creation Of th1
present administration.
IN THE leading article in the Novem-
Der Atlantic Mr.. David l.. Conn
discusses the neutrality bill and con-
cludes that it is a far from workable
piece of legislation. AS he sees it.
the heart of the bill is in the "cash-
and-carry" provision. which permits
the United States to sell goods to
belligerent nations, provided that they
pay cash and carry away their pur-
chases in their own vessels.
All this means. says Mr.. Cohn. is
that we will sell to nations with effec-
/ tive navies and refuse to sell to ma
tions whose naval strength is low. He
! is scathing on the subject of the
justice of this proposition He is even
more scathing on the possibility that it
might work TO its designed end-which
is to keep us out of future wars, of
| course.
Our salvation, he says, Ties not in
| staying out OF wars. once they have
started. but in preventing wars from
starting. In the presence of
threatened war. however, we. the most
ingenious, inventive people In the
world, stand helpless and shivering.
We are like the figure in Dostoievski
who was condemned to Immortality
standing upon narrow ledge above
a bottomless abyss, unable to go for
ward or backward, fearful of falling.
naked, cold, forlorn and alone"
Hardly cheerful picture Of what
faces us. but one in which there seems
to be a certain reasonableness at
that.