Evening star., 1937-11-28
By NC. K.

career OF the Postmaster General to
mockery. In its December issue II
takes Secretary Perkins for its target
In an article called Madame La Sec
retary Perkins" it charges the Secre-
tary Of Labor with diplomatic blum
ders, hysteria and obvious ineptitude.
It further states that Miss Perkins has
remained In ONCE only because Mrs
Roosevelt and other fiery feminists are
loath to admit to male politicians that
the first, and perhaps last, woman
Cabinet member has been a sorry fail
ure" And to this nat statement II
adds, DR. Roosevelt in his omniscient
| wisdom has chosen Madame Perkins
to be his figurehead, while John Lewis
who has no illusions about the iden-
tity Of Labor's dictator, makes Labor
history"
Whatever may be the merits of these
contentious, feminists at least can take
| no feministic stand on them. The
| author is woman. Her name Is Helen
r. Whitley.
THE leading article in the Mercury
for the month should also have in.
terest for Washingtonians 1t Is the
last written words of Ogden L. Mills
former Secretary Of the Treasury. Mr.
Mills took for his subject the recently
passed social security legislation. and
his attitude toward it may be guessed
from the title which he gave his piece
He called it The Social-Security
| Hoax"
The theme of his criticism is to be
found in the following words about the
| Old-Age Reserve Account. into which
the collections from wages and pay
rolls are supposed to 60.
THE Reserve" wrote Mr. Mills, "is a
clever scheme which enables the pres
ent Administration to finance current
| expenditures with wage-and-pay-roll
| taxes, while leading the gullible wage
earners Of this country to believe that
they are acquiring additional security
He continues, 1T means that the
sinking-fund law becomes dead let
| ter. AS matter of fact, in plain vio-
| latlon Of the statute the Admins
tration has already suspended opera
ton of the sinking fund. BY the end
OF this fiscal year, sinking fund debt
retirements will be sl,200,000,000 in
arrears.
In the second place. this
means that capital assets which should
be applied to debt reduction are being
currently dissipated.
1T means that trust funds are being
applied to ordinary expenditures.
1T means that future liabilities are
piling up without any increased ability
to meet them, or any reduction Of the
debt in the hands of the public.
1T means an indefinite postpone
ment of an honestly balanced budget
-. And this means, in turn. that
pensioners will be paid their annuities
in dollars Of much less purchasing
power than those they contributed In
taxes"
Well, there it is Mr.. Mills opinion,
surely, is not one TO be taken lightly.
He was not writing here as a political
thinker but as an economist That he
| had some sympathy with New Deal
| aims is apparent from his final sum-
ming up:
"As view the New Deal program, -
he wrote. ". two main purposes
stand out: first. determination te
extend and perpetuate the power OF
this Administration: and, second, Q
perfectly sincere desire to bring to the
people better life. The first objective
is pursued with ingenuity, skill, single.
ness of purpose and answering tenac.
ity. The attainment of the second oh.
| jective is frustrated by bad economics
confusion Of ideas. sloppy administra.
ton, and-above abby constant sub.
ordination to the first and dominating
purpose.
The Old Age Insurance Law Is just
another example Of this inner conflict
THE reviewer some time ago decided
that she could not cope in these
columns with the turgid solemnity OF
the two weeklies which are generally
known to America as professionally
liberal" They would be, of course
the New Republic and the Nation
| She gave out on the New Republic
when Comrade Edmund Wilson was
writing about that attack OF appendi-
citis-or was it typhoid fever?-which
he had in Soviet hospital. After
several weeks she got tired Of his
| SvrnnfnrNR That
ago. and no doubt the citizen has re-
covered fully by now. But the New
Republic never did.
The Nation remained on her list
somewhat longer. Somehow she found
it hard to give the Nation up. Senti-
ment would assert itself! She came
you comprehend, from a liberal family
she had a liberal education. she was
taught that, above all things, her
neighbor's opinion was sacred and
must be sacred If she was to be able
to regard her own in the same way
But this liberalism, you will perceive
was not professional" 1t was the
plain or garden variety which carries
with it the understanding that no man
| Is able to make a profession of his
ideals. that to take money for ideals Is
incompatible with having them. that
ideals are to be used in every ordinary
transaction Of ordinary life and not
merely to be worked at in hours. as a
job. Well. early in her childhood the
Nation, by name rather than by read
ing. got tangled up in this training OF
hers, and, automatically, she retained
an affection for the quondam liberal
sheet.
But when she began to have it as
part Of her Job to read the Nation
weekly, she found her old affection
getting pretty tired. It was not the
content Of the Nations ideas that
bothered her; she retained her belief
you see, that we have . free country
with attendant freedom Of the press
and liberty Of conscience. No. it was
the deadly lack of humor, the pom
tifical solemnity of that journal which
first made the going hard. And after
| that it was the steady persiStAnce with