The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1938-07-21

- Sl0u tlldI Ohld-
homa appreciates that NATURAL
resources are NATIONAL re-
sources. All of us have to
make our plans from the national
point of view We put a ma
tional shoulder under national
problems. ;"
Then again, in Texas, getting
deeper into the details of his
economics:
g. Agriculture cannot be
thought of or worked for just on
state lines. Every crop on every
farm in every county of every
state has a definite tie-in and re-
lationship with similar crops in
other states. =. Cotton in the
south and southwest is clearly
Connected with the economics of
the wheat grower in the Dakotas,
the cattlemen of Wyoming, and
the potato grower of Maine.
Where one of these people has a
poor year, his lack of prosperity
hits all the others . the people
of the Lone Star state are Coop
Grating in this way we will
get away from spotty prosperity
and work toward universal
prosperity -. :"
For National Remedies
From Kentucky to Texas and
on westward, no presidential
speech failed to hammer home in
elemental language the idea that
the only way to solve our prob
lens is to, forget state lines, and
offer national remedies for ma
tional problems. It's another way
of saying you're going to continue
to have trouble if you don't quit
thinking in local terms.
If you have an economist with
a capital e among your ac-
quaintance, he may have talked
with you about economic doctrin-
es based on centralized control of
economic processes. Some people
who use impressive words can
tell you the pros and cons of in
tegrated political economy.
But selling the public an eco
nomic theory is hard job, even
for so accomplished a speaker as
President Roosevelt.
For, back in history, deeper
than American reverence for
Washington and Jefferson, is the
doctrine of states rights. The
Civil war was fought over one
phase of that issue.
It's Different Now
Barring wars or depreSsiOnS,
John Citizen has always impress
ed home obligations on the con-
greSsmen who come to Washing
ton. The congressman who fails
to get his full need of postoffices,
dams, highways and the like, had
better watch out on next election
day.
But, now the theory is that fed
eral expenditures are no longer
controlled by state and local
political organizations. WPA is
the outstanding example of
spending adjusted completely for
each state from Washington. And
more important, every Significant
liberal law placed on the statute
books, with Roosevelt approval,
has a tendency to ignore purely
state and local interests.
For instance, take the Wagner
labor act, and its newer counter
part, the wages and hours bills.
Both are gradually superseding
state supervision of the relations
between employers and employ
eeS.
The Presidents argument for
national thinking on national
problems may be right or it may
be wrong. Certainly the federal
government was headed in that
direction for many years before
FDR went to the White House.
How far the process should go is
an endless argument only time
will answer
1t is more significant just now
however, that the head of the ma
ton is stating a complicated
economic theory for John Citizen
in simpler, more understandable
terms than John Citizen ever