The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1938-01-13
"BiIPs'' Not
Happy

.
Developments of the last few weeks
have combined to make me pes
simist of the first water. l hope ]
am wrong; yet, present conditions
force the conclusion that this coun-
try faces a condition as serious as
that through which it passed in 1892
and 1888. There is no reason evil
dent to me why we should not face
the facts, discourse ing as they APP
pear.
So, let us consider some of the
things that have happened lately,
and some that are happening these
days. Only in that way, believe,
can we get correct understanding
OF this new depression which thou
sand government propagandists in
sist upon calling a recession"
Four months ago, industry began
to lay off men and women workers.
There was no market for the goods
they were manufacturing. The re-
duction in payrolls was necessary
to avoid bankruptcy. Nobody can
afford to pay workers if there is
no work to do. Dismissal of work
ers continued in an ever-growing
volume until on January l, the great
General Motors corporation laid off
something like $4,000 men at one
time and placed it's remaining 200,-
600 workers on a four-day week.
That action, while it appears sensa-
tional, was illustrative of what had
been going on during the four
months that I mentioned; it brought
public attention and political atten-
ton to focus, but it was sensa-
tional only because of the numbers.
It made an impression that dis
missal of a few or several hundred
here and there had failed to make
During this same period, prices
were undergoing natural and nor
NAL reaction. Some were up; some
were down. Altogether, they were
and are in topsy-turvy condition.
Government business analysts
smelled the mouse. They were
watching all of the trends that were
evident during those four months.
Those officials in high places and
charged with responsibility for ma
tional welfare were informed of
what was in prospect. But govern
ment propaganda continued to show
bright and smiling faces in the pic
ture. It won't last, they were say
ing in the written and spoken words.
1t is psychological condition, Pres
ident Roosevelt said-and thereby
made the same mistake that Presi-
dent Hoover made when he an
nounced that prosperity was just
around the corner in 1881. It is the
same old corner and it is the same
old prosperity, but apparently the
Roosevelt administration is going to
have just as much trouble finding
either the corner or the prosperity
as Mr.. Hoover did.
To get back to the sequence of
events: the time came when the re-
sponsible officials
More Trust had to say some
Rusfine thing by way of
admitting the ex-
istence of the depression "reces-
sion." Mr.. Roosevelt, it will be re-
called, went off on a fishing trip
around December l. He took with
him the brilliant and able young
Robert Jackson, of the Department
of Justice. Now, Mr.. Jackson's par
ticular ability lies in the direction of
breaking up trusts, monopolies, big
business combinations. Those of us
whose job it is to watch Washing
ton, thought we foresaw the next
move by the administration. We
have it now in full f1ower-a great
drive against all of those sinful
big business interests who simply
must be the folks responsible for the
depression. OF course, it should be
remembered at the same time that
there must be goat when poll
tics gets balled up, and big bust
ness again is the "goat" of the ad-
miniStration.
In consequence of the crash in
business, the collapse of the theories
of the long-haired crew that seeks
to remould America under the guise
of New Deal plans, and the general
running out of Democrats on the
New Deal leadership, the country is
now to be treated to another trust
busting drive comparable to that
conducted by the late Theodore
Roosevelt when he was Present.
Yes, big business can always be at
tackled, cajoled, threatened. 1t is
a proper stunt, nearly always re-
sorted to by politicians and others
who find themselves locked within
the meshes of their own fishnets.
Big business is the red herring that
the administration is trying to drag
across the trail. It is because the
administration is attempting to con-
ceal it's mistakes, and make people
forget them instead of doing con-
structive job that find myself de-
spondent in the early weeks of 1888.
The real tip-off to the drive on
big business was in the form of a
speech by Mr.. Jackson who said by
way of the radio that:
''The only way to insure rea-
sonably steady well-being for the ma
ton as a whole is for the govern
ment to act as an impartial over
seer of our industrial progress,
ready to call halt at all times on
monopolistic practices which threat
en- to throw our economy out of or
der"
That theory is basic with most of
the New Dealers. America must be
made responsive to the Washington
government. 1t is that theory to
which more and more business men,