Evening star., 1938-01-29
Fright iggh Up Their Alley"
Business Recession Would Not Be Calamity for Those
Who Desire Overthrow of Capitalism.

Roosevelt does not fully grasp the dis
tinction between an individualBt Or
der Of society and q collectivist one,
and does not fully understand that
the two are mutually incompatible.
Going Back Impossible.
In consequence, some Of the presi-
dents steps are AZ firmly Individuals
tic as II they came from the most
orthodox economic Tory. while others
OF his proposals are such that II they
were adopted, the individualistic sys-
tenn could not survive 1t Is said the
President is not familiar with that
natural law Of social change which de-
crees that a first step toward coll
lectivism makes the second step in
evitable, and the second makes the
third inevitable. until going back Is
impossible. If Mr.. Roosevelt does not
know this law, or sense it, there are
others In the same situation; indeed
the number who understand 1t is COM
paratively small.
This view about Mr.. Roosevelt Is
described in a penetrating way, in an
editorial in the Baltimore Sun:
by this time everybody should un-
derstand that the President Is able to
fall quite innocently into these con-
tradictions about economic matters.
Mr.. Roosevelt has much Of the artist
in his makeup. In the discharge Of
his duties as q statesman he sees
visions and dreams dreams. He also
commands the technique Of an artist
in the presentation Of his visions and
his dreams. But he is no economist,
no industrialist, no anything Of the
sort. If he lives to be the oldest man
who ever trod this earth, he will never
have a true understanding of any
system Of economics or of the tech
niques Of industry and trade. His
Somersaults. now too numerous to at
tempt to record, are not due to in
sincerity. They are due to superficial
tiles in understanding, complicated by
self-confldence which approaches sub
Unity
Right Up Their Alley"
If there are, among the Presidents s
advisers, collectivists who take ad-
vantage of his economic innocence.
that fact would have disturbing sig
nif1cance at this time To any one
who wants to get rid of capitalism.
and understands the technique of revo-
luton without overt violence one Of
the best possible stratagems would be
to make capitalism unavoidable. To
persons having this point Of view, the
present business recession would not be
a calamity-quite the contrary, it
would be right up their alley"
Such persons would not want busi-
ness to recover. they would want it
to grow worse. If they are forthrightly
intent upon getting rid OF capitalism.
they would recommend steps that
would make capitalism impossible to
operate. Even If their thought is short
OF deliberate purpose, If they merely
think that capitalism is doomed any,
how and that there is no harm in
giving it a push along the downward
path, they would in that case. even
unconsciously perhaps. recommend the
steps that would lead to capitalism's
death. If they are secretly Machiavel-
llan-as Gen. johnson and George
Peek and others say they are-their
technique would be not to attempt the
death Of capitalism by any one blow,
but rather to set up subtly a group Of
separate mechanisms, of which no one
alone would be fatal to capitalism
but the sum Of which would result in
slow but certain strangulation.
Copyright. 1889