Evening star., 1938-04-15
The Recovery Message.

President Roosevelts recovery mes
sage to Congress is not convincing. Nor
is it very clear. An effort is made to
show that not a great deal of new
money will be needed to put the pro-
gram in full operation. But when all
is said and done, approximately s5,O0O,-
100000 will be required. 1t matters not
whether a large part of this sum is to
be loaned to private business and the
States and lesser divisions of Govern
ment eventually to be repaid. The
money must be found during the COM
ing fiscal year. 1t will throw the Gov
ernment budget further out of balance,
probably, than it has been at any other
time in the Roosevelt administration.
That is saying a great deal
The Chief Executive definitely recog-
nizes the new depression. He seeks to
explain it on the ground that bad prac-
tices of business and fear brought
about too great production. Combined
with too great an increase in prices, this
overproduction resulted finally in a
downward spiral of business in this
country.
Conditions in the Nation however, are
far better and different, the President
insists, than they were in 1882. when his
administration took charge. The infer
ence is that the President will have an
easier time now pulling the country out
OF morass than he had when he first
came to the White House He fails to
tell the country, however, that the people
are staggering under tax load today
that Is vastly heavier than in 1892. He
1nfers that it makes little difference
whether the public debt is S25 900 900 900
or 10000 900 although the interest
charges on s15,ooo,O 100000 annually at
rs per cent are s37500O,OOO.
Supporters OF the President are COM
menting that the message is "concilia-
tory in tone; that he indicated the ad-
ministra ton is asking no further busi-
ness legislation, and that it has not
asked much. He fails in his message to
say anything about T. v. A. and what
his public utility policies have been doing
to very large sector of business, how
ever. 1t is true that in his present mes
sage he makes no mention of economic
royalists' or other wrongdoers For that
the country should be grateful.
Furthermore, the President calls for
~self-restraint," for an abandonment Of
~hate" and for dispassionate discussion
OF the problems that confront the coun-
try. Coming from the author OF the
now famous Madison Square Garden
speech, delivered in the fall of 1886
this is concession. The President is to
be applauded for this attitude There
Is entirely too much hate abroad in
this country today Unfortunately it
has been fostered by his own admins
tration. Perhaps the President has come
to see that the tide of hate may change
IN the public mind; that the hater may
ultimately become the hated
His appeal to the whole country to
aid in this depression is admirable. There
should be no holding back on the part
OF any one group, whether it be business
or labor or the politicians. However, the
remedy that the President now presents
spending and more spending of public
funds, which exist only through loans
and which must come out of the people
In taXes-has been proved a failure al
ready. What is needed. as the President
rightly says is for business to get under
way. 1t will, if the administration will
let it.
There is no new remedy proposed
although the program is diffused and
covers a wider field all at once. The
President still sticks to his reforms for
business ana comments upon the gains
made by the country through his legisla-
tive program, which he says must be
consnlidated and preserved.