The Washington times., 1938-01-04
"That Damn DemagOgue
Is At It Again"


i plenty of them public Spirited non-economic
rovaist business people, President Roosevelt's mes
sage delivered personally to Congress yesterday.
A domacoguc is a rabble rouser; politician who
appeals to prciudices, hates and fears to gain
his own ends. Perhaps there is some justice IN the
claim that President Roosevelt is demagogue.
However. it is fair to point out that nowadays you
can run a government in only one of two ways. You
can control the majority of the votes in the country,
or you can control the majority of the guns, putting
them in the hands of hardboied youngsters doled up
in shirts Of some special color By and large the
ballot method is better than the gun method.
If a governments head can't maintain control of
the majority of the votes OR the guns, he doesn't last
LONG as head Of the government Mr.. Hoover, for
example was no demagoguo whatever else he may
have been.
In holding his majority popular support and reach
ing out for more of it, President Roosevelt to
be doing pretty well.
1L.oo rh;.Jo He used to talk about one third of
the nation as being short food
VI N0ttO" clothes and shelter Yesterday he
talked about these three thirds-the farm third the
labor third and service and professional third, which
would include railway and truck workers, lawyers,
DOCTORS bankers store clerks capitalists brokers, job
bers, etc, etc.
The President said he was for the farm third and
the labor third of the people, because he believes their
prosperity is the foundation of the prosperity Of all Of
us. Then he went on ange-and very persuasively,
thought-for the support Of large numbers of peo
pie in the third third; small bankers, small business
white collar workers, and The only element
in the population that the President isn't angling for
is the economic royalis element that he knows he can't
get anyway.
But the way he angles for these various elements is
not charged, by preaching Qnsound economies. The
President basic economic beliefs sound,
Forms-Wooes- vinced, They the same
nomic beliefs that we ourselves
C"'" AuOOT have entertained all through
Roosevet's term and all through Hoovers as we'll.
The trouble has been maIdistrbution of wealth and
low purchasing power Of the masses
We sell 90 per cent Of production in our own
huge domestic market. If devise ways and
means of keeping the masses supplied with money to
take the output of farm and factory we can stay on an
economic keel If can't we can look for the old
weary cycle of boom-and-bust, world without end
The Administration proposes three main lines Of
attack on this problem. 1t wants modified and i'm
proved AAA enacted, so that the farmers can avoid
killing their own buying power by producing too
much. 1t wants the wagesand-h d-hours bill enacted to
revive the workable features of the NRA-under which
we did spread work. did make more Jobs and thus
did increase mass buying power
Though the President was too polite to say so spec
tcay the fact is that the Southern bloc in Congress is
South
ern employers can get labor at cutthroat rates as
things are now; Southern communities can seduce
Northern industries southward with promises of cheap
spineess labor
1he majority Of Southern employers seem unable to
see beyond their payrolls, and comprehend the
TACT that If they paid their labor $6 for 4Ohour
week instead of $S OF $40 for ftysix or sixty hours
they as well as their communities would be better off,
And the Administration wants child labor abolished
via the proposed Child Labor Amendment-an obvious
short cut to perhaps 100000 more Jobs for adult
workers.
All this has been said often that it doesnt It sound
as dramatic as it used to- doesnt strike fire in neone
minds as 1t did when it first promulgated by Mr.
Roosevelt and his cohorts But as true as it always
was Probably people were thunderstruck the first
time some wlseacre remarked, Honesty is the best
policy, saying which exctes no one now
On March a. 1888, the people listened to Roosevelt
as to Messiah. Now we believe most of them listen
to him as to man Of vast experience and much COM
mon sense. The rest hate his quits
From ew YokDa