The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-05-04
Shades Of 1880! Business Is Asked Again To Beat The Drums
 Of Recovery

Washington, May 4-PromiSes of cooperation from business in it's so- called five billion dollar recovery program are exactly what the ad- ministration needs most. Many gov- ernment officials, even though they believe in Spending" gravely doubt if the program by itself can make dent in the depression.
 Analysis of the spending-lend- ing plan has shown it's pump priming value to be problematical and it's reception has been a mix ture of mild approval, apathy and opposition. What the program needs is new business psychology which would result in turning loose a lot of private capital in anticipation of better times-and that is sadly lacking. So the ad- ministration has been trying like the dickens to get some big busi- ness men to beat the drums.
 It's quite reminiscent of the 1929- 30 months when President Hoover was getting all the big business men down here to do exactly the same thing. MT. Hoover had a far easier time getting the tycoons to express confidence" than MT. Roosevelt is having and, on the other hand, F. D. R. has pump-priming scheme which Hoover didn't have. Other pronounced differences in the two situations are obvious and needn't be detailed, although it may be noted that some New Deal cynics believe hopeful expressions of CO., operation and confidence by busi- ness leaders would be no more val uable than they were in 1880.
 Three Facts
 Insofar as the present Roosevelt program is concerned it is now ob- Vious that: There will be no im- mediate rise in the flow of federal spending. 2.-The degree of speed with which new spending and lend- ing money can be put into the sys- tenn is an uncertain factor. 3.-Even the most optimistic advocates of the program aren't sure that the amount of such money will be enough to lift the country above current de- pression levels.
 So you can see why there's a fervent Washington desire to have business men stop saying "Oh," yeah?" and start crying something like "Clap hands, here comes Charlie!"
 Optimists hope the New Deal can get to pushing out S150,000,- OG0 a month of new money by election time. But since WPA eX- pcnditures will represent no real increase and REC loans always rave been made cOnservatively, the big difference between the present government outlay and that of few months hence must be found in about S1,5O0, ,000, GOO of PWA grant and loan money which Secretary Ickes expects to have available.
 Ickes hopes to start pushing this money out within three months and will make a terrific effort to fulfill those hopes and fool the skeptics. Anxious for Cooperation
 If the present level of business activity can be held through the summer, most of the more cagey administration economists will be satisfied. In that case, they assume business will receive some appre- ciable stimulus in the fall which will carry it above the recent level.
 But the country is going into the summer with some huge in dustrial inventories, they point out, and there have been no in- creases in employment yet to promise an offset to the usual summer slump.
 There are some critical wage situations where reductions threa- ten to reduce purchasing power further. So the economists also are anxious for a brand of busi- ness cooperation and confidence which will help stimulate business activity.
 The "spenders," pleased because Roosevelt finally came to agree with them that something must be done but pessimistic because the really new undiluted spending in his pro- gram amounted to little more than $500, 100000 of PWA grant money insist that any further decline in business can only be met by an intensification of the spending-lend- ing program.
 They are rather vague as to how to intensity" but some of their ideas may soon hatch.