The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1938-01-06
NEW DEAL is ANCIENT

A most interesting nlSLOrlcal 1dCt, DIS
pointed out a number of times by this and
other newspapers, is that what has come
to be known as the new deal in this coun-
try is not new. More than two thousand
years ago in the Roman empire the pres
ent course of the new deal in this country
was almost exactly parallelled by the
Latins.
The Times-News does not claim the
credit for being the first newspaper in this
country to note this historical fact, but this
newspaper did make mention of the fact
before seeing similar statements in other
newspapers. Credit for the discovery of
the similarity of the American new deal
! and the old Roman new DEAL however, as
far as we are concerned, should go to the
late Prof T. w. Valentine, who first di-
, rected the attention of The Times-News to
! the record of Rome's efforts to revise the
! laws of economics by the new deal route.
As is commonly known here, Prof. Val
, entine was an accomplished Latin scholar
j and teacher and was more familiar with
the history of ancient Rome than the aver
age citizen of today is with the history of
, his own country He noted the similarity
, of present day American new deal expert
! ments to the course of the rulers of i'm
perial Rome over long period of time, A
,, detailed study of the matter revealed strik-
! ing facts in connection with the expert
, ments of the Latins and the part played
by the Roman new deal in placing imperial
! Rome in a position where it became easy
! prey for invading barbarians
These references TO reading matter ap-
; pearing in The Times-News several years
ago, when our American new deal was
young-in fact, about the time the NRA
was in full flower-are prompted by an
article in The Asheville Citizen, written by
a newspaper contributor, Raymond Clap
per. ~
From Clapper's article we quote some
paragraphs which afford highly interest
ing sidelights on the Roman new deal and
bring the subject down to today. The Clap
per article says in part: -. &c.. ... :.
Recently saw an article recitfng the simlari-
ties between many Roosevelt experiments and those
which had been tried in ancient Rome
"Over period of some 400 years various rulers
tried many tricks. We find resettlement admin
istration, direct relief, the ever-normal granary
PWA road building programs, debt moratoriums
the soldier bonus, deflation and initiation govern
ment loans to banks in the Roman version of RFC
and an ancient Hole. Wage and price controls
were introduced under primitive MIRA. All kinds
of taxes were experimental with and none was
ever found that the taxpayers liked So on, until
everything collapsed in heap and the barbarians
. moved in.
"The article was the result of long research by
Henry Haskell, editor Of the Kansas City STAR who
reached the conclusion that many of these policies
contributed to the ultimate crash of the Roman
Empire. Capitalization of power in paternaistic
government sapped social responsibility and blunt
ed initiatives. Indiscriminate relief pauperized
thousands who came to believe that they could get
something for nothing. A continuously unbalanced
budget and rising taxes strangled business Some
of these policies tended to mitigate distress and
! help Rome through emergencies, but they did not
meet the fundamental problem of providing gen.
orally prosperous society with fair minimum stand
ards of living"