The Ely miner., 1938-01-27

Dig ohots affairs in the fed
Consulted eral government
and the Roosevelt
administration. I wish I were pos
sessed Of sufficient wisdom to un-
dertake an analysis of them, as they
exist now, for it probably would be
helpful to all. But having no such
vast wisdom, I shall have to con-
tent myself with the service of re-
porting on several circumstances of
recent development and let it go at
that.
For several weeks now, we have
witnessed a steady stream of call
ers at the White House. There have
been some labor leaders but mostly
the list of callers whom the Presi-
dent invited were the greatest of
American industrialists, the "eco-
nomic royalists" whom Mr.. Roose-
welt has so roundly denounced from
time to time, or whenever it served
political purposes to attack them
publicly. The purposes of having
these men visit the President, as
announced at the White House, were
to consult and try to find ways and
means of checking the current de-
preston.
AS I said, these White House Wis
itors were the very economic roy
alists" whom Mr.. Roosevelt has at
tackled with such apparent satisfac-
tlon throughout the last five years.
Indeed, among their number were
some of the "sixty families" upon
whom Secretary Ickes of the Inte-
rlor department, and Robert H.
Jackson, trust busting assistant at
torney general, have been heaping
abuse as the folks who control
America. Anyone who will take the
trouble to review the President S
speeches and the more recent bar
rage of attacks by Messrs. Ickes
and Jackson cannot help wondering
if those men are crooks and if they
crush the common pee-pul," as
charged, why their advice can be
any good now.
NeXtly, it is hard to understand
why or how anything is to be gained
by consulting with men of that type
in serious effort to solve the prob
lens of the current depression and
set off dynamite under them at the
same time. That is what happened.
Mr.. Roosevelt announced with We
hemence at a press interview that
all holding companies "must CO."
They must be eliminated from
American economic life and at
once; there can be no liberation of
corporations that are organized to
hold the stock of other corporations,
ETC., etc. He has taken a definite
position on that before as regards
power companies and drove a bill
through congress to eliminate them.
This time, he wants to 60 much
further. Which is proper, if that be
his policy. But here is the peculiar
thing. Two hours after he made
his announcement, he had a dozen
men in conference who represented
the very thing he was denouncing
and was seeking their advice. It
seems paradoxical, to say the least.
On top of these conferences that
industrial captains to Washington at
the Presidents invitation, there is
to be noted an entire absence of any
administration action looking to re-
lease of business to do its part in
taking on unemployed workers. I
have talked to men in congress of
every shade of opinion and they are
1l1 <o
Presidents views. Their position is
that the President wants to take the
lead in mapping program and
most of them, / believe, will help
him carry it out. They feel also
that for them to start development
of a program of their own makes
them subject to White House criti-
cism if the legislation fails to meet
New Deal specifications. So they
simply wait!
In the meantime, the depression
has sunk deeper and deeper.
frankly believe that in some locali-
ties it is right now as bad as any
thing we saw in 1882. Business men
are frightened to death and will not
expand their businesses because of
the danger that they will lose every
thing they have, and individuals are
frightened and will not spend more
money than is absolutely necessary.
In other words, there is again a
lack of confidence that is appalling.
It seems to center on Mr.. Roose-
velt as it centered on Mr.. Hoover
in 1880 and 1881.
can judge the whole situation
only by attempting to compose the
observations that I gather from
countless conversations. If this con-
sensus be accurate, then it would
appear that current fears result
from an inability of anyone to know
what Mr.. Roosevelt will do next.
That is to say, the expressions
stressed statements that his poll
cies '1ack continuity" that he
changes overnight" that he sat
tacks business with one hand and
kicks it in the pants with one foot
and asks it to take the load off of
the government at the same time;"
that he takes advice "of a lot of
nincompoops on finances who can't
even balance their own household
budgets" that he won't let pri-
vate initiative do anything without
having a flock of government spies
on our trails" and so on. / could
supply fifty more from my notes,
but they would be of the same ten
or. And mind you! large per-
centage of these came from repre-
sentatives and senators in congress,
Democrats and RenIIhlicans alike