Evening star., 1938-01-30
By NC. r.

~OMETIAH ago Harpers Magazine
announced . pri1s competition
for essays on The American
~ Way" out Of the present eco
nomic and governmental muddle. In
the February issue, now on the stands,
appears the winning entrAnt. Its au-
thor Is Mr.. David Cushman Coyle
Three other pieces, representing points
Of view which contrast with Mr..
Coyle's, were also purchased out Of the
submitted manuscripts and will be
publAhed later.
Mr.. Coyle's essay is fairly long. It
is optimistic in tone and courageous,
and those are qualities which are
hcartening. to be sure. Yet 1t seems to
the reviewer that the piece in its en-
tirety contains little that Is definite. It
may be, Of course, that the subject Is
such vast one that no writer could be
definite about 1t In less than an ency-
clopedia-si1ed volume.
What Mr.. Coyle offers Is, In sum,
that America can solve her difficulties
without entering upon either of the
favored European methods-that Is,
without becoming communistic OF fas-
cistic. As he sees 1t, our chief source
Of trouble Is that we have allowed
big business" to develop to the detri-
ment of small business and agriculture,
and that, In its development. big buSi-
ness has made small business and agri-
culture dependent upon it, Big busi-
ness Is closely centralized and, as was
demonstrated in 1929, feels q blow in
all Its parts. AS long as small busi-
ness and agriculture depend on the
great centralized markets for much Of
their prosperity they naturally will
suffer with it.
The remedy Is not to do away with
the great business concerns, since cer-
tain forms Of enterprise require vast
size, but to control their operations 50
that they do not imperil the rest Of
the country. The safety Of much Of
the countrys prosperity lies in a
loosely organized method of adminis-
tration and Is endangered by central
ization. Indeed, centralization is likely
to be the destroying force, II carried to
extremes.
So says Mr.. Coyle, anyway. Walter
Lippman said much the same thing in
his book The Good Society,"" Both
men want to preserve our traditional
urge toward personal liberty; both re-
gard regimentation and the "cog in the
machine" type of organization with
unqualified dislike. 1t is agreeable to
find SO sane viewpoint being given
the honor which Harpers has be-
slowed upon Mr.. Coyle's essay.
IHE leading article in the Febru-
ary American Mercury is a long
study Of the National Labor Relations
Board, written by Harold Lord Varney.
1t is called The Case Against the
Labor Board" and subtitled "An Ex-
pose Of Industrial Dictatorship" and
thus you have its bias. Mr.. Varney
does not love the Labor Board even
little bit. And no more does he love
the Wagner Act OF which the Board
is the instrument.
He gives considerable portion Of
his study to demonstrating, by quoting
actual decisions of the Board, that its
present personnel is communistic in
personal politics and guilty Of using
ofdcial position to further communis-
tic ends. He charges the three men,
bers with sympathies toward the Left
and with association with the c. I. O..
and goes on to try to show that these
sympathies and associations, rather
than considerations Of justice, have
Influenced Board decisions to q very
great extent. The case, as he presents
it, sounds reasonably convincing, too.
OF the subordinate members Of the
board he writes that they reflect
the peculiar dSqualifications OF the
men at the top. Generally speaking,
the key employees comprise two al
most invariable types: Q) Convinced
Leftists Of all shadings Of Radicalism;
t2) young and ambitious lawyers Of
little court experience. who, without
any clearly defined Radical convic-
tions, are opportunist enough to go
along with the prevailing ANTITRUST
ness attitude Of their superiorS."
Among the abuses Of authority with
which Mr.. Varney charges the Board
are annulment OF union contracts
when the union in question was q
member Of the American Federation
of Labor and in rivalry with the
favored c. I. o.; juggling employe
elections in favor Of the c. I. O.; sup
pressing testimony favorable to en-
ployers or to the American Federation
Of Labor, and unfair conduct of hear
ings. He says that not all board de-
cisions have been marred by such
practices, but that under the present
regime in Washington . sufficient
number Of Leftist sympsthizers and
c. I. o. partisans have penetrated the
key positions in the organization to
give their color to the whole staff"
Criticizing the Wagner Act itself,
Mr.. Varney points out that it "speci-
fies unfair labor practices by the en-
Little Entente states, details Of an in
innate luncheon with Queen Marie
and 1ntnrv{ouvs IayftI, |ior roro1