The Washington times., 1938-09-06
The Forest and the Trees

l.
THE primary fights getting hotter and hotter in
preparation for the final grand blowoff election
day. which this year is Tuesday, November 8.
AS more and more discussion of the election issues is
heard it possible that fewer and fewer voters will
dersand those issues This is possible because most poll
tcians aim their appeals at
POHtICIdnS MAKE the voters emotions rather
Annonz tO Emotions than at their intelligence
The politicians are smart in
doing this but the result sometimes is anything except
smart voting the part of the voters
For what good it may do We'll sum up here the main
ISSUE as we see it, in these primaries and these elections
and in an unknown number of primaries and elections to
come We hope this summing up may help some voters
to distinguish the forest from the trees; to keep their
eyes on the whole great circle of American life rather
than get their eyes glued another small segment
of that circle.
The main issue all over the American lot, we believe,
is mass buying power and how to keep it up and going
If The Depression beginning in October, 1929, proved
anything, it proved this That
When masses healthy mass buying power is the
1u,t D,,,, key to prosperity in the American
economic and social setup.
The Depression about because mass buying power
shrunk and nobody knew how to keep from continuing
to shrink for several years after October, 1929.
Our machines were progressively able to produce
and more goods with less and less human labor Our
farmers had been geared high production by the
time demand and were being encouraged to keep it up
by the Federal Farm Boards lavish purchases of
farm products.
Results: Gut, spreading unemployment, caving farm
prices bank failures, creeping paralysis of whole
system of circulation of goods and money and services
President Roosevelt inaugurated March 4, 1885,
He called the bank holiday Immediately, to give the
try breathing spell. AS possible after that,
the New Deal began shaping up.
WnUt tne NeW The New Deal had-and has
non1 A;xoo ~ any number of parts: NRA,
AAA Wagner Labor Act, WPA,
PWA, bank deposit insurance SEC Social Security to
mention only few.
But the sum of all these parts the whole New Deal,
and is aimed at objective. That objective is
the stabiizng of buying power at such level
that the enough of production of
all kinds of goods to keep national wealth
tinuously in motion around the circle of prosperity
The election fights at bottom, between those who
think the New Deal is phony and those who think the
New Dealers have got something there which may lead
to eventual solution of our worst
What the Fight economic problems
Te All Ahn1If Southern Old Dealers, for ex-
ample firmly convinced
that it is best for the South to have lower wage scales
than the North, that Northern capital will keep
ing South They cannot will not that higher wages
in the South would increased mass buying power
in the South which in turn would mean more business
for these Southern Old Dealers
Many Northern or Western business man breads
raising wages in his plant because that would give his
competitors edge on him. He cannot will not see
that if rising floor be put under all wages and
sinking ceiling all working hours as to spread
work. all employers should benefit from increased bust
ness produced by increased mass buying power.
This is what the politicians are really fighting about
under all the fancy language with which they dress
up their appeals to the voters.
We think mass buying power is going to be the big
Issue in American elections until and unless the problem
Of continually increased buying power is handled
with considerable We hope the New Deal goes
winning most eections-because we believe that re-
turn of the Old Deal to power would mean national set
back at best and might bring about the end of American
democracy.
(From the News)