The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1938-04-28

Where? ture is SO dis
turbed; the course
is so uncertain; the future is so in
definite, that I must confess my in
ability to properly appraise and re-
port on the situation. You will re-
member President Roosevelt once
wrote a book which bore the title,
ION Our Way" I guess that is cor
rect as it applies to the national
government now; only can not fig
ure out what the way is or where
we are going.
To explain in some detail what
my personal problem is, let me say
that before I write each week, I
have canvassed many, many peo-
pies opinions and have obtained the
facts that are necessary for the dis
cussion which l undertake. There
has been no change in my method
of work. Yet, I find myself ten
days after Mr.. Roosevelt has an
nounced his new and larger spend
ing program totally unable to get
heads or tails of the story. That is
to say, have found both the heads
and the tails but none of the heads
or the tails seem to be from the
same carcasses. They don't fit.
So, therefore, I must write that I
have found nobody who has been
able to tell me where we are going.
I listened to Mr.. Roosevelt's radio
speech and read his message to con-
gress about the 3,012, 600, 900 which
he proposes to spend to. stop the
depression; I talked with officials of
the Treasury and members of the
federal reserve board of governors
about the billion and a half of idle
gold that is to be made "active"
again, and I have looked into the
program by the Reconstruction FL
nance corporation which is prepared
to loan almost two billions to COM
merce and industry. There is so
much activity about it, among the
executive departments, that it seems
something must come of it. There
is activity at the capitol, too, but it
is in the nature of a row over the
question whether all of this spending
will do any good.
The one tangible thing evident
around the capitol is that perhaps
40 per cent of the representatives
and senators have been left rather
cold by the idea of a great new
spending program. Somehow, they
look back on the previous pump
printing operations and they tell me
that the pump was primed by a
total of about eight billion dollars
without causing the water to flow
freely as a good, streamlined New
Deal pump ought to work. These
things they are saying in commit
tee consideration of the various
phases of the new program by which
the President expects to bring back
prosperity-or, at least, by which he
hopes to check the depression.
There is a depression now. That
may not be news particularly, but
it is now official. It was a "re-
cession" for some seven or eight
months, according to all official pro-
nouncements, but now that soft
word has grown claws and it has be-
come bold, bad depression. It is
too bad that the depression had to
come just when congressional cleo
tons lay ahead. Of course, there
can be no connection between the
spending campaign and the cleo
tionsl Not being able to analyze the
situation-a fact admitted at the
start-I naturally would be the last
to say that retention of house or
senate seats is as important as pro-
viding funds for relief of the desti-
tute, loans or grants to states, cit
les, counties or businesses that
might otherwise find votes against
New Deal candidates. We must for
get that phase.
Now, obviously, being one who is
unable to understand what is going
, on, what the plans
wa H are if it is planned
Work NoU? that way, should
wait and see what
will come out of the pump this time.
But I am impatient. l am rather
cynical, too. Whenever these things
have failed to work once, natural
ly have to be shown why they failed
once and will work the second or
the third or the fourth time they
are tried. Around many of the New
Deal propaganda bureaus, however,
I have been assured that the vast
spending plan will work this time.
Indeed, it was intimated to me that
I was rather stupid, just plain dumb,
because I failed to understand.
Really, the assurances given me by
the press agents has had much more
conviction than Mr.. Roosevelt
speech.
One reader of my column wrote in
the other day to inquire whether
I believed all of this spending meant
we are headed into imitation. At the
moment, I am not much alarmed
about that. All of the markings for a
fine infationary period are avail
able. I mean that if congress were
to be stampeded by the confusion
that I have mentioned, there could
be regular flood of printing-press
money. Congress, however, is not
going to be stampeded. The senti.
ment is too evenly divided for and
against the idea of spending our
way back to prosperity. There are
individuals in congress who actu.
ally think that the public debt OF
Norman H. Davis Is Head