Henderson daily dispatch., 1939-06-08
WEATHERCOCKS FOR EV'RY
WIND.
RAYMOND Moley Editorial il
NeWSWeek.

Once upon a time, there was an
appropriate vocabulary for economic
discussion, another for legal docu-
ments and still another for political
discourse. But that was in the old
days. and things have changed, you
know. Now the announcements from
Washington indicate that we have
new language-or, rather, a new
jargon the lawyers, politicians and
sociologists have whipped up in their
spare time-a jargon not apparent
ly designed to make the action OF
the Administration ineligible to it
SELF but to make its actions unin-
telligible to anyone else.
This interesting experiment seems
to have been inspired by Mr.. Thur
man Arnold of the Department of
Justice, homespun philosopher who
has written a book Mr. Arnold's
book pointed out that many of those
principles we regard as fundamentals
are actually parts of a folklore,
created by selfish people to protect
a selfish order of things. 1t said, fur
ther, that some of our words are
symbols Of facts that have ceased to
exist. And these truisms seem to
have burst upon the Washington
politico- -intellectuals with the force
of divine revelation. At any rate,
their restatement at a time when
rationalzations were sorely needed
to explain aWy a number of Admin
iStratiOn policies gone hayWire seems
to have set off really big idea So
began the process of undermining
the integrity of words and concepts
by changing their definitions
Radicals" have become "conser-
vatives." Government spending is
the prudent business of "investing'
for future monetary returns. A legal
guarantee of minimum wages is a
guarantee of increased purchasing
power. The risk takers of industry
are the gamblers on the future
(Which isn't so far-fetched, these
days.. From money already borrow
ed and spent will come bigger in
come in the future because our "na-
tional income will be greater tomor-
row than it is today"
Deficits, in any case, are not an
evil to be stunned, according to this
hocus-pocus, but a blessing to be
embraced For the only basis of pros
perity is government investment"
great enough to lift the national in
come to a point which will make tax
receipts cover the new level of ex-
penditure, or investment" When
our national income is $80,O0O,OOO,-
600, the income from present taxes
Will be great enough to meet the out
lays. And that, in itself, is part of
the proof that our national income
will be $4,000, 100000. There is, of
course, no suspicion that the inability
TO balance the budget, or even to
turn in the direction of balancing
the budget, has anything to do with
the inability to induce gamblers"
upon the future to hire people at
statutory minimum wages, when
these people are already at work for
the government at the same wages
The point is, you see, that under
the new dispensation the expendi-
lures Tor soil conservation, education.
pupllc health, battleships, lighthouses
ana INC like are aesets" Not operat-
lng expenses, but assets Not even in
tangible assets which return divi-
dends in social benefit or esthetic
pleasure, but assets which will pre-
sumably return dividends in cash or
IN taxable capacity. The expenditure
you made for the food you ate last
night is an asset: it permanently in
creased your ability TO pay your run
nlng expenses; and who knows but
what you might be able to borrow
money against your recipted bill from
the grocer's and butchers?
The breadth of the Administra-
tons Imagination goes even further
on this question of investment" "A
large part of the government debt
is offset by debts owed to the gov
ernment-loan- of any kinds made
on business basis by the RFC and
the Farm Credit Administration. for
instance, and are now being repaid
on schedule" the President told the
American Retail Federation the other
evening. These are loans to private
enterprise - some of them loans
which bankers had refused to make
some of them loans which the gov
ernments bank examiners were or
dering out of the banks, and some o.
them loans which the governmen
made for broad social ana ecOnCn
reasons with no Wholehearted eA