Evening star., 1941-05-09

perS, as IOllOWS.
"At the end of David Lawrence.
the last war President Wilson gave
back the vast war powers given him.
He returned them to Congress and
to the people. Railroads went back
to their owners. Controls over COM
munications were restored.
us that the plan and purpose of
today? If we get into this war, will
there ever be surrender of these
controls? Won't we become a Fas-
cist America? Thus this country
stands on the threshold of the most
far-reaching decision in its history.
1t involves not only the question of
peace or war. 1t involves the ques-
ton of whether private ownership
OF property is to survive, or whether
we are going to go totalitarian.'
New Usurpations.
Unfortunately, the present admin
istration has done very little to re-
move the distruSt which has grown
up relative to the use of its present
powers even though war has not
been declared. Scarcely week goes
by that there isn't some new
usurpation of power by the New
Deal bureaucracy. Instead of giving
assurance that the war emergency
would be conducted without class
conflict, the conservatives, who are
the managers of industry, have been
showed into the background, their
advice disregarded and a coterie of
New Dealers consisting OF Harry
Hopkins, Frances Perkins, Leon
Henderson. Sidney Hillman, Harold
Ickes, Attorney General Jackson
and Assistant Attorney General
Thurman Arnold are the principal
factors in the making of the eco
nomic policies of the Government.
The dollar-a-year men have been
given titles, but no authority, and
even William Knudsen is ignored.
For it was last December that he
cried out publicly against the
'blackout of Friday to Monday" in
the factories and only now in the
first week in May does the President
order the 24-hour and seven-day
week in machine tools.
Careless on Morale.
On top of the confusion caused
by the refusal of the President to
let the men of industry, who know
production, handle the job without
interference, the New Deal Supreme
Court has just issued a set of totali-
tartan rulings which completes the
cycle of administrative absolutism.
This sort of thing makes plenty of
irritating controversy even in nor
NAL times, but when it is super
imposed on the sores and wounds of
disunity at time of national crisis,
st is simply incredible that any
national leadership would be as
careless as this about national mo-
rale.
One reason there is not the en-
thusiasm there should be behind the
Presidents program is that he has
misconstrued last NovemberS elec-
ton returns. He thinks that by put
ting Secretaries Stimson and Knox,
and Wendell Willkie out in front in
the speech-making he gains Repub-
lican support. If he will analyze all
the reasons why such big vote was
cast against third term, he will
find that many people thought then,
as they do today, that the New Deal
would abuse another grant of power,
and unhappily the Republicans have
been given considerable corrobora-
tion of that fear since the last elec-
ton.
But there were many millions
who voted for third term because
of desire to continue Mr.. Roose-
velts leadership in the international
situation and who really were
against third term for the New
Deal on domestic questions. Today
these millions who want an as
sertive foreign policy and a sue
cessful defense program are COM
placently relying on Mr.. Roosevelt
to reconcile the factions so as to
get national unity. And he is not
doing it.
No Concessions Made.
In Britain, where the Conserva-
tives have been in power, the Labor
ties were taken into the govern
ment. Concessions were made. Over
here, where the laborites are in
power, no concessions have been
made TO the conservatives in the
interest of national unity.
The President is up against the
most difficult problems of his whole
career. He has tremendous re-
sponsibility. Those who wish to see
effective aid rendered to Britain
want him also to show tolerance
and breadth toward the opponents
of the New Deal. The simplest way
to do this would be to eliminate
from the top economic councils the
New Deal flavor which it has and
develop a nationalist government.
If added to this there were a gen.
uine effort to cut down the eX-
penses of bureaucracy and If the
New Dealers in key positions were
told by the President to adopt
bit of self-reStraint and to give up
at least for a year or so their
sadistic experiments in breaking
down the free enterprise system,
the Nation could be assured that
It had at the helm in Washington
not a wobbly Chamberlain, but a
;oI, C1,,Ircoi11