Evening star., 1942-10-04

October l, the deadline set by the
President for congressional authorize
tion of effective power to curb imitation,
Is past. But public confusion in regard
to this basic problem is even more con-
founded than at the time of Mr. Roose-
= velt's Labor Day message. More dra-
matte war news can no longer obscure
the first-class crisis which is shaping up
on the domestic front.
The superficial issue is merely the
percentage of an arbitrary parity at
which ceilings on the prices of farm
products should be flied. The utter arti-
ficiality of this bone of contention alone
indicates that the actual difficulty is
something far more fundamental. The
particular technicality on which Con-
gress and the President may reach
parting of the ways is immaterial by
contrast with the real forces operating to
produce an intolerable deadlock
What the American people are now
witnessing is no ordinary political dis
pute. of the type customary In the weeks
preceding national election. Commen-
tators who write off the struggle in
Washington in terms of politics are doing
less than nothing to clarity the problem.
Indeed there is cause for alarm at the
general failure to examine and analyze
in realistic terms the factors which, in
dependent of party alignments, are pro-
ducing tangle which may eventually
require the most drastic action for it's
solution.
None Is Wholly to Blame.
Neither the President, nor the men,
bers of the farm bloc, nor any other
Individual or group is personally respon-
sible for the emergence of the present
crisis Consequently it will not be re-
solved, but only worsened. by attempting
to allocate blame to this or that quarter.
What seems to be happening is an in
crease of tension, to the breaking point,
of strains which some foresaw as in
evitable as the demands OF total war
come into headlong conflict with the
traditional ideas, concepts and institu-
items OF the American people.
We shall understand the problem bet
ter If We are frank to admit that our
system of Government is not based OH
co-operc ion and synthesis. On the con-
trary it is based. for better or worse, on
the sharply contrasting conditions Of
ompetition and balance.
There is nothing in our meticulously
detailed Constitution; there is nothing
In our economic organization; there is
nothing in our social structure which
places paramount emphasis on individual
or group sacrifices for the national well
fare. Since July 4, 1776, the active as
well as the tacit American assumption
has been that the interests of our par
ticular society are best forwarded by in
dividual pep and push, for individual
advancement For more than century
and half we have sedulously preached
the establishment Of personal rights"
rather than the acceptance Of social re-
spons!bilities.
The natural result of this doctrine, as
modem conditions replaced those of the
18th century, has been the development
of group or bloc pressures. All of these,
whether they take the form of the Amer
lean Legion, Townsend Plan Clubs. AFL,
C1O, NAM, or farm lobby, have single
and 100 per cent American underlying
objective. It is to strengthen tho in
dividual's initiative in the assertion Of his
rights" by associating him with other