The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-08-14
The Middle Road


slogans TO analysis OF ideas, move
ments and purposes. They will
fight for a stereotyped phrase
which defies definition. An extra
ordinarily fanciful phrase which
Is going the rounds in this cam
paign is The Middle Road"
Sometimes, II is called THE Mid
die Way" or THE Middle OF the
Road" Whichever way you say II,
1t is cabbage. The middle OF what
road? The middle between what !
The moment one OF these slo.
gans meets a definition, II general
ly collapses, because those who
invent them deal only in happy
phrases; they are good at head
line writing, at captions, at gags,
at punch lines. but not at thinking
out ideas or their implications. And
what we should demand, in this
campaign, from both sides, are
clearcut statements OF plan and
purpose and fewer Of these punch
lines. Therefore, let us analyze
what can possibly be meant by all
this middle business.
The middle is an equi-distance
between two extremities. Before
II is possible to determine the mid
die IL is necessary to know pre-
cisely what the extemities are.
For instance, 18th century liberal
ism was a centrist tendency be.
tween Toryism and Socialism, but
at no time has II ever been pos
sible with precision to define
either Toryism or Socialism.
Therefore, liberalism Topped all
over the road. In fact. from this
perspective, the politics of the
18th and early goth centuries twist
ed and curved like Tobacco Road.
There was never a street called
straight in politics or economics.
Today, l suppose that those who
talk of the Middle Road mean
something that lies between pre-
Depression capitalism and the New
Deal. Their difficulty is that pre-
Depression capitalism contained
within itself many non-capitalistic
elements and the New Deal is In
definable, changing its form and
practice every time a new group
becomes dominant among Mr..
Roosevelt's followers. Hugh John,
son used TO number the New Deal
the first. second and third New
Deal. Were he alive today, I won
der how many numbers he would
have reached.
To speak OF a middle way be-
tween those extremities Is to use
nonsense language because hav.
ing no definable extremities, how
can anyone discover the middle?
For instance, what Is the middle
between Herbert Hoover's RFC
and the New Deals RFC? Both
are departures from private con-
troll OF the movement of capital.
Yet Herbert Hoover initiated the
RFC and the New Deal developed
1t along the very lines that Hoov.
er conceived. In fact, the found.
Ing of our Federal Reserve Sys-
tenn began the trend away from
private control of the formation
and movement OF capital. Yet,
the Federal Reserve System was
inaugurated by capitalists, was or
iginally operated by Wall Street
bankers and is now completely
dominated by government. II IA
a center Of state power and it's
philosophy Is clearly socialistic In
in the sense that it represents a
regulation OF the most proper func-
tons Of private enterprise.
/ am not suggesting the abolition
OF the RFC or OF the Federal Re-
serve System or Of the SEC. l
am merely pointing out that there
Is no middle of the road. This
country has never, in it's entire
history, practiced what many easy.
thinking professors like TO call
laissez-faire. The Alexander Ham.
ilton tariff was a step away from
any concept OF laissez-faire. That
was how we started and we have
continued to pursue that course
since; that is. we have always EN-.
ployed agencies OF government for
regulation, expanding or contract.
ing them as II suited our purposes
or met our necessities. We estab.
lished and dissolved a Bank OF
the United States: we established