The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-12-18
Mr.. Clayton
By ARTHUR KROCK
WASHINGTON The

/ BY ARTHUR KROCK
WASHINGTON.-The sustained questioning
to which Will L. Clayton was subjected by
Senators, in contrast to the perfunctory in
terrogation of some other maj or State Depart
ment appointees, justifies the belief in the
press gallery, when the Senate re-committed
all these nominations, that Mr.. Clayton was
the chief cause of that action. If six Senators
from the Cotton States, who usually accept the
Presidents departmental appointments with.
out question, had voted according to. form
the roll-can would have been 80 to 81 in favor
of confirmation without hearings instead of
81 to q the other way.
There were others of the thirty-seven who
took the occasion to register general disap-
pointment in the. list; and some voted that
way because they disliked the views of Mr.
tablish that Harry L. Hopkins had picked the
slate, and some because they wanted to re-
mind the President of the Senates partner
ship in appointments. But if it had not been
for the Cotton State Senators, only a minority
would have been evoked by these reasons for
the protest
When the Southerners and Sena. Tors from
States interested in other crops than cotton
concentrated on Mr.. Clayton, opponents of
the New Deal seized the occasion to harry Mr.
MacLeish so that they might have some divi-
dends in the proceedings. But this was side
line: the main track was reserved for the
nominee for Assistant Secretary who will have
| charge of the economic activities of the de-
paftrnent. -.-.a-.. .-.- ...e.. .
Mr.. Clayton is rich and successful and it
has been part of the New Deal doctrine to
suspect such citizens and try through legisla-
ton and propa ganda to "equalize' their earn
ings and their capital But also he has made
his success and his fortune out of crop which
is raised by great many farmers with the
I,Ax liz, 1oI,o
turns. This always creates prejudice among
growers and those whom their votes put in
Congress. For the same reason makers of
farm machinery and meat packers are the
targets Of legislators from the country dis
tricts whenever they can get them before Con-
gressional committees, and especially if they
have amassed personal fortunes. Since the
New Deal came to power this unadmrable
but natural human reaction and this form Of
political husbandry have been intensified by
the acts and words of the President.
Mr. Clayton, however, finds himself in an
anomalous position. Because of his unusual
talents, his experience in world trade and his
liberal economic viewpoint, he is satisfactory
to the President, as executor of the Admin
istration's world trade policies through the
State Department. But because at the same
time he is the type of citizen whose personal
achievements the Presidents preferred associ-
ates have aspersed as point of New Deal
doctrine, he is under fire from those very
associates, particularly in the export.c-op
States. And the fact that he belonged to the
Liberty League is proof enough for many of
them that he will try to substitute the capital
ist-broker-processor philosophy for that which
favors Vice President Wallace's common
man.
Under the free enterprise system as it ex-
listed in this country while Mr.. Clayton was
rising from lean farm in Mississippi to the
highest and most lucrative post of command
in the cotton business, his success and his ac-
| QUESTION OF wealth were inevitable. He dem
| onstrated greater ability than his competitors;
he worked hard; and personality and good
luck provided the other assets he required.
But his firm made money both when the
growers weren't making their own small share
Of it anG when they were. And that is always
resented by many, notably those who are dis
posed to link success with shady doings or an
unfair scheme OF things.
So Mr.. Clayton is a shining mark for all
sorts of persons in Washington and in the cot
ton country, and the local contingent was de-
termined not to miss the chance to train its
artillery on him. Actually the economic plat
form he enunciated is as far from that credit
ed to Big Business and predatory capitalism
as that Of the nineteenth century liberals was
from the creed Of contemporary industrialsts
on the Congo. He is almost free trader, be-
ing opposed to tariffs and other public subsi-
dies to keep alive industries that cannot COM
pete in world trade under good management.
He is the theological foe of private cartels
and seems to share the New Deal inclination
toward limited Government ones in special
and temporary circumstances. He is sure, as
are many distinguished economists, that our
capital loans and export and import policy in
the postwar world must be very generous If
we are to have paying customers and our
| fair portion of the international markets.
In all this there is nothing of the 'robber
baron viewpoint and almost everything op-
posed to it. But the everything facts are that
Mr.. Clayton, if confirmed, will carry out the
policies which the President approves and
which will be evolved by advisers in higher
echelon than Mr.. Clayton's. and that Mr..
| Roosevelt accepted him as the best man to
do that His selection seems the more de-
liberately Presidential when it is recalled that
the President rejected the recommendations
Of Mr.. Baruch and Mr.. Byrnes that Mr.. Clay
ton take one-man control Of surplus disposal.
New York Times.
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