Show I r THE HE VALUE OF CRITICS CRITICS- T IS interesting to look back IT one full fuU year on the Roosevelt administration It has run a trifle more than fifteen months Inthe the first three there was a national hysteria during which calm judgments were difficult if not impossible to reach Those hose who collaborated at the polls polIs to sweep Mr rr Roosevelt into the White House Rouse in such were a high pitch of en en- that the phrase catch-phrase revolution evolution was not wholly without point The overwhelmed Republicans were divided into two camps those to whom party allegiance al aI- al- al egian e was somewhat like a religion and party principles a 8 faith and doctrine and those who vho were resigned to watch and wait not g greatly troubled and not particularly tic A A. few who had stood with Hoover were persuaded that after all perhaps they had been mistaken and that things were going to turn out all right To the ardent Republican however the tho new V deal was heresy and its prophets blasphemers But they held their pea peace e some somo because it was unpopular tov to v voice ice objection and some out of pure sportsmanship sports sports- manship a willingness to let the new administration admin admin- strut its stuff and show what it could do In all there history never was such a national national na na- na- na enthusiasm and misguided Q or ot not Qt such h t- t willingness to submerge partisanship in the in interest interest in- in terest of national welfare After three months however er critics came out of their retreats and timorously at first began to question both objectives and mentalities A little later they definitely opposed opposed op op- posed them but with l uncommon moderation As the tho nine month period was rounded out moderation disappeared and a steady barrage was laid on Washington not only by political opponents of the Roosevelt program but by captains of ot business labor chieftains little fellows trying to make a l living ying on a small scale as vendors of commodities and services and from the still vast army of the unemployed In the past three months the guns big and little HUle have Ia ve been I trained on Washington ashington V from front and rear and both flanks Long Jon ago the administration invited crit crit- It got pot plenty All in all let lct the thc critic put himself in administrations administration's the thc place this criticism has been accepted manfully by all concerned It Jt would be inescapable that some of it would not ruffle tempers and aud unleash harsh words Most of this criticism warned that unless the president his and congress got back to American fundamentals the country was headed for fascism or communism Somebody Somebody Some Some- body was surely wrong for we could not be traveling toward both at the same time Dispassionate Dispassionate Dis Dis- Dispassionate passionate observers from overseas voiced the opinion that as ns a matter of fact we were headed toward nowhere What That the new deal leal needs is a plan some of these sai said notably John Maynard Keynes Kernes economist of worldwide worldwide world world- wi wide c repute They rhey were far fur nearer the truth than those who saw America doomed to become be he come conle either cither a corporative state or a collectivist society So what liat has come out of all this s criticism 1 As the congress is about to finish its labors much of the original recovery program ram has ms b been cn discarded much has lIas been rewritten and revised and some new material has been put into it A good start has bas been made to put a aplan aplan aplan plan under it For much of this credit is due to the critics of the tile bold experimentation of the first year ear under Roosevelt A portion of the credit must go to a administration ministration figures who have haye been cutting and trying tring the pattern of their own making Throughout the whole period we have had a fine demonstration that we are still committed to the two-party two system Ii in the United States and that as long as both maintain their vigor igor will win be we headed for no other ism than good old Americanism and that ought ough to satisfy eV everybody been no nOt broken heads in inthis this revolution of ours Hurt feelings s are the worst casualties |