Show IWO washington n 91 D x i nil national ilana 11 topics op acs ics interpreted n IM j ilaf i ir washington it is a little early in the new year to become despondent I 1 suppose af after ter bills bill not the manner of a happy certain radio star I 1 ought to be happy about the whole thing but I 1 am not the outlook is too gloomy developments of the last las t few weeks have combined to make roe me a pessimist of the first water I 1 hope I 1 am wrong yet present conditions force the conclusion that this country faces a condition as serious as that through which it passed in 1932 and 1933 there is no reason evident to me why we should not face the facts discouraging as they appear so let us consider some of the things that have happened lately and some that are happening these days only in that way I 1 believe can we get a correct understanding of this new depression which a thousand government propagandists insist upon calling a recession four months ago industry began to lay jay off men and women workers there was no market for the goods they were manufacturing the reduction in payrolls was necessary to avoid bankruptcy nobody can afford to pay workers it if there is no work to do dismissal of workers continued in an ever growing volume until on january 1 the great general motors corporation laid off something like men at one time and placed its remaining workers on a four day week that action while it appears sensational was illustrative of what had been going on during the four months that I 1 mentioned it brought public attention and political attention to a focus but it was sensational only because of the numbers it made an impression that dismissal of a few or several hundred here and there had failed to make during this same period prices were undergoing a natural and normal reaction some were up some were down altogether they were and are in a topsy condition government business analysts smelled the mouse they were watching all of the trend trends that h were evident during thosa falat toy months those officials in high places 1 ces and charged with responsibility clity for national welfare were informed of what was in prospect but go government ern propaganda continued to show bright and smiling faces in the picture it wont last they were saying in the written and spoken words it is a psychological condition president roosevelt said and thereby made the same mistake that president hoover made when he announced that prosperity pros perit Y was just around the corner in 1931 it is the same came old corner and it is the same old prosperity but apparently the roosevelt administration is going to have just as much trouble finding either the corner or the prosperity as mr hoover did to get back to the sequence of i events the time came when the responsible spon ible officials mire trust had to say some pome butting busting thing by way of admitting the existence of the depression recession 11 mr roosevelt it will be recalled went off on a f fishing trip around december 1 he took with him the brilliant and able young robert jackson of the department of justice now mow mr jacksons particular ability lies in the direction of breaking up trusts monopolies big business combinations those of us whose job it is to watch washington thought we foresaw the next move by the administration we have it now in full flower a great drive against all of tho those se ifill big business interests who simply must be the folks responsible for the depression of course it should be remembered at the same sae time that there must be a goat when politics gets balled up a and rid big bus business again is the goat of the administration in consequence of the crash in business the collapse of the theories S of the long haired crew that seeks to america under the guise of new deal plans and the general running out of democrats on the new deal leadership the country is now to be treated to a nother another trust busting drive comparable to that conducted by the late theodore roosevelt when he was prescient ent yes big bu business siness can always be attacked cajoled threatened it is a proper stunt nearly always resorted to by politicians and others who fl find rid themselves locked within toe the meshes of their own fishnets fish ish r nets big business is the red herring that the administration is trying to drag across the trail it is because the administration is attempting to conceal its mistakes and make people forget them instead of doing a con tive job that I 1 find myself despondent spon dent in in the early weeks of 1933 the real tip tp off to the drive on big bu business siness was in the form of a speech by mr jackson who w ho said by way of the radio that the only way to I 1 insure asure a reasonably steady well being for the na tion as a whole is for the government to act as an impartial overseer of our industrial progress ready to call a halt at all times on n monopolistic practices which thre threaten t to throw our economy out of order that theory is basic with most ot of the new dealers america must be made responsive to the washington government it is that theory to which more and more business men little as well as big are objecting they are fearful of it for the reab reason th that at they can not see how this administration or any that may follow will be impartial in overseeing industry it is quite natural for a political group to be intent upon preserving itself in power and that end never has been accomplished by imi partiality celers but the new dealers wish to avoid blame for the conditions now confronting the na would tion conveniently shift blame enough there is is no mention being made now of the tremendous pressure that was exerted through four of the lost last five years to bring about higher prices those prices now are held to be the result of monopoly not the fault of the professors who were saying a few years ago when prices were moving higher that we planned it that way so political guns are turned on big business but my guess is that little business will be hurt more rn ore than big business by the refusal of the WaI wallaces laces the ickes the oliphants hants the jerome franks the orans and the cohens to recognize that hillers Hit lers style of business management must fail here as in germany the frankest statement about the whole thing has come from mr roosevelt himself ile he declared recently that overextension over extension of inventories ven tories was responsible for the current depression that is to say producers and manufacturers feeling that business was booming produced or manufactured too much they did not recognize that the better business we appeared to have in 1935 and 1936 was highly superficial nor were they ware aware what the washington would d do 0 in the way of controlling or burdening business of all kinds with new taxation and new restrictive legislation it was from those latter two things that a fear was bred and the ia factories and farms that were being worked full tilt because prices were going higher were left with an overstock I 1 think it can be fairly sad also that few persons expected to see such encouragement from the administration for labor to flout the law and take over control of property as has happened whatever er else may be said however the fact remains the theories constantly being in g advanced by one or another of I 1 mr Roosevel ts advisers have frightened millions of persons who I 1 still have a few dollars which they I 1 would like to put to work on the whole I 1 am convinced those dollars will not be put to work unless and until there is assurance from washington wa sh that sanity and not monkey doodle schemes will be exercised in governmental dealings with the count rys business it is dishonest I 1 on the part of government regardless of political party to charge that business brings about depressions any person with a grain of sense must know that no individual desires to throw away his own mon i ey or throw away a chance to make more I 1 I 1 president roosevelt has taken a firm stand for a larger lar 9 er navy his action deserves corn com for larger menda tinn conci navy eions throughout the world are such that he would be foolish to disregard r the necessity etsity for a strong defense it will cost money of ca durse course but preparedness has proved cheaper always than being thrown into war because no other nation is afraid of us I 1 have an idea that mr roosevelt will be attacked from a dozen I 1 different directions SO called peace I 1 organizations will try to pin his h I 1 s ears I 1 back and make him say uncle but I 1 have gained the impression that tha t mr roosevelt will adhere to his program certainly nearly all students of international affairs agree that he is per cent right in a letter to house leaders mr roosevelt suggested the necessity necess ty for construction of two battleships two light cruisers eight destroyers and six submarines during the f fiscal year beginning next july 1 I these craft are in addition to other naval construction already con considered considene d for the next fiscal year it will w ill take tak e two or three years year s to build some of t these h ese boats planning and preliminary work ought to be at started arted on them as soon as possible e mr roosevelt believes the work ought to start right away and after all I 1 think vast bost faiks will agree that the president I 1 s in a better position than anyone ei e in the country tt tr know what the dangers are a 0 western tin union |