OCR Text |
Show j National Topics Interpreted l. f(S by William Bruckart dies down. Thus, the opinions I gather around Washington stress the importance of the reform that obviously is going to result from New Deal methods. But they emphasize em-phasize equally the importance of the Wirt testimony In balking an onrushing wave of so-called reforms that so many persons consider to be actually destructive of the basic and proved practices of our commerce com-merce and Industry. And, after all, that Is the point at Issue in this country today. Doctor Wirt quoted Mr. Todd as having said that "Roosevelt is In midstream and the current is too strong for hlra to turn back." I still have faith in our system of government and I have more faith in a majority opinion of the people of the United States. Since Doctor Wirt testified, they are on their guard. It may be that the sun of the brain trust theorist Is setting. One more observation about the Writ affair: in a long service In Washington, I Badly have seen few Muddled hear,."ff as bhadl muddled by a committee of congress. Each of the members of the committee knew, of course, that the atmosphere was surcharged with polities. Some of the Democrats obviously were afraid that Doctor Wirt was going to explode a bombshell of politics that would do their party no good at all, and some of the Republicans were afraid that Doctor Wirt would not explode that bombshell. Consequently, Conse-quently, there was haggling without with-out end. I believe the consensus among the hundred-odd correspondents correspond-ents who were reporting the hearing hear-ing was that Representative Bul-winkle Bul-winkle of North Carolina, a Democrat Dem-ocrat and the chairman, reflected no particular credit upon himself or the committee as inquisitors. Criticism of Representative Mc-Gugin, Mc-Gugin, a Republican from Kansas, also was heard, for Mr. McGugin went just as far In supporting the witness as Mr. Bulwinkle did In harassing him. Certain evidence of people's views always 13 reflected in congress rather rath-er quickly after changes in sentiment senti-ment take place, and it Is no different dif-ferent now. There was a time during dur-ing the first monthu of President Roosevelt's administration when anything he sent to congress was put through, and no questions were asked. Currently, however, there Is a disposition among members of both political parties In congress to Inquire into the character of legislation legis-lation they are putting through. For example, the bill that the President Pres-ident wanted for controlling the security se-curity exchanges, like the New York Stock Exchange, was adver, tised by Democratic leaders at first as being ready to go through without with-out question. Mr. Roosevelt said ho wanted "teeth" In it, and teeth were put in It, plenty of them. Indeed, the proposed legislation would have left little of the stock exchange to operate. Rigid control was a mild expression compared with that Washington. Anyone who attempts at-tempts to interpret Washington news or appraise Dr. Wirt's its effects meets Charges circumstance frequently where the only course is one of watchful waiting. There Is no alternative. Complex situations must work out; ulterior purposes must be disclosed to a slight degree, if there are such purposes, and some scent must be had of the factors and Influences at work. Otherwise, appraisal of the potential effects usually will miss Its mark under circumstances of that kind. Of such a type were the charges by Dr. William A. Wirt, the school superintendent from Gary, Ind., who asserted that "brain trusters" of the Roosevelt administration were seeking to overthrow our form of government and establish a communistic com-munistic or Russian Soviet state in its place. Doctor Wirt's accusations accusa-tions came out of the blue sky, so to speak, because there was no advance ad-vance notice of them. Of course, there were thousands of persons who were uneasy about the trend of events and the plans of the New Dealers. Apparently, however, most of them were unwilling to make themselves a target for the unbelieving unbe-lieving by becoming vocal about their opinions. So, the setting In which Washington observers found themselves was, to say the least, a new one. With these facts In mind, I have awaited an exposition of Doctor Wirt's charges before attempting to analyze them or to fit them into things that have been happening to make a complete picture. Ills appearance ap-pearance before the house committee commit-tee of Inquiry left nothing to be desired In the dramatics. He was there, accompanied by that famed attorney, former Senator James A. Reed of Missouri, which was, in itself, it-self, a surprise. And Doctor Wirt stood up against the barrage of attempts at-tempts to discredit him! He never flinched ; he fought back, and he was apparently convinced of his own findings, a fact that gave him added courage. Doctor Wirt wasted no words In telling of the famous party In a nearby Virginia home where Lawrence Law-rence Todd, Washington representative representa-tive of the Russian Soviet news agency "Tass" and several "satellites" "satel-lites" of the brain trust were at dinner with the Indiana educator. He quoted Todd as the authority for the statement that President Roosevelt Roose-velt was the "Kerensky" of the present pres-ent revolution and that presently Mr. Roosevelt would be supplanted by a "Stalin," even as occurred in Russia. Of course, Mr. Todd has no part In the government, officially, and a good many of those who scoffed at Doctor Wirt originally contended the charges were just "baloney." But he made the statements under oath and their effect now Is the thing with which we are concerned. To those of us whose job It Is to keep a finger on the pulse of public sentiment It has Reaction been apparent for Sets In several months that a reaction against many of the New Deal principles prin-ciples had set In. I, for one, however, how-ever, was unable to gauge It accurately. accu-rately. I could not tell how deeply deep-ly rooted these convictions were. It required some such Incident as the Wirt charges to focus attention on the fact that there were doubters before most of us here could gain an Idea of the "oppositionist" movement that appeared to exist. Let me say at this point, too, that It is apparent Mr. Roosevelt Is not the only target; the criticism seems to be more of the ideas prompted by his brain trust advisers than the President's own reform or recovery principles. There Is a decided difference, dif-ference, one realizes, between the two, for one group in the administration adminis-tration is promoting reform and another an-other recovery. Here Is where the Wirt testimony became important in its effect. By making the charges, Doctor Wirt directed attention to the two schools of thought In effect, he called upon the country to distinguish distin-guish between reform and recovery programs, and has asked the question ques-tion whether we shall sacrifice recovery re-covery In order that reform ideas may be forced down the throats of those who find it difficult to swallow untried theories. There can be no doubt that several sev-eral millions of Americans who, heretofore, were willing to trust Mr. Roosevelt to run the whole show, are now making Individual examinations exam-inations of the structure which the New Dealers have, or propose to, set up. I think It equally true as well that the examinations hy Individuals In-dividuals will result in a crystallizing crystalliz-ing of opinions more than has happened hap-pened up to this time. They undoubtedly un-doubtedly will find some good nnd some had, some workable and some unworkable, Items among the New Deal plans. That ought to be a wholesome thing for the country. History seems to prove that a cross section of our naliona! mind Is nearly near-ly always correct after the hysteria original stock market bill. Stock exchange members, brokerage broker-age houses and plain Investors suddenly a w a k-Vake k-Vake Up, ened to the fact Then Fight thflt the bm was going to do things to them. They started to fight. They found responsive chords In the house and senate. Reason and logic, as opponents of the bill understood un-derstood those words, began to prevail pre-vail and, presently, rumors of proposed pro-posed changes In the measure began be-gan to crop up. And what's more, the changes began to be accepted by a majority of the committees that had the bill In charge, despite frequent reiterations by Senator Fletcher, chairman of the senate banking committee, and Chairman Rayburn of the house Interstate Commerce committee, that the President Pres-ident wanted the teeth left In. It Is to be admitted, I think, that there was a lot of monkey-doodle business going on among some members of security exchanges. My belief Is that they did not always give the Individual Investors In stocks a fair shake. But some of the reformers Included in the administration's ad-ministration's brain that appear to have overlooked the good In whatever what-ever amount It exists In the stock exchanges. But, to get to the point of the story. Many persons hold to the view that the government should not spread a parental wing too far over private affairs. It has been done already beyond the anticipation anticipa-tion of a majority of the people. They want to be free to deal In stocks, to speculate, even to gamble, gam-ble, If you please, without having bureaucracy here In Washington to tell them what to do. The legislation will go through eventually. Of that there Is no doubt. In Its final form, however, It will not be the handiwork of the reformers. There will be reforms brought about hy It, only they will ' be for the purposes of correcting abuses ami not for the purpose of trying out theories on somebody's money. by Woatorn Newspaper Union. |