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Show lnal Topics Interpreted by William Bruckart JsrrjrTfflfa Nat.onal Pres. Building- Washington, P. C. 3smWL Washington.-Most observers and thinking citizens have been inclined to take little stock Long and in the talks of r L; Senator Long and the radio priest, concerning plans for redistribution of wealth. The consensus has been that their plans sooner or later would fall of their own weight But It can be denied no longer that Long and Coughlin have developed a gigantic following of people who lack Information as to the fallacies of the arguments, however logical they sound, that have been spread by these politically political-ly smart showmen. One reason that serious attention to their proposals is now necessary is that some of their arguments are being advanced from high places in the federal government I refer specifically spe-cifically to the testimony before the house committee on banking and currency bv Marrlner S. Eccles, gov- ln the reserve board and taken away from the federal reserve banks where It now reposes there will be additional loans forced out of the commercial banks. History Indicates, however, that this Is fallacious. fal-lacious. No business is going to borrow money when it doesn t .need it and neither is any person in his right mind going to make a loan unless un-less he has at least reasonable assurances as-surances of repayment. It will be recalled that President Roosevelt at one time spoke disparagingly dispar-agingly of the "refusal" of the bankers bank-ers to make loans. The President subsequently learned that attempts to pump money out of banks must fail for lack of borrowers. I think everyone acquainted with conditions must agree that the Eccles idea and the Nye legislation means absolutely nothing in the way of recovery aids, for it has always been true, you can lead a horse to water but jou cannot can-not make him drink. ernor of the Federal Reserve board and as such the titular head of the nation's banking system. Mr. Eccles did not quite take a leaf out of Huey Long's book. He approached the position of the Louisiana senator, sena-tor, however, when he proposed a redistribution of income, whereas Senator Long has urged a redistribution redistri-bution of wealth. Mr. Eccles suggested In his testimony testi-mony in effect that It would be all right for a man with say ten million dollars In capita to keep that sum, provided his income was redistributed. redistrib-uted. Mr. Eccles went back to the days Immediately following the World war to illustrate his argument argu-ment and showed that at the top of the post-war boom "one tenth of one per cent of the families at the top of the Income received as much as 42 per cent of the families at the bottom of the list." Furthermore, he said that the single average family in the big income class got as much as four hundred families at the bottom bot-tom of the income list. "This one-tenth of 1 per cent was unable to use all the Income in consumption," con-sumption," he continued. "They therefore had to find an outlet In the Investment field. As a result, the capacity to produce increased out of all proportion to the capacity capac-ity to consume.' So Mr. Eccles took the position. Jfhat a aplBtjonflf ,t.he t-v- "., was a redistribution of this income with the idea that it would increase purchasing power in the lower brackets. The governor offered no explanation of how those in the lower income class were going to obtain possession of the redistributed redistrib-uted Income of the rich because his argument stopped at the point where the government would take money by taxation. That Is the recognized weakness of the programs advanced by Senator Sena-tor Long and Father Coughlin, and Governor Eccles showed no ability to solve the problem. On top of the outbursts by Long and Coughlin and the serious testi-mony testi-mony by Gov-Proposes Gov-Proposes ernor Eccles Central Bank comes Senator Nye, the North Dakota Progressive, with a bill in the senate to create a central bank. Senator Nye's action has caused many humorous expressions. Here we have a senator who has fostered, even boasted about, progressive ideas and has called himself a liberal lib-eral It Is necessary only to recall that the father of the central bank idea was the ultra-conservative Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary sec-retary of the treasury. Senator Nye advances a bill with the thought that the central bank would avoid hamstringing of credit. I think financial experts all agree that this Is true. The thing which Senator Nye overlooked, however. Is that Mr. Hamilton's central bank collapsed and brought ruin and grief to thousands. The reason it collapsed was because in removing control of the banking facilities from experienced bankers, the whole thing had been turned over to the control of politicians who, generally speaking, are experienced only in politics. It seems paradoxical paradox-ical that the North Dakota senator should advance as a libera scheme the -creation of a centra bank which one hundred and fifty years ago was the height of conservatism. The Nye legislation was offered In the sane week that Governor Eccles had proposed in his testimony testi-mony on the banking bill In the house that the Federal Reserve board should bave complete control of the credit expansion and contraction con-traction in this country. I believe most persons will have difficulty In considering the tvo schemes as separate sep-arate and distinct It Is to be note.; that there are at least ninety-nin radical members mem-bers of the house of representatives who are convinced that the federal reserve system has failed of Its purposes. pur-poses. Most of them have been repeating re-peating without rhyme or reason the accusation that bankers are "re fusing" to make loans. They think therefore, that if there is a central bank or If credit control la placed The fallacies being put forward by Senator Long and Father Coughlin, Cough-lin, and now being Stop and nibbled at by Gov-Consider Gov-Consider ernor Eccles and Senator Nye obviously obvi-ously have been accepted by thousands thou-sands of people. Senator Long claims that at least six million persons per-sons are supporting his scheme. It would seem to be the time, therefore, there-fore, for citizens to begin to analyze the trend of events, if they are influenced in-fluenced by such leadership. In connection with this trend, It is interesting to observe how much trouble Senator Long and Father Coughlin already have caused for the administration. It must be said frankly, Mr. Roosevelt and his advisers ad-visers thus far have not found a way to deal with it. They have tried fighting back and each time they have succeeded only in furnishing fresh- ammunition for the Long-Coughlin Long-Coughlin team. Senator Robinson of Arkansas, Democratic leader in the senate, made one of his greatest speeches of criticism of Senator Long's schemes, but the result was only a fresh outburst by the Louisiana Louisi-ana senator who took Robinson's own words and converted them to his use. "S" I reported, t" rori previously that l?dministration had prepared at one time to take action against Senator Sen-ator Long on income tax questions. But apparently the powers that be have decided that such a course, instead in-stead of putting Long back in his place, would make a martyr of him. Among the observers here the belief prevails that the only way Long's attacks can be stopped and his tactics tac-tics broken up Is by ridicule. The administration has told congress con-gress that it wants to keep the NRA. Through Donald R. New Plans Richberg, some-for some-for NRA times called the assistant president, the administration's position was laid before the senate committee on finance the other day with the suggestion sug-gestion that the proposed new NRA should be confined to matters of interstate in-terstate commerce. That is, the administration ad-ministration proposes that In extending ex-tending the NRA for two years from the coming June 6 expiration date, it would apply only to industry engaged en-gaged In lines of commerce and endeavor en-deavor that carries across some state lines. By the same token, the proposal would eliminate the codes of fair practices from application to the so-called service industry and could not, therefore, apply even to hours and wages In those local plants now under codes. Mr. Rlchberg's statement immediately immedi-ately provoked discussion which certainly cer-tainly can be expected to Increase In volume because It Is in the nature na-ture of protests from those who claim to speak for labor. Sidney Hillman, of the NRA high command, immediately protested as did William Wil-liam Green, president of the American Amer-ican Federation of Labor. Each of these individuals contended that th NRA would be a worse failure than It is now if it were confined to the narrow definition of Interstate commerce com-merce and applied only to those industries. in-dustries. Mr. Hillman, who Is labor's la-bor's representative on the National Industrial Recovery board, when he learned of Mr. Rlchberg's statement promptly struck back with an emphatic em-phatic observation that the country would not permit such action. "It Is unthinkable," he said "that congress will withdraw the only pro-action pro-action 'hat the three million o four mm on underpaid, overworked and helpless workers in the service erodes now have. Some of them as a result of the NRA are for the lhst time in their lives getting one day f t week and something a lit-tie lit-tie better than the coolie wages th y have been paid In the past Court of thrUntVCeXT? have been Impressed by opinions Riven by outstanding m'eml le oC the bar that a condition of l- 'oV millions of workers nt I, Ping wage levels does affe, t TT"""" commerce." 1 tatetnte ft We.t,rn New.Bp.r UWoIl |