V.sabond Editorials

By Jack Dionne

They tell me that up in Canada where the entire Dominion has apparently concentrated its effort to raise the Dionne quintuplets, their favorite joke in recent months runs like this: "Lucky for the Dionne babies they were born in Canada instead of the United States." "Yes, why?" "Because if they had been born in the United States the Department of Agpiculture would undoubtedly have insisted on plowing-under at least two of the five." !Frf+

Poor old NRA ! What a punching bag she has turned out to be of late. Looks like there are just three classes of people who aren't saying mean things about her; those who can't talk; those who can't write; and those who have NRA jobs. The rest of the population have taken the hobbles off of their adjectives and are maligning the old girl sornething dreadful.

Even the old-timey, hard-pan Southern Democratic newspapers are joining in the chorus to some extent. One of them says that NRA is in the same fix as the guy in preVolstead days who got fighting drunk, then walked. out on the corner of the main street in town and hollered"I can lick any man in this town !" No reply. So he hollered leudgl-"[ can lick any man in this county !" No action. Then he sheu(sd-"f can lick any man in this state !" Still nothing happened. So he bellowed-"I can lick any man in this country !" Just then a well dressed traveling man walked out of the hotel across the street, knocked the drunk down, picked him up, knocked him down again, picked him up and threshed the air with him for a few seconds, then dropped him like a sack of salt in the gutter, wiped his hands and walked back and disappeared in the hotel. A friend approached the drunk, still sitting in the gutter and taking inventory of his hurts. "What on earth happened to you?" asked the friend. "I was all right," said the drunk in the gutter, "until I began taking in too much territory." ***

Fixing fair wages, sensible working hours, and eliminating child labor, were all very fine and won the applause of all men. But every step beyond those fundamentals has brought trouble, and as the restrictions and experiments spread, discontent spread with it. ***

Personally I like a story Mark Twain used to tell even better than I do the above story of the drunk, as an illus- tration of what went wrong with NRA. Here 'tis. He told of a fellow who went gold-mining in the West in the original gold-rush days, selected a likely spot on the side of a mountain, and started vigorously to drive a tunnel horizontally into the side of the great rock pile. He worked with such fervor and enthusiasm and energy as to win the applause and admiration of all the miners in the vicinity. Finally he drove his tunnel right through the mountain and came out on the other side. One of his neighbors said to him-"Well, you ought to be glad to get that tunnel finished." And, he an5wslsd-"Finished, Hell ! When I tunnel,-I tunnel !" And, he went right on tunneling through the valley on the other side of the mountain. Get the idea? rN<**

A visitor from Mars .ri*,ti, ir, ,nr, country today on a tour of inspection would be afraid on returning to Mars, to tell the truth about what he saw for fear of being completely discredited. Certainly the thing doesn't make sense. He would go about the land and see people spending money in a manner and at a rate nothing but considerable prosperity could explain. And, on the other hand he would find more than one-sixth of our entire population on charity relief rolls, the highest by far in all history. And, the number is growing as this is written, and threatens to be much higher by Christmas.

He would find about ten million men unemployed because they have not been able to find jobs. He would find another great army of men voluntarily unemployed because of labor strikes. And, still a third army of men would be found involuntarily unemployed because these same strikes have closed their places of employment. Anil, he would find the second and third armies fighting, killing and maiming each other over questions of working conditions, and the right to work. He would find unemployment increasing rather than decreasing, right at the opening of another winter.

He would find much "*,i"ri"" lr, ".r"r, hand-would this Man from Mars-that the business men of this country are frightened; frightened of the things they see, and read, and hear all about them today. It is academic, of course, that frightened employers make mighty poor ground on which to sew the seed of increased employment. And, business right this minute is in greater need of reassurance than is has been at any time since the depression started.

Business is afraid of the money situation; it is afraid of the financial situation; it is afraid of the tax situation; it is afraid of the labor situation; and it is afraid of the attitude of our Federal Government toward business.

Business in that tr"*u lf LriU ," not likety to do any of the things that would increase employment, because increased employment must follow increased investments, enlarged operations, intensified efiorts, diversified application, and other things that hinge upon the spreading-out of business and industry. All the evidence the Man from Mars would uncover would point to a tightening rather than a loosening of business purse-strings, mostly predicated on the chill that has crept up the business spine.

If the Man from U"r" |roluJ,o O" a very wise man, I believe I lnrow exactly what he would do to help us in this present situation. I believe he would go to Washington, get a hearing with President Roosevelt, and, having gotten the executive ear, he would say: .,Mr. Roosevelt, what this country needs most today, is NOT a good five cent cigar, as has been so often said; it is NOT, as a matter of fact, any of the things that your particular confidantes have been telling you it needs. What this country needs more than anything else at this moment, Mr. President, is for you to get on the radio and make a plain, simple, heart-to-heart talk addressed directly and particularly to the business rnen of this country. If you want to do the sanest and most hetpful thing you have done since your administration began, Mr. President, go to the business men of this country TODAY, and relieve their fears. You can put millions of men to work that way, Mr. president. And, it cannot be done in any other way. Business would like to hear from you, Mr. President. It would like to have you remove all the mystery and all the hearsay about the things that have frightened business, lay the cards face up on the table, and tell business just exactly what it his to expect from the Federal Government in the next few months. If you would like to see industrial expansion and business extension and credit liberalization before the winter settles down, Mr. President, then go to the business filen of the United States and tell them that they have nothing to be fearful of, and tell them how, and why, and what, and rshen."

Personally, I believe Lrcil .*"tat"ment from the presi-. dent might be tremendously helpful. If. what he said was reassuring, things would pick up automatically. If not_ well, they're that way anyu/ay. We will simply go into another winter with money tighter than ever, business frightened and holding tight to its present condition without thought of any increased activities such as would im_ prove the employment situation, and the same old dead_ lock prevailing that has prevailed for the past five years.

We will go right on priming the pump with Government money-your money and my money-then pumping it out again and trying to make ourselves believe the old pump is really working. Money will continue to pile up, credit will continue to be a will-o-the-wisp, five-sixths of the nation will continue to feed the other one-sixth, and the five-sixths will get most of its exercise by throwing rocks at one another.

**+ rF:t* r|3*1.

Business would certainly like a plain statement from Mr. Roosevelt. It doesn't care to hear from Mr. Richberg, or General Johnson, or Miss Perkins, or Mr. Farley, or Mr. Ickes, or Mr. Morganthau, or Mr. Wallace, or from any of the boys on the Brain Trust. But it would most certainly like a plain, direct, simple statement from Mr. Roosevelt. THEN things would either get better fast<r they wouldn't.

The tremendous reservoirs of private credit are still dammed up. The only specific sign of a lessening of that jam is shown in the early efforts to make the new Federal Housing Act fructify. It is too early to attempt to predict what the Housing Act is going to accomplish to help the heavy goods industries and to put artisans and mechanics to work, but at least there are millions of earnest people throughout the country who are actively and intelligently hitting the ball trying to get this remodeling and rebuilding thing started, and the reports so far are very optimistic.

This is the only Recovery effort of the Federal Government so far enacted that does not provide for the use of Government money, and therefore airns directly at loosening up the supply of private cash and credit. When the Housing Act was first announced there was a noticeable lack of enthusiasm among the banking fraternity, due to the fact that it was commonly declared that the interest to be allowed the lenders was about five per cent. But when someone began using a pencil and showing that it was really about ten per cent the banks would get on their money (with the Government guaranteeing them against loss up to twenty per cent), they began pricking up their ears and talking "cooperation." If you want to see a change in the banker expression, raise the interest rate offered from five to ten per cent, and you'll get it. That frosty stare is promptly replaced by that "come hither" look.

***

You see, the borrower of remodeling money under the Housing Act pays $5 per $100 per year for the loan. Otr the bat that sounds like five per cent. But the borrower pays it in advance, so it is $5 per year on $95. And, the borrower pays the loan in installments running over three (Continued on Page 9)