PATH OF AMERICA

Evening Post, Issue 19, 23 July 1934, Page 14

PATH OF AMERICA

TOWARDS RECOVERY

DOUBT AS TO THE OUTCOME

BKITAIN AS EXAMPLE

Amciican Is beginning to look ciitically at Booscvclt 's grandiose lccovory scheme,'known, to- tho world as N.E.A. —National Eccovoij- Act. Undoubtedly peoplo arc move hopeful, tension, is less, and conic lines of busine^ thow definite iuiprovement. At tho same lime, aS'.E.A. is still iai iiom ha\ing delivered the goods pionubcd at the outset, writes Sir l'eieival Phillips from Chicago to the "Daily Mail." The "ballyhoo" campaign directed by tho propagandists is dead. General Johnson,.the President's "big stick," himself admits that a fiesh inoculation is necessary to stimulato the national spirit. Business men either believe that they are already saved from ruin, in'which case further supervision is unnecessary, or they are convinced that tho various codes have failed te rehabilitate the leading industries of the country, and should therefore be scrapped. Stated iv figures the upward trend, as recorded by accurate observeis. looks very encouraging. During the first quarter of this year, as compaicd with the same j)criod oi last year, employment .is up 30 per ccnt./paj'-iolls 06 per cent, (this dispaiity is due to longer' hours), tho motor-cay industry has doubled its output, department store sales are 27 per cent, higher, steel production. 127 per cent higher, and there have been . fewer failures than La any year, since 1920. t UNEMPLOYMENT DOWN. Unemployment, which estimated at nearly 13,000,000 in.'February of last year, has fallen, although the estimate .of- 7,000,000, .including the 8,000,000 permanently, -unemployed, given by Henry Harrimau, president of tho National Chamber of Commorco and n 'close friend of President Roosevelt, is not accepted by other leading industrialists, who think .. that' the present total •is ■■-nearer 10,000,000. The Administration ■': also counts amoug its main achievement^ the abolition of child labour and a steady decicase in the number of sweat-shops. On the Pacific Coast and in the Middle West I found the white-collar class cheerful and spending more freely than for some time past, in. spite of thoro being as yet nq reatoiation in wage cuts and the'lower value of the dollar. Even the prevalence of strikes, tying up various blanches of industry, is pointed to by the President's sup porters as affording proof that ,tho oountiy is more prosperous —this on the ground that no class of labour is willing to strike while jobs are so scarce and tho alternative is starvatioul But everywhere I found sober critics of N/R.A. ready* to point o>it discrepancies^in tho national health report. The gross' income of the farmeis has increased 56 per cent., due to financial aid given thorn by thp Government and artificial boosting of prices. Constiuction work jumped up 132 per cent, abovo last spring's figures, but this is the lesult of • a liberal outpouiing of public funds. ABANDONED. National abandonment of the so-called citizens' work programme, financed from Washington, has removed another temporary panacea for unemployment. People who have been supported by it aro now coming back on to State and local Telief organisations. Tho municipal experts of San Francisco and Los Angelos fear that their unemployment figures will soon be as high as before. The continued uncertainty of the United States monetary policy is having a paralysing effect on heavy industries, banks, and productive enterprises which would healthily absprb the workless. One Western banker of national reputation compared the present position to that of a patient who is-stimulated by oxygen but is making little permanent progress towards recovery. • .Small men have suffered everywhere. They have been unable to maintain fair competition 'against their big rivals under tho National Codes, which increase their payrolls without increasing their profits. Arbitrary conditions governing labour have crippled enterprise. 1 Professional agitators are sheltering under the wing of tho Administration, and continue'to exert malign influence on working men in many industrial centres. Graft, also, has been apparent in tho handling of many Government loans. BASIC DEFECT. One basic delect in N.E.A., to which my. attention was called in many centres^ is loose and ineflicient wholesale "coding" of the country. The original scheme was to concentiatc on the big industries and to ignore the small firms. But" General Johnson attacked them all, without discrimination; the result being that today thirtysix codes cover 75 per cent, of jobs in the country, the remaining 25 per cent, of labour being scattered thinly over hundreds of others. "The nation has gone sour on N.E.A. and its Brain Trust," another.'prominent industrialist said to me, "because it is actually hampering recovery. We are certainly better off in many rospects than wo weie a year ago, but we should have'been in any cas'ej-'and perhaps we should have been even further along the road if wo had not been weighted by cumbersome, illogical plans emanating from Washington." Great Britain's progress Svithout "ballyhoo" or inlcrfoience by theorists was cited to mo by many critics. Yet ono fact is indisputable—President Franklin Delano Roosovclt is as popular as over in the public mind. Tho country is still enduring with remarkable patience tho experiments of his advisors, and one hears no word at all in condemnation of the President himself, not even from the bittciest opponents of N.E.A.

But' it is significant, that his loyal supporters are now asking—which -they did not a year ago—where he is going and what'will be the outcome, for the country realises that it has not. yet reached tho end of the long road" to prosperity^ ; : ._ ■'. .