AMERICAN SCENE

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 190, 13 August 1934, Page 5

AMERICAN SCENE

TOWARDS SOCIALISM. TREND OF ECONOMICS. THE PRESIDENT'S POSITION. (By MARC T. GREENE.) NEW YORK, June 28. The most extraordinary Congressional session in American history wound up with a blaze of fireworks in the lastminute appropriation of two billion dollars for further direct relief purposes. This completed a total of six billions appropriated for the same purpose since Roosevelt assumed office, and other sums broadly comprised in the general recovery programme swell the grand total still further to some ten billions. These are stupendous figures, but the American people appear to have become, in the characteristic American phraseology, "billion-minded." They talk of billions as their fathers talked of millions, and their great-grandfathers of tens of thousands. No sum, however astronomical in its computation, staggers them now. Nor does the public generally give a thought to the significance of these unprecedented amounts, when, how or whether a Budget that includes them will ever be balanced, whether inflation on a tremendous scale will rosult, or what kind of a tax burden future generations may be called upon to assume. If ever a people were living in the present, thinking from day to day and unheeding the morrow, it is the Americans at the moment. Yet that the economic system which brought America to a period of unexampled prosperity a few years ago and then failed the country completely is doomed, few question. What is to take its place is the debatable theme of the hour. Clearly the policy of this

Administration so far lias been to work toward some sort of a compromise that shall satisfy labour and even throw a sop to a fast-growing Socialistic group, and yet placate the conservative clement sufficiently to avoid a business and industrial crash. "Teeth" have been more or less drawn from several of Roosevelt's pet measures to that end, notably the stock exchange control Act. On the other hand labour disputes which i might have retarded the recovery pro-1 gramme very seriously indeed have been | averted, or at any rate postponed, by I the setting up of boards of adjustment, j somewhat like Xew Zealand's original Arbitration Court, on which labour shall have equal representation with the j employers. And in many cases final j adjustment will be left to the very able! Secretary of Labour in the Roosevelt; Cabinet, Miss Fiances Perkins, who has j I always been considered a Liberal. j Change in Thought. This is a trend toward Socialism which would have been hailed by American |conservatism as straight from Moscow a few years ago, but the '-interests" accept I it to-day without a murmur. Or if they do murmur it is behind closed doors anil among themselves. But even more significant as a trend in the same direction is the current of thought being revealed in public addresses by persons of note. During the past fortnight 100 American universities have graduated thousands of young men, and these have listened to exhortations by the leading figures of the country. Upton Sinclair once said that the American college was devoted not to teaching men how to think, but to teaching them what to think, that being what the capitalistic supporters of the institutions desired them to think. And always the graduation addresses; stressed individuality, the "rugged indi- j viduality" of Mr. Hoover's much-scorned i phrase. Social consciousness was rarely | mentioned. Young men were urged to ; 'get ahead," at whose expense was not j considered. This year the whole trend, j not onlv of the erudite speeches to the graduating classes hut of the talks of the class valedictorians themselves., has been along quite opposite lines. Social consciousness has been the great theme. There has been no talk of individuality, i"rugged" or otherwise. The point has 'been°driven home everywhere that the duty of the college man, as of the rest of the bodv politic, is to further the interests and labour for the welfare of society as a whole. '.

Economical Improvement. During the past month there has been a considerable forging ahead of business activity and a good deal of industrial improvement. Assurance of this lies in the restoration of dividends by a number of large organisations. Still the unemployment problem is pretty nearly as acute as ever, and even with a steadilyI improving commercial activity it will be 'many years before all these millions can |once more be absorbed into the economic j life of the country. On the assumption I that the greater part of the widespread ! unemployment—some authorities say even as much as half —is due to the fallling off in building construction, the i Administration's gigantic housing scheme i went through Congress with little opposition. Half abillion dollars is behind this |at the outset and it is expected to stimui late construction work everywhere enough to result in the re-employment of two or three millions at least at their old trades. It provides for Govern-ment-backed loans to householders and guarantees against mortgage foreclosures. Two Interesting, and more or less significant, current developments are worth mention. The Catholic Church, which in America numbers some 20,000,000 adherjents, has taken, through its various j organisations and directly from hundreds :of leading pulpits, a strong and definite i stand against the current character of I motion pictures. So determined, in fact, lis the Church, doubtless inspired from Koine, that a general boycott is threatened. This has been followed by similar action by the Federal Council of Churches, a Frotetsant organisation of very largo membership. A boycott by these Churches, practically assured unless I their demands are met, would wreck the 1 industry, with dire results. A huge ! Catholic bodv called the "American 'Legion of Decency," has been formed to I denounce the pornographic and promijnently sex nature of many of the curjrent films. I The other, and most amusing, topic of j the hour is the "Fed" list found in the ' possession of the Xew York police. It !is headed, staitlingly enough, by the wife of the President, and includes about the cream of the nation's culture in art. science, economics and sociology. In fact, everyone of note who has ever voiced any sentiment in opposition to the existing conditions of things is listed ! by the great city's naive police as "red." But the general feeling is that the joke is on the metropolitan police.