NEW DEAL SUITS U.S.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 267, 10 November 1934, Page 8 (Supplement)

NEW DEAL SUITS U.S.

TASTE FOR NOVELTY. FRENCH OBSERVER'S VIEW. LAUDS -PRESIDENT'S CHARM. (By PIERRE DEXOYER.) Who would have the audacity to answer, in the name of 120,000,000 Americans, the difficult question asked recently by President Roosevelt over the radio: "Are you happier?" One could cite many cases of Americans who are as badly off in 1934 as they were in 1933 when Mr. Roosevelt took office. Yet, one could not have an accurate idea of the America of to-day. The atmosphere this year is not at all the eaine. Statistics and figures may show on paper the same misery, but, ineontestably, there is less of it in the hearts of men. The discouragement, the fear of to-morrow, the spirit of revolt against an implacable destiny, which were so widespread during the last days of the Hoover Administration, have disappeared almost magically. Why '! How explain this psychological revolution?

The mentality of Americans is based on optimism. Hope is pinned to their bodies... It is not in vain that generations of pioneers crossed the Atlantic, opened up a new country, conquered a continent, with their vision always set on a better future and the reward, generally received, of an old age more bounteous than their youth. It is not in vain that school children, as immigrants, are fed on the myth of an ever richer, more powerful, more modern America. Crises of hopelessness are frequent and deep, but immeasurable hope soon gets the upper hand. Nowadays it seems that the trough of the depression has been left behind, and already the majority of Americans live again in a dream —the dream of a new era, more just, more prosperous, safer, which is waiting for them. They are still bogged in the mud of the road, but already they think only of the smiling end of their voyage. Breaking With the Past. Americans also have a pronounced taste for novelty. The present Administration attained power on the promise of numerous innovations. A complete reform was announced of institutions, of methods, even of ways of thinking. How magnetic such a programme sounds when one is at the bottom of the abyss. The American masses sincerely believed that March 4, 1033, marked a radical break with the past; that President Roosevelt, who promised a new deal, a redistribution of cards, was going actually to wipe the elate clean, to start everything anew, and naturally to give the joked in the pack to everyone of his electors.

The policies of Mr. Roosevelt, a strange mixture of divers theories of his brain trust, have for the American public the cajoling attraction of a pseudoscientific experience. The severe American critic, H. L. Mencken, characterises as charlatanism the attempt at a planned economy made by the present Administration. But the name of "Planned Economy" pleases the American masses. Is there anywhere in the world anyone who believes more readily that to-day's men can fix everything, control everything, direct everything? This approval of planned economy, declares Mr. Mencken, is not very logical. Former President Hoover had tried to put it into practice before. The system had failed so noisily that Americans should have contracted a profound disgust of planned economy for ever. But Mr. Hoover attempted, a planned economy without eaying so, which deprives the experience of its' novelty. And then he lacked appeal.

A Triumph of Personality. Because— tills must be admitted with justice—if Americans have lived in a mirage since March, 1933, the cause is the amazing, charming personality of Mr. Roosevelt. He is really a man after their own hearts. They see in him a sincere, disinterested leader, who knowe how to present the problems of government in a manner accessible to thorn; who is not dogmatic and cold, ae was his predecessor; who endeavours witli audacity to attain, not in an indefinite future, 'but right away, the betterment he believes possible in the destiny of the majority of the people. One could very well make out a balance of the promises he has made and has not carried out; but he is so resourceful, so amiable, that he can effortlessly make you forget these weaknesses and turn your attention always toward new enterprises, toward a new " experience."

The N.R.A. may well awaken a mountain of recriminations and be considered by many as a failure; the prestige of the magician is still such throughout the United States that the country does not want to sec the sleight of hand that does not succeed. One remembers only the dazzling spectacle he offers the world.

There will be, undoubtedly, an awakening one day. There will be a will to pay for all the imprudent obligations contracted by the small lieutenants who gravitate around him. Mr. Roosevelt may then appear, himself, to have been over-estimated. But if one remembers the enormous difficulties he must contend with, and the chaos which reigned when he took over the Government, one will be willinoto find, excuses for his mistakes. And if the injustice of destiny does not permit that his merits be recognised, history will mark him as the man who presided over an amazing experience in government — experience a little chimerical, perhaps, but great, because it has been the answer, for a time, to the ideals of all his people.—(N.AN A )