Evening Post. FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1937. BULLS, BEARS, AND SECURITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 101, 30 April 1937, Page 8

Evening Post. FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1937. BULLS, BEARS, AND SECURITY

In successive cycles of "depression" and "recovery," huge speculative profits on the latter have been taken for granted, as have losses on the former. The "rake-offs" of speculators, and the game of bull and bear, have always been objects of moral and ethical disapproval; but the opposition to the unearned increments of the share market and other markets has stopped there. Today, however, there are unmistakable signs that not only the moralists but the politicians are alarmed at the price-rises, the toll that the winning gamblers are taking, | and the instability produced by the bull-bear system. Moralists perturbed by unethical gambling are reinforced by statesmen concerned about the safety, of the State. It is realised that social bitterness over a spoils . contest that rewards the winner by increasing the living costs iof the millions of people who possess nothing, to speculate with might be converted into social bullets. The 'logical retort that a stock exchange gamble or a "corner" is no worse than a gamble on a racehorse is beside the mark. If there is one thing which recent history attests, it is that neither mass-movements nor massmanipulations are governed by logic. They proceed along lines of expediency and opportunism. They are less moral and less logical than manipulative. Even if the reason for action by Governments be expediency alone, they have ample grounds for action. "Recovery" is still young. Let it proceed for a few years on the usual bull and bear lines, to the increasing suffering of the masses, and a seed-bed for a social resistance movement (active or passive) will be i created. Some revolutionary, Fascist or Communist, may cultivate that seed-bed with astonishing results. This is not a fantasy; it has happened in Europe. Just how it could happen in America is shown in Sinclair Lewis's "It Can't Happen Here." Some opportunists in the United States form the "League of Forgotten Men," and its ranks are at once filled by all those who deem themselves to be in actual or relative poverty and forgotten by the profit-takers overhead. These are the dupes; the manipulators are themselves profit-takers. But their true character does not appear until the.; "coup" has succeeded, and until the rule of a clique (Fascist or Communist) has been riveted upon a people whose poverty then rapidly extends from their pockets to their personal liberties. In short, the seed-bed of social bitterness created by legal profit-taking overhead, and by forgetfulness of who pays, can bring forth a harvest of lying propaganda and political usurpation in which democracy perishes and "the forgotten man" sinks to a new "low point" of neglect and misery. For purposes of expediency, if for no higher reason, democratic Govern-1 ments should prevent the formation of this seed-bed, unless they wish to see it converted into mischievous production by any adventurer who plays down to "the forgotten man." One step towards preventing undue profits, in a recovery-plus-re-arma-ment period, is to call back some of the profits,in the manner sought by Mr. Neville Chamberlain's profits tax. Economic complexities provide many pitfalls, and possibly the financiers may be able to heckle the audacious Chancellor of the Exchequer and tie him up in knots; but not one of those knots will be so hard to cut as the knot that would be created by a clique that has seized power through courting "the forgotten man." Democracy should remember that adult franchise is ian open door through which propagandist dictatorship may enter, to close the door for ever. President Roosevelt's "warning against speculation by civil servants, and his efforts to curb the speculative orgy with regard to commodity prices" are an indication that the danger is remembered by the ruler of the greatest mass of free voters in the world. Not only the greatest aggregation of voters, but by no means the least susceptible to propagandist manipulation.

France's efforts —quite understandable—to capitalise' the defeat of Germany produced German suffering, which was later intensified, by the "depression." Out of this politicaleconomic seed-bed grew Hitlerism. !t is now commonly contended that, for expediency purposes, France should have been more tolerant to the loser, and would thus,.in the long run, have gained more than she has gained of what everybody wants — security. In democracies, the capitalising of the new prosperity is quite as tricky as was the capitalising of victory nflcr the Great War. It docs nol always pay to grab the fust ihing

in sight. But, as individualism recognises no such restraint, the steadying hand, if there is to be any, must be the Government's. It is to be hoped that the Conservatives in the British National Government will take a long view. President Roosevelt's next move is not yet evident, but that he may follow advice by action seems to be vaguely indicated by the continued uncertainty on Wall Street. And, even on Wall Street, '.'pessimism" might disappear if the long view were taken, based on the possibilities for good or evil lurking in "the forgotten man."