The Evening Star THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1933. “RECOVERY.”

Evening Star, Issue 21510, 7 September 1933, Page 8

The Evening Star THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1933. “RECOVERY.”

Mb Henry Ford was in soine respects years ahead of the United States Government industrial programme. Apparently the only sacrifice he would mak m falling in line under the coding of the automobile industry would be that of his individuality, or even of his self-respect. It is curious evidence of the present frame of mind of the American people that Mr Ford’s aloofness is thought by the irresponsible to warrant the use of bombs for its breaking down. This, however, only bears out the testimony of English observers on the spot since the inauguration of the war against unemployment. There is a nation-wide drive to secure the adoption of the blanket code (acceptance of which is purely voluntary), and the campaign in some features resembles a religious war, with the slogan “ A truce on selfishness.” The Roosevelt Administration’s policy is to keep enthusiasm at fever heat. Boldness or novelty in the programme adopted is to be succeeded by more boldness and more novelty if results are disappointing. To use a hojnely illustration, the Administration has the bull by tllo tail and dare not let go. Furthermore, it has been granted plenary pow’ers by Congress. The subordinates entrusted with the actual operation of the programme have been likened to a band of evangelists spreading a gospel which in every detail is perfect. For example, when cotton farmers showed reluctance to plough under 25 to 50 per cent, of their growing cotton plants, invo’ving over ten million acres of land being idled (though the Government would pay rent for it as compensation), Mr Peck, administrator of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, when asked what was the alternative if the plan failed, declared. “ There is no alternative. It’s got to go.” The great test will come when the rise in prices runs far ahead of consuming power. If it .eads to a great piling up of raw materials and goods duo to lack of demand through insufficient purchasing power, a fresh collapse of business would seem inevitable, and then the collapse might well be calamitous. For that reason many American business men, while giving Mr Roosevelt credit for his energy in breaking through the vicious spiral of deflation, and while welcoming the codes for industry as affording a chance to quash the evil of racketeering, do not w'ish to see them used as more than temporary expedients. In the Roosevelt idea of stronger and yet more forceful measures on the same lines if the pace shows signs of flagging they see nothing short of the permanent socialisation of industry or State Capitalism. So far as numbers go they are but a small minority. As for the enthusiastic majority, they are showing a nationally characteristic lack of anything like a philosophic outlook, an insistence on standards and absence of values, and an ability to concentrate on the job in hand to the total exclusion of anything else. The truth of the oft-quoted view that a return of confidence is the great thing needed for the dispersal of the depression will receive a fair test in the American experiment. One of the loss satisfactory concomitants of the movement has been a repetition of wild speculation on the New York Stock Exchange. Its outbreak fostered a dangerous illusion with regard to the real nature of the recovery in prices which marked the first stage of the new regime. It soon appeared as if, forgetting the “ truce on selfishness,” all the world and his wife were gambling in stocks and commodities. The boom proved one of the briefest on record. Wheat, barley, and cotton prices underwent such a slump that the Chicago wheat pit was closed for a time, and, on reopening, transactions were forbidden by the Government at a price lower than the last closing price. President Roosevelt is understood to hate and despise gambling, particularly the Wall street brand, but ho hesitates to exercise his plenary powers to the extent of prohibiting buying on “ margin.” However, the Now York Stock Exchange has been put under restrictions as to both hours of trading and the amount of “ cover ” required, which in respect of speculative stocks has been fixed as high as 50 per cent. One of the vagaries of human nature appears to bo to indulge the gambling propensity

when least able to afford it. The same phenomenon is observable in Australia, particularly New South Wales and Queensland, where the Slate lotteries appear to be tho chief industry, while New Zealanders’ participation in these as well as m our own “ Art Unions ” indicates that this country is no exception.