BORROWING AND SPENDING

Evening Star, Issue 22576, 18 February 1937, Page 7

BORROWING AND SPENDING

: “In thinking about President Roosevelt, and what he is likely to do during the next four years,” writes Mr Upton . Sinclair, “I always recall _ a statement he made to me : ‘Mr Sinclair, I cannot go any faster than the people will let me.’ Several friends tell me that he has made the same statement to them, so evidently it is a formula of his. ■ “Such a formula may be either an evasion or an elementary truth of political procedure under a democracy. In either case it is permission to those who believe in a planned economy to go ahead and educate the public, and build up a demand for the change. “I take, it that our present business prosperity is a product of Government borrowing and spending, and that it would collapse immediately if the borrowing and spending were stopped. I take it that our ten million unemployed are still with us, and will be with us for the remainder of the profit system’s life. “I take it that Roosevelt, or any other president elected by the people in them present mood, with such a large part of the sources of public opinion in the hands-of the capitalist class, will go on borrowing and spending to make prosperity as long as that course is possible. That is the easiest way, and not until the last dollar has been borrowed, and the last deflation of the debt has taken place, will anything basic be attempted.