ROOSEVELT’S FIGHT

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 May 1934, Page 10

ROOSEVELT’S FIGHT

PAST ACTION AND PROSPECTS If Mr. Roosevelt’s first anniversary as President had, befallen one month i‘,£.*;o the plaudits of a wondering world would have drowned every dissentient voice, writes S. K. Ratcliffe in the London “Observer,” in a review of the first year of President Roosevelt’s administration. If amid the chorus on this fourth of March we hear an ominous rumbling, the explanation is, mainly, that in America some of the President’s most recent exeutive acts have aroused antagonism and not a little dismay, while in Europe there is a gathering sense of peril in respect of the wider economic consequences of the New Deal. To-day, however, marks the close of the first year of the second Roosevelt, and neither in the United States nor in any other country has an elected ruler achieved a comparable record. It is impossible tor any observer, European or American, to pronounce judgment at this early stage upon the Roosevelt policy. The issue of world revival is still in suspense, but the immensity of the Republic’s resources and the unbounded surprises of the North American Continent should bid the most confident critic-to he wary in framing his estimates of the near future.

So I suggest that at this point we should fix our minds in especial upon two matters: first, the depth of the crisis amid which Mr. Roosevelt took office, and, secondly, the character of the leadership he has given to the American people. One thing, at least is incontestable. Twelve months ago the United States was in the abyss. No one on this side of the Atlantic could approach a realisation of the facts and the national state of mind during the last month of the Hoover regime. The economic stagnation was .appalling for a nation that thought of itself as a vast business community.. There were exposures of financial corruption. One State Governor after another was ordering the banks to be closed, and by noon of the day upon which the new President entered the White House every bank was shut and a country of 125 million people was unable to increase its stock of ready money.

Note this is a matter of especial significance. Modern America has had a distrust of statecraft, and almost no belief in political leaderships. It has taken pride in the strength of its economic institutions and the ability of its business men.

ONLY AUTHORITY. But in the supreme economic crisis, (cnfessedly, no help could come from this quarter. In February, 1933, there was not. in any part of the United States a practical economic authority to give a lead. The kings of modern power were dumb. It was to the head of the Government that the whole nation turned. Mr. Roosevelt did not seize the dictatorship; but the gloom was so dense at his advent that he could have done so. I welve months ago, however, the American people could not see any marks, of the dicator in him. As Governor of New York he showed little of the decisive quality that was displayed Born his first hour of President.

Here is a conspicuous example of a public man’s responding to the claims of a. high office, and in a short interval before coming to it, planning a policy and making skilful choice of his lieutenants. “Action, and action now,” he saw to the demand of the American people. Amid the unprecedented darknesf and dangers of 1933, what kinds or action were open to a new Frcsidcr.t? There were two things he could do, and both of them he did. He coull resolve.-.to excerise the whole of the authority vested in him by Congress, and he could surround himself with men and women best representative of present-day America. Cabinet containing such citizens as Harold Ickes (Interior), Henry Wallace (Agriculture), and” Frances Ft. kins (Labour) is a bright focus of the social experience and public character In ought into the service of the New Deal.

The Roosevelt policy falls into two divisions —Recovery and Reconstruction. The President’s opponents assert that the country voted for the first but gave no mandate for the second. Mr. Roosevelt affirms that they are inter-woven, and that a large plan of economic reconstruction must inevitably emerge from the immediate programme of which the National Recovery Administration is the dominant agency.

This position of the President’s I do not think can be effectively challenged. The industrial Cedes, devised and established in something over 200 occupations, aic the target of innumerable complaints.

THE CENTRAL FACTS. Practicable and enforceable for (he most part in the great industries, they make difficulties for the small employer, and are bristling with difficulties throughout (he vast and variegated world of the retail trades. lint let us not overlook the central facts of the N.R..A. Jt has established a national creed as regards child labour, minimum wage rates, a short working week, and recognition of the union. It has created a. national regulative system over the industrial world of America —at the very

moment when Big Business itself has awakened to the truth that the era of self-destructive competition has reached its term. Producer and industrialist alike are compelled to realise the facts and the logic inherent in a crisis that inexorably compels a new deal—Roosevel-

tian or otherwise: uncontrolled mass production which destroys itself; a proletariat and petite bourgeoisie deprived of buying power, a system of economic, control without intelligence or flexibility in the distribution of the national income. Gan Mr. Roosevelt, do it? The answer to this question depends. I 1 suggest. mainly upon three or four

others. Will the masters of the Aim i lean finance agree Io work under the Securities Act amt to limit their demand for amendments to certain important matters of d' lai]? ('an the Code system of the N.K.A. be so riwdified as to win over those cj c . ments now dangerous Io it? Can organised Labour be so directed as work for its own official redemption and toward an orderly expansion over the masses of immigrant workers? And, above all, I think, will the world economic revival prove to be a reality?

And meanwhile, there is President Roosevelt himself. His personal prestige is not. quite the marvel that it was at. the opening of the political >car. The cancelling of the air-mail contracts has been made to look like an act of irresponsible dictatorship —and the wintry elements have been against him.

The next twelve months, or six months, may provide a supreme test. If any national leader in the world to-day can meet if. that leader is Franklin Roosevelt: courageous and adroit, informed, adventurous and sclf-cont t oiled; in his personal surroundings the happiest of men.