LAST GREAT SLUMP

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 12870, 25 May 1936, Page 3

LAST GREAT SLUMP

AN AMERICAN PROPHECY. POVERTY WON’T BE ABOLISHED BY LAW. EQI'A 1. CHANCE IS BEING ATTAINED. NEW YORK, April 13. Abolition of poverty and attainment of equal economic opportunity in the. United States are making steady progress, according to Air Neil Carothers, head of the College of Business Administration of Lehigh University. Air Cat-others predicts that “the depression of 1929-1936 should he tho last great depression in history.” “We move toward a social order iu which, there will he no dire poverty, no’ exploitation, no lack of opportunity,” Mr Carotbers writes in the American Alagazine just issued, hut ho cautions against the “cruel and vicious notion” that “an economic millenium can he created by act of Congress.” His article continues:

“It is high time the American people understand poverty cannot lie abolished by law, that hard work cannot lie eliminated by statute, and that government cannot create an ideal economic system. The course of economic life is determined hv forces beyond government control, by forces ol nature, by -physics and chemistry and biolosv and mat hematics.

“.Millions of people have boon driven by incompetent writers on social sulyeels to the conclusion that, if poverty and dist ress abound in an ago of plenty; it must he because minorities are robbing the majority, because men are not paid tho wages they earn, because the rich exploit the poor. “This economy ot abundance is a figment of the imagination. We cannot with onr present resources greatly increase the national dividend. But we move steadily toward a reasonable comfort for all. Poverty "and the fear of want are on the way out. Equal chance for all is slowly being attained. “These two objectives will he realised through progress of education, research and invention, increasing control of natural resources, and the disappearance of those defective classes unable to meet the demands of our civilisation.”