THE H.B. TRIBUNE FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 1933 A REFORMER’S DIFFICULTIES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 210, 18 August 1933, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 1933 A REFORMER’S DIFFICULTIES.

A New York message appearing on another page sets forth some only of the many difficulties with which President Roosevelt is meeting in carrying through his plans for the revival of the industry and internal trade of his country. It is impossible here, in a small and homogeneous community like our own, to appreciate in any way fully the immensity of the task he has undertaken among a heterogeneous population that counts eighty to our one and is spread over half the habitable part of a continent. Some inkling of them is, however, conveyed by issues of the American press that are now coming to hand. From these we may, in the first place, gather an idea of the number of the laws, orders, rules and regulations, both promotive, restrictive, and prohibitive, that it has been found necessary to promulgate in order to give the many diverse schemes a start and make them fit in with one another, Nor is there any end to them yet, for almost daily unexpected reactions have presented themselves for whose effective control or direction no advance provision had been made. All this has operated in anything but in the way of establishing that general feeling of confidence in the ultimate effectiveness of the plans that is essential to their success. As -will be seen from a communication from the New York correspondent of the London “Times” reproduced to-day, one of the main troubles with which the President has to contend is the tendency that has become inherent in the American blood to speculate heavily upon the possibilities of future developments. Speculation in this connection is an altogether too euphemistic term to use, for “big business” in the United States does not hesitate for a moment to use its vast resources in order to bring about the conditions that make for both big and quick returns, regardless altogether of what may be the eventual consequences to the people at large. It is to influences such as these—to which, despite the innumerable warnings of previous experiences, there is always ready lepgcwe on life gart of the

gullible public—that the so frequent “booms” and “bursts” of the American markets are mainly to be assigned. Probably at no period of the history of the Republic has any finer opportunity been offered for operations of the kind, the very uncertainties of the position providing just the chances that are being constantly watched for. The success or failure of Mr. Roosevelt’s great experiment depends in very large measure upon his success or failure in countering these movements. In this respect the reforms he has undertaken to effect are just as much moral and ethical as they are economic, and such reforms are not to be brought about in the twinkling of an eye among so many millions of people with the gambling, get-rich-quick fever an inheritance of generations in their bones. President Roosevelt would seem to have .been altogether over sanguine when he set out on his labour of love for his country by making an appeal to all to Assist him to its fulfilment by cordial and sympathetic co-operation, apart altogether from legal compulsions and restraints. Doubtless there may be a very large element among the big men of the country who would wish to comply with this appeal to their better sides. But there is, also without doubt, an equally strong element that could not, even if they would, resist the temptations that present themselves to pursue the old course and who consider restraining laws only with a view to getting round them. And it is they who set the tune to which others must dance. By way of example may be instanced what a San Francisco correspondent has to say with respect to some of the biggest manufacturing and trading concerns of the country. As we know, the President’s first objective is to effect a rise, as far as possible simultaneous, in both commodity prices and workers’ wages. In the first place, these manufacturers are keeping machinery going constantly by working three shifts a day, but at the old rate of wage, with the object of piling up stocks to be sold when the inflated prices come into being. On the other hand , the trading concerns are increasing their stocks as much as they can and at the same time restricting sales with the same purpose in view. It can very readily be seen how far this will go to thwart the object to which Mr. Roosevelt has asked them to assist. The almost inevitable reactions will be found, firstly, in really well-meaning manufacturers and traders being forced, in self-protection, to follow the example thus set, and, secondly, in a large body of operatives being, for some time at least, thrown out of employment. The President, with his dictatorial powers, may be able to devise means for counteracting movements such as these, but it will be only with the result of creating further disturbances and unrest in the markets. Like that of the transgressor, the way of the reformer is hard, and we may only pray that Franklin Roosevelt will prove big enough and strong enough to overcome all the difficulties that so evidently beset his path.