AMERICA’S PLAN

Hokitika Guardian, 11 November 1933, Page 6

AMERICA’S PLAN

A VARIABLE BAROMETER With the drive, at the end of August, which enlisted as voluntary aids 1,500,000 men and women from all over the American nation, the first phase of the National Recovery Administration’s campaign, the organisation phase, reached its end. The second phase which will see every effort made to develop consuming power for making effective, t higher prices for gbods and commod ities required by the N.R.A. programme, will probably be the critical phase. To all appearance the next six or eight weeks will make plain beyond any doubt whether the great scheme for a planned business recovery and for the ending of exceptional unemployment has succeeded or failed. Thus far the results of the campaign have been disappointing to the public and, probably, to its authors. While really notable progress has been made by the Administrator of the N.R.A., General Jackson, in securing the acceptance of codes by. some of the largest industries in the country, as well as by thousands of smaller ones, there has not been brought about that “truce to selfishness” which was. essential for overwhelming success. However, :if N.R.A. and the Blue Eagle have not actually triumphed as yet, neither have they actually failed. Time works against their success, since the essence of the N.R.A. movement is the creation of a sort of patriotic fervour, and fervours .are not worked up by degrees. They either come with a rush or they do not come at all. Bait not enough time has gone by yet for people to be sure that the tinder of public enthusiasm is proof against any spark that N.R.A. may strike forth. Moreover, the Administration has still untouched, several resources, any one of which, like monetary inflation, may easily prove to be the sought-for spark. OBSTACLES TO SUCCESS Long before the organisation phase was completed', in fact almost at the outset of the N.R.A. campaign, g, number formidable obstacles in the way of success had begun to reveal themselves What was more, with the appearance of some of these obstacles which made specific and tangible for the first time certain implications in the predictions and promises pf the authors of planned or forced recovery, there began to be likewise a questioning in many quarters of the value, not merely permanently but also temporarily, of the, changes which the N.R:A. was created to bring about. These doubts have rather grown that diminished as time has gone on and the details of the recovery programme have been made more and more definite.

The first uneasiness—and so the first clanger to the hope of universal co-opera-that manifested itself was over the tendency of 'the N.R.A. to socialise business to such an extent as to threaten the destruction of individualism. In the beginning this con cern was for the fate of the principh than the fate of the individual, but later the reverse was the case. This was not that the principle of individualism became any less dear to the heart of the public, but that the menace to the individual became definitely more alarming; A nation which for generations haa believed that its greatness was rooted in the pioneer (the individualistic) spirit could hardly have beeii expected to r< ceive with enthusiasm the declaration that the day of “rugged individualism” had pasqd away for ever. Moreover, its destrust and dislike of the revolutionary changes proposed in the conduct of its business affairs were not made any the less by the knowledge that the proposals for change came mainly from persons with little actual experience of business and with a deep tinge of Socialism, if not Communism, in their political phi’ «sophy. The nickname “Brains Trash” was not the offspring of admiration and affectionate regard. REFORM NOT REVOLUTION

To the first uneasiness there was soon added a second, when one of the socalled Trust, Mr Tugwell, the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, put into words what many people had been thinking, and said that the experiment in controlled production which the Government had undertaken would probably he made permanent if it seemed to be successful. On the surface that idea would appear to have nothing unreason_ able about it, but it was far from being a cheerful statement to a. people who thought all the disillusionment of nearly four years of depression and failure still clung to the belief, with the wish father to the though that the depression was only a temporary interruption to the normal course of American life—a people too, to whom the idea of a revolution of any sort being welcome was very fantastic and abhorrent.

If the American public has maintainen a receptive attitude towards the N.R.A it is not from any wish to bring about through its agenev such an economic revolution as President Roosevelt’s new deal' contemplates, or any kind of a revolution whatever. The public of this country, it is safe to say, wants not- revolution.but reform; ana by reform it means merely a little more active exercise for a time by the Federal Government of its powers to “police” business. There it differs from the Administration, which wishes to rid the country, once and for all, of business practices which it considers either unfair or alien to the spirit of an intelligent and equitable national economy.

The public’s attitude towards the N.R.A has yet to become settled. It would like to be enthusiastic over it as over a well-conceived practical plan for tiding over an emergency; and some part of the public is unquestionably enthusiastic over it in just" that way. Another part of the public/which with the part just mentioned probably makes