The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1934. THE WAKE OF THE NEW DEAL

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20284, 19 April 1934, Page 8

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1934. THE WAKE OF THE NEW DEAL

THERE IS HOPE and confusion in America in the wake of the New Deal. Governor Murry’s action in sending National Guard troops to prevent the sale of homes for unpaid taxes is one side of the picture; nine-tenths of the farmers in the South taking adjustment payments from the Government to destroy one quarter of the national cotton acreage while their neighbours are struggling to prevent tiie destruction of the cotton by boll weevil is another. There is a tremendous swirl of cross-currents in the reconstruction of the nation. Yet an emotional resurgence of virtue is following the waves of prosperity in coded industry. Janies M’Carthy, in “ The New Pioneers,” tells how he came upon a millhand drunkenly happy on N.R.A. wages. “ I’m yelling hooray!” said the man, rejoicing in the fact that his children would not have to work now; then turning morose, he said, “ Listen, I’m as guilty as anybody. 1 sent my two children to the textile mills. . . . We’re all as guilty as hell, the fathers as well as the employers. We were too lazy or too afraid.” America is getting a good bit of this easy repentance on high wages, but all aspects of her emotional spree are not so encouraging. In Texas, Mr M’Carthy linds ranchers with bright visions of a new regional empire, who nevertheless, want to be let alone themselves. It’s the same thing all around. You realise that the more you move around the country. Everybody is selfish. Every individual is willing to make a sacrifice for the New Deal, just as long as he gets something out of it. I am in favour of the New Deal; I want something from you, but, so far as what you want is concerned, you can go to hell. . . . That is the idea. We are all for the New Deal. This is admittedly the New Deal at its lowest ebb. In contrast there is a homesteading project for unemployed coal miners in West Virginia, which like Governor Murry’s determination to save the homes of the people, shows the better side of the working out of Roosevelt’s great plan, which “ even if it passes suddenly, or reverts to an older era, will leave marks on the face of the country, marks that human beings long will ponder and think about.” CHEERFUL CONTRAST. Tj'ROM AMERICA’S travail it is all the more comforting to turn to the picture of Britain’s serenity in riding out of the storm. There is, in fact, more than a mere metaphor in the parallel between British seamanship and statesmanship. There has been no panic in Britain, and there has been no panic in New Zealand. We could wish for a little more foresight in the Dominion in the handling of those factors that make for national buoyancy, but courage and steadfastness will win through in most emergencies, and Britain’s unexampled Budget surplus is the most heartening fact of the depression up till now. STUPID PLACE NAMES. JT IS A PITY that the newspapers A ever gave currency to the stupid name, “ The Blimit,” which was conferred locally on a mountain peak in the Arthur’s Pass region. It has no piquancy and is vulgar in the extreme, for only persons of low-grade sensibility would take pleasure in edging into public use a thinly disguised hut objectionable adjective that is never heard in polite society. A WINTER JOB, ✓GOODWILL and determination will overcome difficulties and make hardships endurable, and it is heartening therefore to find the citizens this year, under the leadership of the Progress League, falling into line cheerfully and determinedly to carry the unemployed over the sharp but short winter of their discontent. The need will be as great as ever, we are told, but fortunately no attempt has been made to break the ranks. In fact, there is the prospect that a new form of distribution of relief, eliminating the unpardonable bread lines or queues of last year, will encourage rather than discourage public generosity.