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64 The Nation [Vol. 137,

No.

3550

upreme

By

PAUL

Y A N D E R S O N

Washi ng t on Jury

HE

most m portantWashingtonnews of the week

comes, as it often does, from New York . I allude o

the address of D onald R. Richberg, chief counsel for

the Na tiona l Recovery Administration, ‘defining the purposes

an d policies of tha t body. Since SO man y of the daily papers

fumbled the story it may be desirable to sketch some of th e

more-salient points. Richberg,with he official approv alof

Administrator Hugh S. Johnson, told Ameiican ndustry t

probably was acing ts ast chance todemonstrate

its

ca-

paci ty to govern-itself successfully. H e said that-succe ssor

failure-would come in sixty days, and that the outcome would

determine whether the future*managers of industry wil l

be

chosen by stockholdersor he public. H e said hat slackers

could expect no mercy. It has been

a

long ime since Bab-

bittannia listened to uch trong anguage rom uch n

authoritative source, and

I

should like to have seen the col-

lective face

of

the Me rcha nts’ Association

of

N ew Y o rk

as

i t gave ear to the speaker’s beautifully ironic allusion to

he agony of the hard-headed m anager who has stood

on his head successfully all his life, viewing the supreme

achievement of a business entefprise as a reduction in

the

pay roll coupled with an increased output; who has not

felt

the slightest responsibility for maintaining mass purchasing

power; and who is now suddenly asked t o stand on his feet,

and, when no longer looking a t

the

world upside down,

to

observe that employees are

really

customers, and that the

supreme achievement

of

business enterprise m a y be to

pay

out as

much

money as possible n wages wit ho ut pro-

ducing more goods than

th

market will absorb.

W h a t

I

mean,

of

course, is that I should have enjoyed seeing

the faces

of

those whounderstoodwha t he speaker

was

saying. It is reliably repor ted that he managed not o smile

when he told them that their cooperation would be wholly

volun tary . T ha t was qu i te

a

feat , but t was hardly

a

nice

way to treat a good, simple, an d expressive wor ld like “vol-

untary.” T h e cotton textile people learned how “voluntary”

their part

was

to be when the heavy-handed Ge neral Johnson

ot

them ehind closed doors. Und oubte dlyhe cted or

their own good, but some children just will not take castor

oil

unless

their noses ar e held.

IT

* * ? E t

is often and pertinently asked wha t the Unite d States

SupremeCourtwill say about heconstitutionality

of

some of the Rooseveltmeasures. Certainlyhere re at

least hree eactionary oldmen

on

that bench whowould

takeprofound atisfaction n tanding by theirplutocratic

concepts of society if they knew he mob wa s bat teri ng at

the door, and here may be more han hree. T h a t eventu-

alityalreadyhas been seriouslyconsidered here by persons

interested in the success of the new deal. T h e re a re ways of

meeting t.Congresscould pass anact equiring members

of thecourt to retireupon passiag theage of retirement.

Tha t wou ld remove

t w o

of the worst.

It

would also remove

the best, Justice Brandeis, but that cou ld be met by a

pro

vision e nablin g hePresident by executive order oextend

the enur e of designatedJustices who had reached the age

Iimit.

Or

the

size

of thecourtcou ld be increased by la w

to perm it the appointm ent ,of addit ional Justices whose ideas

developed subsequ ent o heyear

1880.

It

has been done.

If this eporter knows anythingabout he emper

of

the

present Administration, it will never permit he whole eco-

nomic stru ctur e of this cou ntr y to be disrupt ed and demoral-

ized because less than a half a dozen dyspeptic o ld men are

determined to uphold prec edents established before the inven-

tion of the telephone. Ashasoften been made lear

on

these pages, I do notrelish theseencroachments of the ex-

ecutive upon the prerogatives,

of

the othe r branches, b ut some-

times

a

condition arises whichmust be dea1t“with. T h e

blame for such bad preceden ts properly rests on those who

produce the conditions.

*

*

*

* ‘ *

R

COGNITION of SovietRussia appa rently has been

hastened by public reaction ohe tep taken y the

R. F. C. when, in substance, it len t

4,000,000

to a govern-

ment whose legal existence

we

refuse oadmit .All signs

indicate hat he oan was a “feeler,” and hat ailure of

publicopinion to manifest any resentment will be followed

by a much arger one possibly

25,000,000

or even

100,-

000,000. T h e f ir st o anwas o enableRussia to buy our

cotton; henextpresumablywill enable her obuyother

Americanroducts,articularly copper. T h e oldmyth

tha t recognition must w ait upo n payment of debts contracted

by the mperialand provisional Russian governments looks

pretty sorry in the light of wh at has happened

to

the debts

owed us by gove rnments which we

do

recogrizc.

It

is some-

what appalling to think of the mischief which one man, such

as Charles Ev ans Hug hes, can d o in the course of a long and

industrious life. It would be interesting to know just how

much n cold dollarswe have lost hroughour ailure to

recognize Russia.

I

. . . a

T has not been mycustom o hold themajority of my

countrymen in extra vaga nt esteem. Indeed, I have never

forgotten heobservation of my enerable ontemporary,

H.

L. Menclren, that they are probably the greatest aggrega-

tion of poItroons andscoundrels ever assembled unde r one

flag. Nevertheless,

I

have been genuinely startled by the

volume of mail I have received fro m N a t i o n readers express-

ing their rank incredulity, that anyone would fail to beat the

government out o his fai r har e of incomeaxes if he

thought he could stayout of jail . T h a t persons in hat

moralstateexist n this cou ntry n large numbers,

I

was

well aware, but I simply cannot imagine how they ever hap-

pened tohear of, much less read, T h eN a t i o n . D o they

pick it up n barb er shops and dentists’ waiting room s?

I n

thatconnect ionpermitme o plead in passing th at I can-

not possibly answer all the etters from persons who we re

impressed-one way

or

another-by my gentle com men ts on

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July 19,

19331

The

Nation

65

- __

theHouse of Mo rgan.

T o the

manywhowere ind,

I

tender my thanksherewith. T o theothers

I

will onlysay

that they wasted their time, because under

no

circumstances

would I be in terested in th e judgm ents or opinions of people

who believe that it is perfect ly al l r ight to chea t if you are

not caught.

H

i * + * *

A R O L D ICKES is rapidl y being lecognized as one of

thes t ronges tcharac ter s n heCabinet .Th isshou ld

surpr ise nobody in C hicago, but in the East

he

was, prior to

his

appointment, curiously unknown.

I

say urious ly, be-

cause a man who had spent a substa ntial par t of his l i fe de-

fendingChicagoagainst hepirat ical aids of Sam Insull

should have njoyed national eputation. A t anyate,

the vigor and determination with which he took hold of the

public-works programwas a lesson to those who did not

know him. Som e of his appointm ents-notably those of

Slat tery,

Glavis

an d Margold-have been excellent. T h e y

induce the reflection that one of t h e t h i n g s w r o n g w i t h t h i s

coun try n ecen t years was he ailure of those governing

i t

ro

avail themselves of the rains cattered round

it

Coolidge assumed that thinking was unnecessary

in

govern-

ment , aqd Hoover houghthe could do i t al l.

If

the fore-

going soundsa trifle lyric al it is because I am h ap p yover find-

ing myself surrou nded , af ter al l theseyears, by swarm s

of

men and w omen actually possessing chara cter and intelligence.

Maybe i t J s a l l a d ream.

lhv

Conferences Fail

By

HAROLD

J.

LASKI

London June 26

I

I.

N the first fortnight of the Economic Conference, certain

genera l ru ths abou t

all

international conferences have

emerged with tr ikin g force. 1)

It

is a mistake o

hold such a conferenc e unless the prepa ration has been com-

plete enough either to lay down the broad l ines of agreement

or to confro nt its members wi th decisive alternatives. I n the

present case, i t is clear that there h s been

no

such prepara-

tion.

(2 ) It

is a mistake to hold such a conference unless its

term s of reference a re im itedand specific. Otherw ise he

inevitable result is that al l nat i ona l divergences come for th-

wi th to the su r f ace , and in the effort to secu re some kind of

agreem ent which may save the conference’s face, broad gen-

eral resolutions are passed in whic h he reservations are

so

many, the vagueness

so

profou nd, that these resolutions cease

to have definite meaning.

It is already obvious that he charac ter of the present

conference nvolves this outcom e

of

its deliberations.

At

the

most, it will pass pious resolutions of principle which seek to

obscure the inhe rent conflicts

now

daily expressed ; nd each

stat e will be asked to implement heirgeneral-tenor n ts

own way. T o

regard the conference as

a

gatew ay to recovery

is already an attitud e impossible to any observer wh o wishes

to

be taken seriously.

11

Th at f ac t emerged in the

first

general debate. No speeqh

contained a specific program. W e knew, without

a

confer-

ence, that wholesale prices ough t to rise, th at curren cy needs

to be s tabil ized, hat ar if fs are oo high, that international

debts are a m enace, an d economic nationalism a isaster.

O f t enR a m s a yMa cD ona la repeated his well-known plea

for cooperation, w ithout any indica tion of

how it

was to be

obtained ; nd m ost other speakels offered the news that the

conference m e t a t- a grave cr is is andurged hatsometh ing

mu st be done. Commissions were et up

o n

currency nd

commercial policy, which ,havegiven birth o enough sub-

commissions to provide all the mo re importa nt delegates

with

either

a

chairmanship or

thz

position

of

a rappor teur .

/

i

T h e conference has not yet seriously confron,ted i ts first

great di lemma. Tar if f reductio ns are essential if the wheels

of international t rade are to be set mov ing; but tariff reduc-

t ions ca nnot be contemp lated u nti l currency stabil i tyhas been

achieved. T h e domestic s i tuat ion of Amer ica ender s ny

ear ly set t lement of this la t ter issue un likely; and i t is appar-

ent to most delegates that u nti l

Mr.

Roosevelt’s policy of in-

flation has reached some equilibrium, no s ta te is likely to risk

the invasion of its market by goods whose power to penetrate

is simplya functio n of depreciated currency.Washington’s

reject ion of the central bankers’ set t lement has brought into

the open a divergency of inte rest between Euro pe and Amer -

ica which prevents any decisive outcom e

of

the cr is is for a

considerable period.

T h e d e pt h

of

th e economic nationalism s here in conflict

is obviously plofound. T h e at t i tude of the Br i t ish seems to

be that while they will ma ke some concessions fo r a stable

currency, everyone’s tariff is open to ques tion a c e p t the i r

own.

Francewants a r e tu rn o go ld , andappe ars o have

no

other predominant interest ; her plea for a great program

of interna tional public works , and for shor ter hours, s truck

a du mb note

on

the conference piano. T h e Germa ns, through

Her r Hugenberg , pu t fo rward , and hen r epud ia ted , f an-

tast ic mem orandum demand ing colonies in Africa and ter r i-

tory in Russia, seemingly on the basis that Germany, in term s

of

theSpeng lerian philosophy, is a “virile” ation. T hi s

apar t ,he n lyGerman on t r ibu t ion ppear so be Dr .

Schacht’s comprehensive effort to avoid Ge rm an infla tion by

repudiating, so far as he can, al l foreign indebtedness. Rus-

sia contributed, hrough

M.

Litvin ov, an excellent essay on

the contradiction s of capitalism ; nd Mr. Soong said simply

an d r u l y h a t an increase in heChinesestand ard of life

would go far to promote world recovery by the new purchas-

ing power it would create.

Am erica’s position ha s not been who lly clear.

Mr. Hull

made

R

speech

on

th e evils of economic nationalis m ;’but his

proposal for a 10 pe r ce nt cu t in tariffs-if

it v a s

his-was

promptly epudiated by Sena torP i t tm an . T h e a t t e r h a s

applauded plans for the remon etization of silver; and Sen a-

to r Couzens has emphas ized, ~ v h a tMr. H ul l has denied, the

divetgence betwee n the President’s policy and tha t of recovery

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