Evening Star Newspaper, March 19, 1935, Page 12

RICHBERG LASHES PUBLIG INFLAMERS Declares Vital Question Is Whether Emotion or Reason Govern. (Contined'From First Page) _ of the man who is sufficiently igno- rant, or vicious, or blindly emotional to promise some simple cure for & highly complicated disease.” Emotion Vs. Reason. He warzed against the “wise-cracks of the superficial politician” and the *smooth oratory of any empty mind.” “The critical issue of 1935, Rich- berg said, “lies in this question: Is public opinion to be formed, and the Yeadership of business and politics to be guided, more and more by unrea- soning emotion, or shall we see a re- wival of the rule of reason? “Are the shouters, the exhorters and the wise-crackers going to dominate public thinking, or, before long, will ® bored and noise-weary people turn off the radios, turn away from the bellowing, in the press and on the| platform, of obstructionists and de- | stroyers and listen to progressive- | minded leaders in business and poli- | tics who, on the basis of long experi- ence and practical knowledge, are known to be sincerely working for the greatest good of greatest number?” Defends N. R. A. Richberg continued his warning against “demagogic appeal to preju- dice or class interest.” Concluding, he delivered a defense of the National Recovery Administra- tion and scored the critics who have become louder as court decisions have set babk the administration. The re- versals, he said, do not involve the principles of N. R. A, but instead the methods used in carrying out the law. “There is no question of the power,” Richberg asserted. “There is only the question of how and where that power should be most wisely exercised. CRE “That question * * * cannot be an- swered soundly by emotional exhorta- tions to protect the liberty of men to make money out of the sweat and sor- row of underpaid. overworked men and women. It cannot be answered soundly by the clamor of monopolists to be free from governmental inter- ference, or by the wailing of sweat- shop operators for the same liberty.” The text of Richberg's address fol- lows: In this hour when the radio broad- casting channels and the newspapers are pouring into the ears and eyes of the American people, so much of the shouting, raging and coarse Vituperation of passionate politics, I am most grateful for the opportunity given by the National Radio Forum to discuss earnestly, but without per- sonal rancor, the greatest present menace to the peace and prosperity of this Nation. The United States is not threatened by the hostile designs of any other Nation. With ample capacity of self- defense and no aggressive intentions against other peoples, we should neither fear nor expect to arouse such hostility. The United States does not lack the means of self-support. We have am- ple resources for the maintenance of all our people in greater comfort and secrity than any people have ever enjoyed. We can exchange many of our products with those of other na- tions to mutual advantage, but our ability to serve our major needs is hot dependent upon international trade. The dangers confronting the Amer- ican people today, the obstacles still retarding our recovery, arise within our borders. We are faced with the absolute necessity of ending certain evils and weaknesses in our methods of making morey and of' governin ouiselves. The vast majority ki that this job must be done. but they do not know how to do it. They must trust to leadership in business and in politics. Three Kinds of Leaders. There are three classes of leaders ‘who offer their programs for public support, who may be roughly classi- fied as: The Old Guard, the Progres- sives and the Destroyers. The Old Guard believe we should B0 back to that system of unrestrained self-seeking, under which a few peo- ple could accumulate unjustified wealth and control the lives of a mul- titude, without acknowledging or ful- filling their responsibility to the gen- eral welfare. The Old Guard pros- pered under that system, and they simply do not understand that such & system. under which millions of peo- ple have been and are still denied em- ployment and are destitute in the midst of plenty, can no longer be fol- erated. The Destroyer, despairing of any improve;nent in a system deeply rooted in special privilege and controlled by legally entrenched money power, wish to destroy it utterly. They have suf- fered under the system. They have no stake in its preservation, and they are ready to smash it by any means, The Progressives, seeking to im- prove the system, arouse the bitter opposition of both the Old Guard, who fear any change, and the Destroyers Who want everything changed. It America had only a simple choice between these three programs, there would be little cause to fear the future. The Old Guard, with all its economic power, can only swing a few million voters to its support. The Destroyers, stirring the passions of the unemployed. the discouraged and zealots. cannot unite even all the vic- tims ot social injustice in a revolu- tionary campaign that would ruin the lives of at lesst two-thirds of our population who are now enjoying a fairly decent standard of living. The overwhelming majority of our citi- zens would support a unified, progres- sive leadership of those who call them- selves Democrats or Republicans, but ‘who, under any political banner, are loyal to American institutions and have faith in the principles and processes of self-government. But the grave danger of the present time les in the failure of the Pro- e r the perfect RY MARTINI MARTINI & ROSSI DRY VERMOUTH Imported by W.A. TAYLOR & CO,, N.Y. BEITZELL & CO. Distributers - . THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 1935. Fires Blast at Crities DONALD R. RICHBERG. gressive leaders of business, of agri- culture and of politics to stand to- gether in a common opposition to the Old Guard, who by doing nothing ex- stand together or we shall be sepa- rately destroyed, then the sweet virtue of self-sacrifice may become & prac- tical necessity of self-preservation. cept to obstruct progress, would wreck | That is the appeal for co-operation recovery, and to the destroyers, who | which today should transform the by fomenting class conflicts would drive us into civil war. No mere exhortations to sink selfish ambitions and personal gain in a de- | votion to the general welfare will | ckange this situation. When a busi- | ness man or a politcian feels that he can® be safely advance his selfish in- | terests by refusing to co-operate, he is not easily persuaded to sacrifice a per- | sonal gain for the public interest. I | nowever. he should be convinced that | we are menaced by a dg-erous com- mon enemy, and that * must either hard headed but intelligent man or politician into a the common good. It should be possible to prove today to at least four out of every five voters, to at least four out of every five fath- ers and mothers in this land, tat they and their leaders must stand to- gether against the Old Guard and the Destroy for the prot: n thing which they hold dear. the voters and the fathers and mo.h- ers of this Nation really knew the facts and the dangers confronting usiness ier fon ‘Copyright 1935, The American Tobaceo Company. them, they would make their demands heard in one great shouting that would drive the sensible, progressive leadership of this Nation into common action, and into common opposition to those who are playing upon, the | prejudices of either the fortunte/rich or the unfortunte poor, and who either blindly or, intentionally are enlisting | their folloers to engage in civil war- fare. Why is it that the people of this country, the sober, sensible, hard- working men and women, do not un- derstand the dangers that are. con- fronting them, and are not sure to- day who are their friends and who their enemies? Feeding Upon Scandal. Ttz first and foremost reason is that during the last 40 years the people have been feeding more and more upon scandal sensation and excite- ment, instead of upon important news. The headlines of the daily papers, which scream of crime and exposures and personal attacks, are their meat. | They lap up the news columns which reek with gossip and rumors that mis- | lead and confuse them, and with prop- |aganda in which fact and falsehood |are cleverly interwoven. An attack made by or upon any prominent per- son is exciting news. The great solid achievements of men and women who are actually making this .a mur’ world, arouse little interest in a public habituated to eat the raw, red, drip- ping stories of sin and catastrophe and conflict, served up for breakfast, lurich and dinner every day. This is not an indictment of news- paper publishers. They are compet. g in the business of supplying peo- | dle with what they want to I seople demand more comic sirips, nore sporting news, more crime and candal stories, the successful pub- lisher and editor will see that the | people get what they want. That is his business. I am merely explaining why the great mass of people know less and less about their Government, ‘ as the Government becomes more and !more complicated and harder to un- | derstand, and they read less and less | about t is really being done. Since bad news is always interest- | ing, and good news is usually not, | | what impression do people get of what is actually happening? Let me give | an example from N. R. A. When N. R. A. was exciting and making lots of trouble, the papers were full of it. ‘When N. R. A. quieted down and went to work doing a ‘'good job, cleaning up a lot of mistakes and ironing out difficulties, it didn’t produce much news until a popular humorist, with a characteristic disregard of personal responsibility and truth said: “N. R. A. is as dead as the dodo!” That made the front page—not because the statement was true, but because it was entertaining. - . An old proverb reads: “Happy is the nation which has no history.” The modern version apparently is: “Unhappy is the day which has no hysteria.” ‘World Under Tension. For more than 20 years the whole | world has been living under a great | emotional strain. Here in America | we have lived through a World War {in which we were engaged, followed by a brief depression, then by seven years of a get-rich-quick boom, then by over three years of a sickening decline, and finally by two years of steadily rising hope and relief from terrible pressures of misery and de- spair, The nerves of this generation have been stretched to a fearful ten- sion. They have been played upon so continually by strong emotions that | they are frayed and quivering. Just as the individual may suffer a nervous breakdown, just as a single mind may give way under persistent overstrain, so a whole people may find | that public opinion is losing its so- | briety and common sense. The suf- | fering, the worry and the fears of | millions of unheppy individuals gradu- ally develop a worried, nervous, emo- tional public mind. This is a time most suitable for man who is sufficiently ignorant, or vicious, or blindly emotional to prom- ise some simple cure for a highly complicated disease. The political medicine man brings forward an oint- ment to cure rheumatism, a gargle for tuberculosis and & tonic for malignant cancer. To those who are weary with tough problems and bored to death with sta- tistics come the wise cracks of the superficial politician who can tell in 10 minutes how to answer an eco- nomic question that has remained unanswered for 10,000 years. To those who are annoyed by the restrictions and discipline necessary for the preservation of liberty and and order in a modern nation comes the smooth oratory of an empty mind demanding for every one an unre- | etther a plez for anarchy or simply nonsence. Laying the Blame. To those who seek an enemy against whom to charge their misfortunes come all varieties of the demagogue charging that bankers, or labor lead- ers, or chain stores, or Communists or clergymen or racketeers, or big busi- ness, or college professors, or cham- bers of commerce, or Congress, or the A. F. of L., or Wall Street—or anyhow that some particularly wicked lot of people are the cause of all our woes. Now the plain and simple fact is that we are all responsible and that the persons least responsible for our difficulties are simply those who knew the least and had the least, so that they had the least power of making important mistakes. Those who knew | the most and had the most of power must accept the greatest responsibility the rise of the well-meaning fanatic, | | the unscrupulous demagogue, the pro- fewsional exhorter, the Utopian prom- issor and the political charlatan. | To those who are heavily burdened | now come the honeyed words of the If Your Dentist Hurts You, Try DR. 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Now is it not evident that this should be a time of practical planning and sensible discussion of a progres- sive program to maintain the gains we have made and to insure a further advance? But instead of giving at- tention to this vital matter, what are the people doing? What are their representatives in Congress doing? The plain fact is that most of the people and a large number of their political leaders are engaged in watch- ing, or playing parts in, a national vaudeville show, - with political co- medians, contortionists, wise-crackers, ballad singers, crooners anl exhibi- tionists crowding the stage. Of course, it is an amusing show. But do people realize the danger of per- mitting those who appeal only to self- ish emotions to become the shapers of public opinion? Do they realize the danger of having public policies determined solely by appeals to preju- dice and class interest? 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