PUNGENT SMOKE

In another of the series of fireside talks last night, the President showed a decided wish to conciliate business, which has become increasingly fearful of the future operations of the New Deal.

The mental attitude of business depends not upon presidential optimism, but upon the actual working policies of the future. The President's assurance to business was not that there would be any change in his present program, but that the continued effect of this program would bring results which can justify present business confidence. A subtle effect was achieved by drawing justification for these policies from quotations of Abraham Lincoln, Elihu Root, and Theodore Roosevelt, all stars of the Republican galaxy.

The President's categorical justification of his program was the obvious fact that business is better and unemployment is less than in the dark days of March, 1932. He directly ignored the natural conservative reply that this improvement might have been self-operative, or at least not a direct product of the New Deal. But he made an oblique, though impressive reference to this point of view in citing the example of England's present recovery, which is sometimes alleged to be the product of simply muddling through the depression, and not a product of radical measures. Mr. Roosevelt called attention to England's abandonment of the gold standard, treasury refinancing, and other "unorthodox" emergency measures,--which, however, did not impair the financial integrity of the British treasury.

The most glaring omission, in a speech obviously intended to restore business confidence, was the matter of New Deal expenses, and the partial failure of government refinancing this quarter, which raises the grave question of how the Administration proposes to foot its bills. A declaration on this point is undoubtedly the most imperative pronouncement that the government should make, if business is not to draw the conclusion that radical financial policies are contemplated.

The speech was probably the most able and certainly the most direct and challenging that the President has yet made over the radio since he took office. But like all speeches concerning a matter so controversial as the New Deal, it gave aid and comfort to sympathizers, disposed with proper scorn of those whose objections are based on more Old Guardism, and failed to answer the sound objections of those who agree with Mr. Roosevelt that something has had to be done, but disagree with his solution.