MORGENTHAU MOONSHINE

Secretary Morgenthau in his radio talk Monday evening painted the picture in his usual bright colors, but every major question which has any bearing on the future financial policies of the country was left deftly unanswered. For the most part the speech was devoted to a school-boyish recitation of the rise of the economic crisis and the sins of the Hoover administration in doing nothing to prevent it. But as for giving any reassuring words to the eager businessmen of the country, who would like to know the government's intentions concerning silver, further devaluation of the already stunted dollar, or proposed methods concerning the payment of the daily multiplying debt, the Secretary of the Treasury might as well have been broadcasting cooking recipes.

Although the Chamber of Commerce was unduly harsh in its recent criticism of the New Deal, its indiscretions lay in the direction of its uncompromising hostility to social reform. In its denunciation of the dilly-dallying financial policies of the administration the Chamber expressed the righteous impatience of all businessmen. If any permanent recovery is to be made, capital will have to reinvest but it seems hardly likely to do so until the burning issues, which the government contemptuously ignores, are settled on a secure basis.

Only a small portion of the country opposes the Congressional program of spending billions of dollars on relief and reconstruction. However, all but the most infatuated followers of the various pied pipers recognize the necessity of paying the bills. Mr. Morgenthau gave no indication that his government had any plan for doing so. What the present budget would look like if placed on a scale is indescribable, but it seems safe to say that its lack of balance is the red handwriting the businessmen of the country have been seeing on the wall.

Mr. Morgenthau's amiable offer to stabilize the dollar if other nations lead the way shows once again the fatuous aloofness of the United States. The Secretary of the Treasury compared the position of this country to that of an innocent bystander who has been injured in a fight he did not start. Such self-righteousness hardly condones the failure to stop the injury from becoming a permanent paralysis. How much the United States was bruised in the economic skirmish, even Mr. Morgenthau does not venture to say, but since President Roosevelt's refusal to cooperate wrecked the World Monetary and Economic Conference at London in 1933, it is incumbent upon the same man to take the initiative for a new and more satisfactory settlement of the world's problems.

Monday's radio talk cannot be regarded as anything more than a few meaningless caresses to quiet the bawling baby. These financial issues must be settled once and for all before any steps toward recovery can be permanent ones, and once again the Secretary of the Treasury has proven disappointing in showing the government's unwillingness to adopt a definite plan of action.