The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 1933 THEORIES IN PRACTICE.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 July 1933, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 1933 THEORIES IN PRACTICE.

The United States is now well under way with the National Industrial Recovery Act designed to lift the country out of its slough of financial despond, and bring hope and work to twelve million unemployed. Special powers are given the President who is surrounded by a group of college professors known as the“brain trust.” Economic theories are being given effect, and the cable tells us almost daily how the tide ebbs and flows, and when the former, the frantic efforts made to right the situation. At the outset the unusual powers given the President were resisted by business men and. the constitutional section of Congress who objected to the departure from established legislation 'and custom. Organised labour was so far satisfied because collective bargaining is still possible. There was urgency for something to be done, Torrible distress prevailed throughout the country, 'and there was a demand for old ways to give place to new plans. The President boldly took the side of the vast army of unemployed, and hag attempted a task which is one to be watched with the closest interest all round the world. There are to be shorter hours of work to make more room for the workless. Codes and standards are to be maintained, and cohesion is asked for to build up a higher economic level. This is the theory of the situation—can this new law solve the problem and save the position? American opinion is divided and on the responsible side of it, the negative view is taken. However the President pursued his immediate purpose, for many believe the theories will work in practice. The individual h'as to be taken into account, and for that reason “key men” are busy in every centre stimulating the interest of the workers in the scheme, and desiring their practical co-opeiration to make .the proposal 'a success. It is hoped as a first aid to the. general situation, to raise prices for the benefit of the producer, but cost of living will rase. Yet with the shorter hours, it i's expected hundreds of thousands of extra workers will he receiving stable wages. There will be more money in regular circulation, and the general effect will be our aid to prosperity. If that arrives, the benefit will spread far and wide. The policy is in the nature of “a new deal”'designed to help those in want, and to give greater opportunity for employment and betterment. The working out of such a scheme on the scale entailed by such a great country as the United States, is a matter for close attention, for it is a gigantic task. The daily history of America reveals how the national b°nt is for gambling on the Stock Exchange, This ie a phase of the get-quick-rich methods which writers and players have portrayed as something of a national failing. Tt is rampant to-day as ever it was, for like the regular lotteries, it is a daily lure, to win success by a turn of fortune’s wheel. In America, if too much interest is not centred in the samblincr feature referred to. the great effort of the President may favour e'ontuallv. But the daily news seems to indicate that the gaucte of national prosperity' is mastered very largely by the rise and fall °f prices Op, the exchange, and that the

industrial revival hoped for is allowed to drop into the back ground.