The Slough of Despond
THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND TT IS, perhaps, not wholly accidental that the popu- larity of John Bunyan has increased. The phraseology of few authors could be so well adapted to describing that almost...
...And it happens also to be, among us, something rather new...
...Of course this good-will is a valuable asset, and is in part amply deserved...
...Ford was on hand with his familiar mastery of the unusual...
...Not many people will believe that building can proceed indefinitely at the same pace...
...Still more important, no doubt, was the decision that employers would not curtail wages and that the unions would refrain, temporarily, from seeking increases...
...We want no interruption as these products go into consumption...
...The phraseology of few authors could be so well adapted to describing that almost bottomless chasm through which the prosperity pilgrimage has lately passed...
...But it may be expedient for the public to determine, before banking too strongly on this theory, to examine it with care and to decide whither it leads...
...This Is a simplification which, we confess, disturbs us not a little...
...By comparison, the smoothness with which the President's industrial conferences have met and acted reminds us of the decorum of a Boy Scout meeting as contrasted with the perilous disorder of the street gang's get-togethers...
...The problem which has torn the Senate into fragments was, after all, a problem upon which public opinion has been focused for generations...
...a series of oratorical exercises, devoted to Mr...
...Now the great advantage which accrues to an industrial conference is the lack of interfering public opinion...
...And when Mr...
...At first sight, the success of these conferences seems to make Congress look like an assemblage of squabbling children...
...You may believe, if you like, that the "coalition" saved the country from a notoriously farcical bill...
...We have heartily complimented him on several recent occasions...
...Julius Barnes emerges, for instance, as the chief spokesman for the theory which generally guides all current economic discussion...
...Against optimism we shall, of course, take no stand...
...Barnes...
...Or you may hold that the original committee hearings were in line with sound commercial common sense...
...Everybody is convinced, more or less, that the great captains have the sole reliable recipe...
...Hoover has summoned to protect the nation's welfare...
...Production is adequate...
...For here is a case in which consumption appears to be, after all, definitely limited...
...Barnes goes on to tell us that the building trades are the key to the situation-that "every recession in the building construction industry is followed by a recession in general business"-we feel still more uneasy...
...It redounds greatly to the credit of the nation, this willingness on the part of wealthy and busy men to view the situation as a whole and to cooperate in behalf of improvement...
...Everybody wants the nation to remain prosperous...
...Months of debate on the tariff, with no results...
...Hoover has utilized the idea, latent in true American democracy, that representative private citizens can be organized for civic or social action...
...That is the problem of today...
...We think there is much to be said for the doctrine expounded by Mr...
...But the absence of enlightened public criticism is disturbing...
...And yet...
...After all, we may be in for the return to favor of ancient maxims which have received a fair amount of endorsement from history-honest work, care in the making of investments and caution in purchasing, mindfulness of the rainy day and desire for a reputation for honesty...
...There are dozens of varying attitudes toward it, ranging all the way from approval of Senator Bingham to the belief that Senator Borah is too conservative...
...If buying power equals credit, and credit the income from production, we seem to be here in a circle which may be too round for comfort...
...Blind national opinion has never been a dependable commodity...
...If in the end the turmoil of argument waxes so intense that even a compromise is out of the question, one may fix the blame upon public opinion or even the doctrine of democracy, but it is hardly proper to fix it entirely upon individual agents...
...It has always characterized the American mind and it has contributed to our common success...
...Bunyan, however, was also a master of the diction of hope...
...But being credulous is something else entirely...
...He should prove a valuable reference for those whom Mr...
...The announcement that Detroit would behold a bulge in myriad pay checks must, indeed, be termed the loudest note in a chorus of benevolent optimism...
...In any case you will be professing an opinion held by a strong group of citizens, who in turn exact that Congress give them adequate representation...
...But it does seem to us that the aspersions which have been cast upon Congress have gone too far...
...Roger Babson and the Washington Post...
...The original anxiety of American business," he says in a recent corollary to White House statements destined to reassure the public," has never been over production, but over the maintenance of buying power, which provides markets for the products of industry...
...A series of industrial conferences, participated in by prominent leaders, has emphasized the solidity of the financial bed-rock and has most emphatically endorsed the chief contemporary economic theory...
...We are far from any tendency to disavow the skill with which Mr...
...primarily, however, a demonstration that sectional and political conflicts can bring the nation's business to a virtual halt...
...Indeed, we consider it a "business factor" which is quite as important as any other form of credit...
Vol. 11 • December 1929 • No. 5
