The net result was far from satis
factory. Men who had approved
the reforms when they were en
acted began to challenge them now
that they were being put into ef
fect. Others challenged them be
cause they were not being put in
to effect quickly and drastically
enough. Senator LaFollette was re
ported as being unhappy and like
wise Senator Reed. The President
was attacked by A1 Smith for lis
tening to professors . and reports
began o emanate from Washing
ton that the professors were un
happy because he was not listening
to them enough.
But what had really happened
was reasonably cl tar. The reforms
however desirable in themselves and
for the long run, were not pro
moting recovery. In the absence
of a sufficiently rapid recovery the
reforms themselves did not pros
per and were becoming inordinate
ly difficult to apply.
The charge which is most fre
quently brought against the Pres
ident is that he is an opportun
ist who went now to the right
and now to the left, following no
single course whole-heartedly anti
clearly. Those who bring thi
charge do not. I believe, apprec
iate as well as he doss the circum
stances which compel him to wrork
out, step by step, a combination oi
an ordinary capitalistic recovery
and a rather far-reaching social
reconstruction.
What is the principle of an or
dinary capitalistic recovery? It is,
I believe, that private initiative
based on the expectation of private
profit revives when the accumu
lated supply, and the cost of pro
ducing new goods is low enough to
be profitable. Obviously, measures
which discourage initiative or raise
costs before there is an increased
volume of profitable sales must de
lay a capitalistic recovery.
