Sixth to Firesides

Last week President Roosevelt gave the nation another of his Sunday night radio "fireside" chats, his first since June. None of the other five was more important to him and his listeners than this one. To give his manuscript a final polish he took Secretary Morgenthau and Relief Administrator Hopkins for a Sunday cruise down the Potomac.

From the point of view of the Forgotten Man, last week's broadcast was perhaps less effective than its predecessors. When his Administration was young, the President directed his talk toward the future, and the things he was going to do. Now, with a full-fledged record behind him to invite debate, he found himself discussing, to a greater degree than heretofore, the past and its performances.

As an assurance to Business, the President's remarks were widely regarded as a friendly pat on the back. Lacking was the sarcasm of his Green Bay address. Such phrases as "individual initiative," "restoration of normal business enterprises," "security of savings," "sound investments," "reasonable earning power" warmed many a cold heart.

But the section of the speech which made headlines was concerned with the timely topic of Management and Labor. Sorely troubled has the President been by bloody and costly strikes during his 18 months in office. "But," said he defensively, "I would point out that the extent and seventy of labor disputes during this period [the last twelvemonth] has been far less than in any previous comparable period." Responsibility for these disputes the President split equally: "Machinery set up by the Federal Government has provided some new methods of adjustment. Both employers and employes must share the blame of not using them as fully as they should. ... It is time that we made a clean-cut effort to bring about that united action of management and labor which is one of the high purposes of the Recovery Act."

To this end, Mr. Roosevelt said he would call a meeting this month between "small groups" of representatives of large bodies of labor and management to agree on "a specific trial period of industrial peace." What form this trial would take remained to be seen, though Madam Secretary Perkins later announced that Labor would not be asked to surrender its right to strike.

Meantime, to push forward re-employment, the President publicly renewed his faith in Public Works: "To those who say that our expenditures for public works and other means for recovery are a waste that we cannot afford. I answer that no country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources."

The President on the Dole: "Some people try to tell me that we must make up our minds that for the future we shall permanently have millions of unemployed just as other countries have had them for over a decade. As for this country, I stand or fall by my refusal to accept as a necessary condition of our future a permanent army of unemployed..... I do not want to think that it is the destiny of any American to remain permanently on relief rolls."

"Gains of trade and industry", challenged the President, "'as a whole, have been substantial, and everybody knows it."

Permanent NRA: "We have passed through the formative period of code-making ... and have effected a reorganization of the NRA suited to the needs of the next phase, which is, in turn, a period of preparation for legislation which will determine its permanent form."

". . . I still believe in Ideals."

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