Scold

When other methods seem to fail, President Roosevelt likes to send his lieutenants into the land to rally the sagging morale of U. S. businessmen with strong language. First it was Secretary of Commerce Roper, then Donald Richberg who tried to soothe the business jitters by loud strumming on silver-lined harps. Last week President Roosevelt selected as his newest goodwill ambassador Securities & Exchange Chairman Joseph Patrick Kennedy, dispatched him to Manhattan where business gloom is currently thickest. There in an address to 1,200 bankers, brokers and business executives at a luncheon of the American Arbitration Association, Mr. Kennedy scolded his audience as if its members were so many sulky schoolboys.

"In all frankness," he orated, "this ace of American cities is not giving a good account of its stewardship as the pacesetter of business enterprise. Those whom I have been meeting recently in other sections of the country are unanimous in declaring that New York is the bluest spot in the country with respect to business morale. . . . And when New York is blue, every other section of the country is confused and confounded.

"Business is still not only better than confidence; it is better than we deserve to have it. We have not matched results with our courage. We have not been grateful enough for a 34% increase in general business, for the practical rehabilitation of the great motor industry and for the sound revamping of other industries.

"You cannot chart politics. You cannot sit down and draw some crooked lines showing where the fluctuations of political sentiment are likely to lead. Then why watch politics exclusively? Instead let us stick to the one formula we all know-- 'business as usual.' Never did this country need that slogan more than it does today. Box the compass of your own industry. Plan your future requirements. Cut your cloth according to your pattern, as the motor industry has done. . . . Don't dodge the duties of citizenship by blaming government interference for the lack of business initiative. . . ."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.