Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Current Economic Affairs (1924).pdf/207

Rh very human. Radicalism in the United States means to me dissatisfaction with the state of affairs and ignorant, foolish gropings to make things better. Conservatism seems to mean the avoiding of some foolish things and the perpetration of others conceived as panaceas. Coxey is the prototype of the leadership of one party; old Doctor Swamproot of the other. The people, in their pre-election discussions of 1922 expressed their helpless recognition of the futility of the politicians and their grudge against the politicians of all types who ought to have led them and did not.

The country is hungry for strong, sound leadership, of the kind that has no selfish thought for offices, party power, or the next election—leadership that has the knowledge to understand conditions and the courage to tell things truly, no matter how unpalatable they may be. Such leadership would teach that the war did not add to our national wealth, but that it produced great dislocations among our economic conditions and great unbalance in the distribution of the produce of our industry. The old balance must be restored as nearly and as swiftly as possible. Deflation, instead of a thing to be resented, should be speeded along. The farmer, having suffered this first, can not be helped by anybody blowing bubbles, but he can be helped by deflating labor generally. Wall Street, meaning collective busmess, has no interest except to see everybody, farmers and labor alike, prosperous so that there will be goods to be bought and sold and freight to be carried. It is town labor that stands in the way of farmers and white-collar classes alike. If governmental agencies are an obstacle to labor deflation abolish them. Appeal not to the government for any