Letters, Jul. 4, 1938

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. . . The first genuine effort of public spirited officials to aid their less fortunate fellow citizens over the violent and vociferous opposition of entrenched privilege and against the organized and virulent hostility of a 99% antagonistic, subsidized Press. . . .

MARK BELL

Passaic, N. J.

Sirs:

What is the New Deal? . . . The Government's attempt to change "relief's" direction, giving comfort to a different part of Uncle Sam's giant anatomy. He now gets his calloused hands oiled, corns removed and feet tickled, instead of having his back scratched, face massaged and perfume behind the ears.

LINDSEY C. FOSTER

Pennsboro, W. Va.

Sirs:

The "New Deal" is a political system whereby—without admitting it—money is taken from those who have ("the rich") and given to those who have not ("the poor"). Whereas this form of society is represented as a means of redistributing opportunity, it actually redistributes wealth. The system in theory should make the underprivileged more capable of making a permanent economic adjustment. In practice it makes more certain their economic bondage. Mr. Roosevelt will go down in history as a 20th Century reincarnation of "Robin Hood." Economic waste can do only one thing. It will impoverish not only the rich but also the poor, and last but not least the entire nation as a whole.

WALTER O. ESSMAN Essman & Johnson, Insurance

Tulsa, Okla.

Sirs:

The New Deal: a courageous attempt to remake America overnight, doomed to failure because Americans cannot adapt themselves so quickly: an attempt right in principle and aim, wrong in numberless details. . . . F. J. CULVER

Halls, Mo.

Sirs:

... A sincere, but admittedly experimental, effort to close the disastrous gap between industrial and social progress. . . .

BRYANT D. ROWLAND

Knightsen, Calif.

Sirs:

. . . My definition of the New Deal is: An effort by the present Administration to broaden the principles and mechanism of economics so as to provide for the general welfare of all.

BEN FARBSTEIN

St. Joseph, Mo.

Sirs:

. . . Yesterday we used the word reform.

NORMAN W. BELLEVILLE

Glenn, Calif.

Damn Lie, Damn Shame

Sirs:

Just saw your ad in Herald Tribune on article in LIFE on President Roosevelt.

You say in big type

EVERYBODY LIKES HIM !

It's a damn lie and a damn shame to spread such damnable lying propaganda as this in the country.

I know hundreds of people that not only do not like him but intensely dislike him and many hate him with all their hearts & souls and I'm one of them. . . .

I don't care what you said afterward. To publish the remark that "Everybody likes him" is a criminal lie.

L. P. MILLS Gates-Mills, Inc.

Johnstown, N. Y.

Kitchen Criticism

Sirs: