National Affairs: Underlings on Revolution

All the world knows by now the top men in President Roosevelt’s Brain Trust —George F. Warren, James Harvey Rogers, Rexford Guy Tugwell, Mordecai Ezekiel, John Dickinson, Francis B. Sayre, Willard L. Thorp, Isador Lubin, Milburn L. Wilson, William I. Myers. Below this top layer of the Brain Trust, however, are scores & scores of young unknowns in almost every department of the Government. Underlings on the payroll who rarely if ever see their President, they do most of the New Deal spade work for which their superiors in the spotlight get the credit. Some are assistant professors with new economic theories to administer. Others are brilliant young lawyers who actually write the bills which the President sends to Congress as part of his program. Many of them are in their ’20s and most of them are called “the hot dog boys” because they are disciples of Felix Frankfurter. Because of their intolerant zeal for drastic action, because of their youthful enthusiasm for largescale reform, they exert a potent, if nonpolitical, influence in shaping the whole character of the Roosevelt Administration. Political Washington has never seen their like before, and last week political Washington suddenly held its breath because of them—hardly knowing whether to quake with fear or roar with merriment. Before a House Committee hearing on the Stock Exchange Control bill, a measure drafted by the Administration’s brilliant young legalites, appeared James H. Rand Jr. (Remington-Rand), chairman of the Committee for the Nation. Mr. Rand’s Committee, which was all in favor of devaluating the dollar, is all against the Exchange bill. Solemnly Mr. Rand read the Committee an extraordinary memorandum which he had received from William Albert Wirt of Gary. Ind. Dr. Wirt, now 60, is superintendent of Gary’s school system and one of the most famed schoolmen in the U. S. He is the inventor of the “platoon school,” an educational plan by which classes are divided up. given alternate hours of class work. vocational training and play. Dr. Wirt has long been a supporter of the Committee for the Nation. Excerpts from his statement:

“This manuscript has not been written for publication. I merely want to make the material herein presented available to a few friends in the hope that it may be of help to them in their own writing. You are welcome to use any or all of it in any way that you see fit. … “Last summer I asked some of the [Brain Trusters] what their concrete plan was for bringing on the proposed overthrow of the established American social order. “I was told that they believed that by thwarting our then evident recovery they would be able to prolong the country’s destitution until they had demonstrated to the American people that the Government must operate industry and commerce. “The most surprising statement made to me was the following: ” ‘We believe that we have Mr. Roosevelt in the middle of a swift stream and that the current is so strong that he cannot turn back or escape from it. We believe that we can keep Mr. Roosevelt there until we are ready to supplant him with a Stalin. We all think that Mr. Roosevelt is only the Kerensky of this revolution. ” ‘We are on the inside. We can control the avenues of influence. We can make the President believe that he is making decisions for himself.’ “They said, ‘A leader must appear to be a strong man of action. He must make decisions and many times make them quickly, whether good or bad. Soon he will feel a superhuman flow of power from the flow of the decisions themselves—good or bad. Eventually he can easily be displaced because of his bad decisions. ” ‘With Mr. Roosevelt’s background we do not expect him to see this revolution through. . . .’ “They were sure that they could depend upon the psychology of empty stomachs and they would keep them empty. The masses would soon agree that anything should be done rather than nothing. Any escape from present miseries would be welcome, even though it should turn out to be another misery.” Representatives who heard these words fairly twittered with excitement. Congressman Alfred L. Bulwinkle of North Carolina promptly introduced a resolution for an investigation. Meantime the Press hunted up Dr. Wirt in Gary. Said he: “I meant every word of it and I’ll have more to say if I am called before an investigating committee in Washington. . . . Whether I shall give the names of my informers I shall decide at the time. “There are lists of Congressmen who oppose the Brain Trust program—a blacklist made so that when the time for punishment comes those in power will know whom to punish. . . . “If it requires that I be a sacrifice to get the people to thinking about what is going on, I am willing to be one. . . . “Of course, the future Hitler of America is now in the background merely watching the formation of the mob. “He probably is saying to himself: ‘I am their leader, but they don’t know it. I will study their moods, so that when the time is ripe I can catch their emotional fervor. Then they will ask me to be their dictator.’ “Thrice did the mighty Caesar refuse the crown.” Meantime newshawks got Braintrusters Taussig, Landis and Berle to deny knowing Dr. Wirt, got Braintruster Tugwell to admit that he had never even heard of him. Washington guessed that Dr. Wirt had talked to some of the brilliant and unknown youngsters who took themselves seriously and thereby fooled a serious-minded pedagog.