Business wants to see the utility warfare definitely ended.. It wants a declaration of Federal policy. This seems the one place where Mr. Roosevelt could retreat with safety, although to do so would disappoint and perhaps alienate certain of his Left Wing followers.
All in all therefore, important Presidential concessions seem unlikely because they would be politically dangerous. It is argued by some conservative Democrats that the President to the moderates pud the middle-class voters who have gradually been losing confidence in his programme and who are disillusioned about social and economic experiments.
Conceivably his magic touch could again consolidate the middle-of-the-roaders without alienating the "li-borals" and Left Wingers. But it is beginning to look as if he had overstayed his market, His Supreme Court and party purge campaigns have made many bitter enemies. Meanwhile, the opposition has gathered strength. What the moderates were advising a year or so ago they are now demanding. They believe that by 1940 they will be strong enough to stand on their own political platform. x It is this change in the political temper of the country that is one of the underlying causes for Wall Street's growing optimism. The message intimated in last November's elections is being confirmed daily and is sinking deeper into the consciousness of businessmen. Two events have recently crystallized this. First was the announcement of the appeasement programme—important, as before noted, not as a programme, but as a recognition by the New Deal itself that the country is no longer anti-business but definitely pro-business, In other words, the Administration has officially admitted the turn of the tide in public sentiment—an admission in words rather than actions, but nevertheless an admission, The other event of transcending importance was the Supreme Court decision outlawing the sit-down strike and limiting the rights of organized labour.
Domestic business news has been excellent, though not dramatic. Since early December our business indices have been sliding off slightly, but there has been not the slightest evidence that the period of consolidation was likely to turn into a retreat.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.