Early in the year the Administration's domestic policy occupied the spotlight. The press was filled with the new efforts which were to be made to bring about "business appeasement" as the first step in promoting lasting recovery. There were to be no new experiments, business was told. Any measures which had proved by experience to be a drag upon business recovery were to be examined and modified. The talk was of national unity" in the face of a troubled world. Business was no longer to be scolded and dragooned. The Government wished to be its true friend, and hoped for a similar conciliatory spirit from the big business executive.
Then for a time the domestic issue was forgotten, and the attention of the country was concentrated on the Administration's foreign policy. But the domestic programme had not been dropped, or even suspended. It continued to develop. One might compare it to a subterranean stream which had disappeared out of sight, but had not vanished. After a time it would reappear. When the domestic policy emerged it was soon discovered that while it had been out of sight it had undergone far-reaching changes There are still one or two officials who are attempting to promote harmony among all economic sections of the country as before, but the general tendency is to abandon business appeasement and return to the old New Deal attitude of regarding business as hostile.
It must be admitted that this is partly the fault of the more conservative big businessmen. They were inclined to boast early in the year that "they had the President on the run." This play directly into the hands of the left-wing advisers of the President, who had never liked the "business appeasement' policy, and had refused to take any par it (with the exception of Harry Hopkins whom they privately accused of having turned traitor when he entered the Cabinet as Secretary of Commerce). Businessmen also did little to make ce-operation easy for the President by trying to meet him halfway. They were far more likely to take the attitude that in 1940 there would be a change of regime, the New Deal would be rejected at the polls, and they would have an Administration fundamentally disposed to be friendly instead of one which only adopted a friendly attitude as an expedient.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.