When Mr. Roosevelt first began to devaluate the dollar a great howl was immediately raised by newspapers, particularly in the East, and it appeared as if public opinion was against the President. Since that time, however, the storm of protest has subsided as rapidly as it started. The obvious inference is that the public were not antagonistic to the President at all, and that sentiment was misrepresented by the newspapers, and by the wealthy class who seized upon the devaluation policy as an excuse for attacking the whole Recovery programme. Precisely the same tactics are being used by the same people in this matter of the air mail contracts.

It is, I think, obvious by this time that the eventual triumph of Mr. Roosevelt's ideas will mean that the capitalistic class will suffer greatly in wealth, power, and influence, for the while the capitalist system may endure it will be in a sadly atrophied form. Consequently, what is more logical than that this class should make every attempt to maintain their system and to this end attack the President on every occasion? All the support that he has received from them so far has been given him merely because of their hope that they themselves might gain control of the regulatory machinery which was being erected--such as the NRA--and thus set up a rigid oligarchy in which the government would be subordinated to business men. Failing to do this, they must block Mr. Roosevelt; and the present attack on him, for which the cancelling of the air-mail contracts has provided the excuse, is only one phase in the struggle. That this is a conscious attempt of the capitalist class to form a plot against Roosevelt I do not claim, for any such assertion would be ridiculous; but it does represent a more or less unconscious effort by them to unite against what they recognize as a common enemy.

The present controversy is but a passing phase of this class warfare; and here it is interesting to note how Karl Marx's famed theory of the class war is proving to be correct in this case, although his materialistic conception of history has been shown to be full of holes. It may be that Marx is as correct about the future as he was erroneous about the past.

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So far as the immediate issue is concerned, it should be considerably clarified tomorrow when Mr. Farley has promised to state the government's stand at some length and submit evidence to justify its actions. In the meantime the critics of Mr. Roosevelt continue to moan and howl and attempt to embarrass him. Through their control of the press they are able to make it appear as if the people as a whole are disgusted with him because he did not "play fair" with aviation companies; it is, I think, extremely unlikely that any of the companies involved are innocent for reasons set forth before, and their attempt to capitalize on the popularity and prestige of Lindbergh has only created a great argument about the motives of the Spotless One. These tactics will do them no good, for the cogent and unanswerable fact that, men have made enormous and illegitimate fortunes out of government subsidies fraudulently obtained still remains, and if there has been some slight injustice done--and this is most unlikely--it is far outweighed by the good that will derive from the cleaning up of an intolerable mess. Mr. Roosevelt's action in this case has been thoroughly courageous and essentially correct; the tactics of his opponents, particularly in the Lindbergh affair has been despicable and characteristically hypocritical. I do not believe that many people will be taken in by their blather about unfairness, despite their control of a good portion of the press and the immense influence they wield due to their wealth; and their success can only be viewed as the triumph of blackguardism.