Critics on Criticism

Last week two critics took President Roosevelt to task for his criticism of critics week before in an address to NRA code authorities (TIME, March 12). At that time the President said that critics who only criticize are unpatriotic, that critics who offer substitute proposals are patriotic.

First critic was Frank R. Kent, seasoned political commentator of the Baltimore Sun. Said he: "In its essence, this Roosevelt view of criticism means it is better to make a blunder than to do nothing. It bars pointing out the danger of going in one direction unless you suggest going in another.

"To carry it to the logical extreme, Mr. Roosevelt's doctrine is equivalent to saying that if he proclaims that 2 and 2 make 5, it is unpatriotic to object, unless you suggest that 2 and 2 make 6 or 3. To insist they still make 4 is not 'helpful.' That is 'inaction'; that is standing still in the face of an emergency." Second critic was William Randolph Hearst, who in a radio broadcast from Los Angeles, after praising the President's intentions, condemned NRA practices by parable. Said he: "Indeed, the plight of business has been not unlike that of the young woman in the comedy act of Savoy and Brennan.

"Said Brennan: 'Sam took his sweetheart out in a rowboat and they quarreled, and Sam threw her overboard, and every time she came up he hit her on the head with an oar. Wasn't it awful?'

" 'Sure,' said Savoy, 'but wasn't she the fool to come up?'

"Every time business gets its head above water the Government whacks it, and down it goes again. Perhaps after a while business will not be fool enough to come up."

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