Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 June 1936 — Page 6

‘Restore Freedo

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eynoter S

teiwer

Plea

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gs Jows: “We meet tonight as the convention of a great and honorable political party. We do not meet as partisans, but as patriotic Ameri- . cans, solemnly determined to proceed in the American way to “Jaunch a campaign to restore . America to the American people, “Our purpose here is not only to _ fdopt a Republican platform and to nominate a Republican President—a deeper and thoroughly American purpose is to start the drive to put an American Deal into ‘the place now usurped by a selfstyled ‘New Deal’ In this service to our country we invite the aid and ~~ counsel of all Americans, regard- - less of political party. There are no party lines when human liberty is at stake. “In this crisis, the issues are above all party differences. The duty of the united patriots of all parties is to restore to the American people their political and economic freedom and to provide them with a competent government founded on conviction and conscience. “It can be done. But it will not be done if we permit ourselves to be deceived by the defeatist talk of our enemies. The nation knows by this time that the Administration is equipped with a monstrous, reckless propaganda machine operated with taxpayers’ money to advance its own ends. “No matter who the choice of this convention and no matter what the platform, this machine will be set in operation. In the face of our advances in the campaign, we will hear the false cry that our efforts have fallen flat.- These falsehoods will be recognized and rightly resented by the people. The people will make the world know that this

National Convention fol-

' mation can not be bluffed and can

not be bought.”

‘POLITICAL MORALITY’

“For more than three long years we have had a government without political morality. I propose to show you that government endowed with conscience will bring us a prosperity not built on promise and pretense, but built with the bricks and mortar of fundamental principles. This prosperity will not be measured with the crooked lines and crooked phrases of unconstitutional legislation, but by lines - that square with the rules of honesty and morality. ‘ “When this convention shall have finished its labors, we shall offer the country a candidate with a sense of duty, and a platform that binds his conscience to guarantee to America that the nation shall not be again deceived by political adventurers who have preverted the most sacred fundamentals of our government.” :

“AMERICAN OPPORTUNITY”

“We propose to carry forward the lamp of American progress; the lamp which has been dimmed by the depression and which the ‘New Deal’ has tried to extinguish. We propose to show those who have waited for more than three long years for a real job how that job is to be obtained. We propose to show further to those who have jobs how those jobs can be protected against the ravages of the collapse which is inevitable under the New Deal. “The 10,000,000 unemployed shall at least get the consideration which they deserve—and with it the privilege of honest work. They must be permitted to work again as free men and not languish as voteslaves, nor as slaves of the dole. 4 “We propose to show the 40,000,000 now in gainful employment that economic freedom depends upon adherence to a system under Which their pay envelopes will not shrink and under which their life insurance policies and savings bank deposits will be protected. If this great group of Americans will assert their heritage as Americans, they need never again fear a debacle such as we had in March, 1933, when a President-elect without a conscience refused for four months to co-operate with a Presi- _ dent who had a conscience, resulting in a bank crisis and a panic of _ fear and fright. This nation de- _ gerves a government by conscience. In order that its free institutions . may be maintained, we have a right _ to insist upon a President who puts the interest of the people abov con- ~ glderations of personal politics.

- “OUR ECONOMIC SYSTEM’

“A primary function of our government is to keep open the way to employment at wages which will provide an increasingly higher d of living. “How can we achieve this objec2? Not by trick formulas and p practices. They have all been

great political parties have always had to do with finding ways and means «0 make that system work more perfectly. Our parties have differed as to these ways and means, but never until March, 1933, has an Administration elected to preserve and develop the American system tried, by the autocratic use of its executive power, to abolish the very system that it had sworn to conserve. And no Administration has ever before pretended that destruction was reform. “Our system has not worked perfectly, but it has provided more for the man who works than has any other system the world has ever known, and the chief reason for the present unemployment in this country is the blocking of the progress of the American system by trying out plans and ideas borrowed from the poverty economics of Europe and resorted to by the Administration in a frantic effort to catch the applause of the people. We propose io Tesiore the balance that makes jobs. : “The American system as administered by the two great political parties between 1910 and 1929 brought the average annual earnings of wage and salaried workers in industry actually’ employed from $670 to $1520 a year. The same period saw the average annual gross agricultural income per person actually employed raised from $750 to $1570 a year. Or, to put it another way, in 1910 it took a year’s work to buy an automobile, but in 1929 it took only half a year’s work. In consequence, where in 1910 we had less than half a million passenger cars, in 1929 we had more than 23,000,000. That is the period which the ‘New Dealers’ eontemptuously refer to as the era of tooth and claw. There could be no better testimony of the strength of the American system and to the character of the American people than that it has been able to sustain the orgy of the New Deal. The people have created wealth faster than a profligate government could squander it.”

‘NEW DEAL SPECULATORS’

“What are the principles of the American system which must be put in force if we are to recover from the New Deal? Here is a simple statement of some of them: “l. Our government must provide an honest money and banking sys- | tem which will permit the free and uninterrupted exchange of wealth and will not be subject to the sinister control of any group. Whether the group of politicians in Washington or speculators in Wall Street the consequences to the public are the same. The money systera must not be any man's toy. “2. Our government is a vast business enterprise. But it is not run as a business. Had the people understood the relation of government finance to the national wealth and to the income and outgo of the people, there would have been no New Deal. “3. Foreign trade may create either an asset or a liability. If we import goods which could be made or grown at home, we deprive American workers or farmers of opportunity to earn livelihoods, and break down the American standards of liv= ing and thus compel a dependence upon foreign sources of supply. Such dependence cripples us in peace and renders us helpless in war. In effect there is no difference between receiving goods made by pauper labor and receiving the pauper labor itself. “4. Agriculture’s properity is fundamental to the prosperity of the nation, and farm income must be kept in balance with industrial income, “5. Ours is an economy of profit and loss. It can not thrive without both. Law or regulation to guard against the losses inevitable in competition freezes industry and prevents progress. ; io “6. Government regimentation of business works to destroy business. Business half-slave, half-free, can not pay adequate wages or adequate profits and can not adequately serve the consumer. The direct competition of government in business uses the money of all the people to destroy the property of a part of the people. “7. A dollar primarily belongs tq the man who earns it. Taxation is a seizure of purchasing power from the hands of its owner, Taxation to support a vast bureaucracy billets bureaucrats on every family and curtails the ability of that family to provide for itself. “8. Under the American system, it is the business of government to govern according to the will of the people as expressed in the laws. No one can excuse the bureaucrats’ use of taxpayers’ money to write laws and to buy propaganda in order to force these same laws on the people. “9. Our nation owes to our people the duty to take advantage of our fortunate geographical position and to avoid all foreign entanglements.”

‘REAL LIBERALISM’

“Are these. views liberal or are they ~onservative? I must answer by asking what the word ‘liberal’ means. If it means jumping up and down and not getting anywhere, the principles are not liberal. If liberal means pressing forward on the facts and promising only what can be performed, then the principles are liberal. Whether liberal or conservative, these are among the

disease | principles by which the spectacular

progress of this nation has been achieved. “Let us review the record of the New Deal in the light of these principles. At the Jackson dinner in Washington, the New Deal candidate asserted that the basic issue

self greater and stronger on the ruins of the people’s liberties. It reaches for control of the education of children and the formation of thought, and finally all human rights, including religious freedom, must yield to its tyranny. When a chief executive finds unconstitutional concentration of power in himself, he should exercise his constitutional power to recommend that Congress take back its authority. this wholesome recommenda tion will be made in January, by an oath-keeping Republican president.”

»

‘WICKED PRACTICES’

“The New Deal has driven a wedge between what it calls the “underprivileged” and the business

man, the professional man and the producer. To strengthen its political hold, it has adopted the unAmerican attitude of setting class against class. It asserts that it has driven the “money changers” from the temple. Where are these money changers? They are still in the temple. : “For the present Administration, by its tax bills, has tried to abolish thrift in business and to put every concern, big or little, into the hands of money lenders. Indeed the only business successfully fostered by this Administration has been the debt business. That has prospered. “It promised to preserve the merit system in government service. Yet every day brings an accretion of New Deal spoilsmen to the Federal pay roll. Fine public servants have been ruthlessly replaced by favorites, and the Government today is literally the worst, most conscienceless employer in the land. _ “The New Deal pretends it would protect American interests, yet harbors aliens who are not entitled to remain in America, but are permitted to remain and who compete with the American working man, increase the cost of our struggle against crime and add to our relief burden. It coddles agitators and encourages the purveyors of unrest at a time when the nation needs a firm and dignified leadership. Not content to employ professors and theorists as economic advisers, the New Deal has placed the affairs of government in their hands. It depends on bookworms for practical experience and on hook-worms for energy. It renounced the purposes and ideals of the great party whose name it bears and threw away the opportunity for service which that party long had sought.”

‘FALSE HUMANITARIANISM’

“The New Deal propagandists boast of its humanitarian purpose and support this boast by pointing to Federal aid of those in distress. Such aid was and is an obvious duty of a civilized nation. But the

Jdrony of it is that the Administra-

tion made only one gesture of a permanent character toward fulfilling its pledge to balance the Federal budget. That was an act to reduce compensation and to withhold hospitalization from the disabled veterans of our wars, while at the same time the New Deal planned lavish spending for other purposes. In order to trap congressional support for its bill, it pretended that it would deal justly with the veterans and that it would continue a program of genuine economy. The poor and the maimed who suffered the Administration’s ingratitude are far from convinced that it was actuated by humanitarian purposes.” “Their program of aid to the distressed is further condemned for its abuse of great national purpose in order to serve the venal desires of New Deal politicians. This has been characterized as the ‘poison of poli-

.tics in the bread of relief.’ Reform

in the methods of relief will result in more relief to the destitute at less cost to the taxpayer. “The Republican Party will not turn its back on those in distr=ss, but it will make sure that public funds voted to feed hungry mouths will be used for that purpose and will not be employed for the enrichment of political straphangers. The money provided for work relief is not the personal gift of any politician, but is the money of the people of the United States.’ Every consideration of decency in politics condemns the politician who would make private or partisan use of the distribution of the people's money. If the Salvation Army had used its good works to build a political organization, as was done by the New Deal army, it could have claimed the whole world—not merely the 48 states claimed by Farley.”

‘BAD BARGAIN’

“New Deal politicians tell us that prosperity has been returned through their efforts. The improvement that has come has been largely purchased at the expense of the public treasury, and we have paid for more prosperity than we have

frittered away until the ‘nation itself has become destitute, ° : “We remember that the relief load

SENATOR ‘WARMS UP’ FOR G. 0.P. SPEECH

Like a pitcher winding up for a supreme effort, Senator Frederick Steiwer of Oregon is shown here at the Republican national conven-

tion as he warmed up for his oratorical effort as keynoter.

Steiwer

was giving the loud speakers a tryout as he did this big stretch act.

by depression affected all in authority regardless of party. “In my own case I threw aside partisan considerations and voted for some of the temporary measures to meet the emergency. In varying degrees we subordinated our personal and partisan views to support the national program. At a latar time we were forced to conclude that the Administration’s design was to convert these temporary stop-gap laws into permanent policy and thus remodel the whole life of ths nation. This design was without mandate from the country and is contrary to every American conviction against autocratic Federal authority. “We who voted to aid are most surely justified in our efforts to arouse understanding of the fact that the Adminjstration has committed the unpardonable sin in seeking to convert its temporary, emergency program into permanent policy, and the further fact that it has not proved itself competent to administer the authority which it so eagerly acquired.”t | ;

"RECOVERY RETARDED’

“This is the only Administration in our history which has deliberately intimidated capital. The prudent, everywhere, abstain from risk which is aggravated by policies that harass and destroy. No one would advocate reform ahead of recovery except. the reformers who gan ex-

periment and exploit only when the people are in distress. In the fear that if the country recovers it will not take any more of their reforms, they have manufactured turmoil and disorder. The patient needs a competent physician, not these quacks of confusion. Pointing the finger of promise toward abundance, the New Deal has aimed its policies of performance in exactly the opposite direction. If Noah, in anticipation of the flood, had installed an irrigation system instead of building the Ark, his mistake would have been no worse than have been| the New Deal economic blunders.”

‘PLIGHT OF AGRICULTURE’

“What has the Administration done to agriculture? After three long years of complete control of every branch of the Federal Government, they have failed to provide a permanent farm program. Farm income in 1935, including the government checks, was $3,000,000,000 less than in the “twenties.” “They made worse the triple-A

‘| program by maladministration—by

making food costly and scarce. When the law was held invalid they wholly ignored the Supreme Court and shifted hysterically to a stop-gap measure called the Soil Conservation Act. Under this act they continue temporarily the regulation of production which has been held unconstitutional. This makeshift is a manifest effort to deceive the farmer. :

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without regimentation, without burdensome. taxes, and without any program of curtailment of ruthless destruction of food needed in a hungry world.”

cedures that amount to nullification. “At no time has the New Deal been frank enough to reveal its real purpose by submitting a proposal for constitutional amendment. The Administration has shown preference for change by means, In this they are entitled only to the people’s condemnation. The menace to our American system lies, not in amendment by due and regular procedure, but in its nullification by indirection. “A shocking perversion of democratic principles is reflected in the assumption of New Deal autocracy that it should exercise greater powers and that it, and not the people, should determine the extent of such powers. “Another way to regain our American stride is to reduce forthwith the size of the Federal government and to stop its wasteful spending. We point to our record of past performance. Fifteen years ago the Republican Party met a fiscal situation not unlike that which confronts the country today. Out nation was deep in debt and taxes. Government bonds were 10 to 12 points below par. Millions were unemployed. The budget system was installed and enforced. Taxes were cut, debts were reduced and government bonds went to par and stayed there. During the 12 years of Republican Administration taxes were reduced five times. What we have done once we will do again. “Above ‘all else is the need for the old-fashioned idea of thrift. No government can borrow itself rich, or spend itself prosperous. In private affairs we succeed only by the practice of sensible economy. Those who practice extravagance invite destruction. This nation, for a time, forgot the necessity: for economy. We have learned it again. The Administration has demonstrated that it is unable to obtain even a semblance of prosperity except bv buying it, and its purchases are on a basis so vast and so impractical that they ultimately would destroy America. By ‘midsummer the amount of their spending will equal the value of all the farm land and all the farm buildings in the United States, and the New Deal harvest is yet to come.”

‘TRADE BARGAINING’

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‘THE TAX YOKE’ '

“One of the fundamentals of established national policy is tariff protection of efficient American pro-

duction. America does not propose

to destroy the opportunity of our citizens by giving up this protection. There is always need for reform. But what has the incumbent administration done in connection with its pledge for such reform?

“It enacted, in 1934, the reciprocal trade agreement act. This law permits agreements to be made . in secret, and without consultation’ with the American interests affected, and without fair opportunity to protect those interests. It establishes a dictatorship over our domestic economy. It clothes the New Deal with authority to reward one section of the country at the expense of another. It enables these politiclans to determine which community shall be promoted and which shall be destroyed by, exposure to foreign competition. Without giving the people or the people’s representatives in the Senate opportunity to express any opinion, it permits inexperienced visionaries in the New Deal to destroy opportunity which our people need and should be permitted to enjoy. “Of course, sucn a system fails to accomplish expansions in our foreign trade, which was the declared purpose of this law. It has increased the sale in our markets of goods produced by aliens which our producers should have supplied. “Agreements have been negotiated right and left with shrewd foreign traders who have reduced rates on articles which they desired to import into their countries, whereas the = Administration’s pretended ‘good neighbor’ policy has resulted in American reductions of duty in agricultural, dairy and forest products of which we already had a surplus. The net result is: a downward revision of the tariff which has seriously impaired our Ameri-

can system of protection.” For the.

sake of our people, we must realize that the Administration’s wishful hope to rescue the world at our expense has injured American industries and agriculture and added to unemployment, destitution and want. : : “The combined effort of reckless and uninformed trade agreements plus the Administration’s monetary policies are fast putting our nation under foreign control. The devaluation of the dollar. combined with the purchase of gold at $35 an ounce, has given tc foreigners in gold-standard countries ga. bargain rate on America. They have sold us gold to the extent of nearly three billion dollars. With the proceeds the foreigners have bought our se-

and although we were a creditor nation, we are in fact probably now a debtor nation. And the New Deal ers have not found it out.” x

THE WAY OUT

8 g

“By July 1 the present Administration will have increased the national debt more than 14 billion dollars, and has announced that before a balanced budget can be obtained there will be a further increase of several additional billions. I warn you that if America is to survive, debt expansion must be ended. “A resolute and uncompromising purpose to secure a balanced budget and honest assurances of reduction in debt are essential to restoration of public confidence. Then the business world will know there will be no further devaluation of the dollar; that we will no longer stand at the brink of inflation: that there will be no further repudiation of public obligations; and that there will be no additional exactions by the tax collector. ' “These essential assurances will start in motion the wheels of industry.”

‘TAXES THAT DESTROY’

“An hypocrisy which the New Deal seeks to foist upon the people is the belief that the rich pay the bill. But inasmuch as 62 cents out of every dollar coming into the United States Treasury is derived from concealed or indirect taxes, it is plain that the common people pay the lion’s share. “The taxes which impoverish are the sales taxes and other exactions ‘which are concealed in the cost of living, and which increase the price of food and clothing. When you purchase gasoline, is it possible that the big oil company pays the sales tax, or is it posted over the gas pump and taken out of the pocket of the little man who buys the gas? “Behind the barrage of vainglorious boasting by the Administration propagandists of their service to the people is the brutal truth that the burden of supporting Federal extravagance is added to the cost of maintaining human life. “It becomes a tyrannical exaction upon every man, every woman and every child, including the average man, the underprivileged and even the forgotten man. Under this Administration average wages have increased about 8 per cent while the cost of living has increased approximately 20 per cent. Every one of our 40 million toilers are also payers, and they and their sons and daughters will keep on paying long after we have ousted the spendthrifts. Today the wage earner is working at least one day a week solely to pay the cost of government.” ;

that fathers and mothers lack pride

|have a deficit of approximately

Its theory destroys the purchasing

in their sons and that parents and grandparents are indifferent to the future of those who bear their names. ; “To this insult I answer that no supposed handicap suffered by youth prior to the depression can compare with the loss sustained when youth is compelled by the false economics of the New Deal to exchange their American opportunity, to which they are entitled, for enrollment in a Federal camp at $30 per month. “Nor can this supposed handicap compare with the cruel slavery caused by the inheritance of New Deal debt. New Deal extravagance is bending the backs of the people with an unfair burden and has condemned all the babies of the entire nation to be rockéd in cradles decorated by debt. “If I appraise correctly the high character of American women they will not wait for the leadership of men in rising to the defense of the homes of this nation. They will accept their responsibility to the children in those homes. They will repudiate the New Deal at the ballot box.

“In 1933 in a message to Congress, the President used these words: ‘For three long years the Federal government has been on the road toward bankruptcy.’ “And then he said: : “Thus we shall have piled up an accumulated deficit of $5,000, “That was the accumulation of four years. Let us consider the accumulation of the last three long years. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1934, the deficit was approximately four billion dollars. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1935, it was in excess of three and a half billion dollars. For the fiscal year ending June. 30, 1936, and eliminating any requirement for the payment of the soldiers’ bonus, the deficit is between three and half and four billion dollars. “For three long years the deficits have exceeded those which the President denounced. For three long years we have continued on the road toward bankruptey. Instead of an accumulated deficit of five billion dollars in four years. We

eleven billion dollars in-three years —but they are three very long years. During the same period the government spending has gone up. “Listen to the astounding totals— for three long years: For the fiscal year 1933, approximately five billion dollars; for 1934, seven billion dollars; for 1935, seven billion four hundred million dollars; for 1936, seven billion six hundred million dollars, and the estimate of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1937, is in excess of eight and a quarter billion dollars. I ask this question— for how long a period has the Federal deficit exceeded that which the President denounced? For three long years! : “For how long a period has the Federal spending been kept above the seven-billion dollar line? For three long years. For how long a period has the Chief Executive called upon the Congress to pass a new tax bill increasing the tax burden upon a helpless nation? For three long years. “For how long have we lived under the evil trinity of increased deficit, increased debt and increased taxes? For three long: years. ay “We will end its tyranny when we rid our government of the New Deal | speculators who have speculated for three long years. They have speculated with the billions of the people’s money just as the gamblers of Wall Street speculated with the millions belonging to those same people.” :

‘KEEP THE DOORS OPEN’

“Without doubt the greatest need in the life of most of us is that the doors of opportunity be held open that we may pay the obligations which we have assumed. It is the plain duty of a just government to guarantee that those doors shall remain open. If we take stock of our situation, what do we find? “First, a people loaded with debt and lacking - for tial credit. Second, an Administration which has permitted industries to write their own codes into law, has permitted the fixing of prices and has failed to enforce anti-trust laws. It advocates high costs of production with the resultant high prices which prevent people from buying.

power 5f the people and results in underconsumption. It is the theory of scarcity. Labor will be employed and private debts will be paid only if the people are permitted and encouraged to produce. “The nation needs new wealth,

which will be had only through an |.

economy based on fair prices, free

competition and more efficient and cheaper distribution. Fixing of prices by monopolies and combines picks the pocket of the buying public. Here is a worthy issue against the fantasies of the New Deal. It is the cause of economic justice. I urge this cause upon the ground that protection of the weak is the highest function of government. It will make it possible for the small business man to develop his enterprise and for thewage earner to enjoy more of the wealth which he creates.”

‘AN ENDURING AMERICA’

% “This discussion leads to the ule timate issue of this momentous campaign. I have talked of the public debt, but over and above debt is the blighting effect of the burden of tax which the New Deal lays upon the backs of the people. “Over and above this burden is the threat of inflation which comes only to destroy. And over and above this threat there lurks in our path a darker danger —the certainty that this road leads only to collapse, and to the tragic end of democratic institutions. The nation must choose. We can stand exposed to this chaos or we can preserve for ourselves and for our children a. righteous order of free opportunity, “Is the American achievement only a memory of a great age, to be meditated upon by a:decadent nation? That is the theory of the old world. It is the viewpoint of those who are in the President's councils, This European theory presupposes that we will create no additional wealth, and that we are justified in a fight among ourselves over the division of the wealth already created. There is nothing liberal in such a theory. On the contrary it is in the most sordid sense reactionary. “It shows an utter lack of faith in the people and would cause them to lose faith in themselves. It assumes that the day of magnificent attainment is ended, and everywhere that its baleful clutch lays hand on society it freezes the status of men, women and children. It is the old world concept upon which castes are founded, This devastating philoso phy restrains every good impulse and slams the door of opportunity . in the face of every man who dares to aspire. : “Americans can boast that heretofore, following every depression our people have found the impetus to reorganize for greater attainment. They have declined to regard the country as bankrupt and the government as a receiver, “They have been free to plan the progress which has made America great. We must make known our purposes: That we will renounce this alien viewpoint, and we here and now proclaim the truth that America is yet free to build, to create and to prosper. We will again force recognition of the one great fact: That the most price less privilege of citizenship under the American flag is the right to seek and obtain merited reward, unhampered, unrestrained and une afraid.” ‘

AMERICA WILL LIVE

“And now I ask the simple question—Will America live or die? And I answer that America will live, because the people are firmly resolved that our nation shall not die. When have we ever tested the full measure of the people’s strength? Not in 1778, save by the soldiers whose blood-stained tracks were left in the snow at Valley Forge. Not in 1863, except by those who dared to charge and those who dared to stand at Gettysburg. Nor was it tested in full in 1918, except by those who dared to die on the fields of France. “The full measure and depth of a great people’s will is unknown, even to themselves. The secret lies hidden in the omnipotent mind of the Creator of all courage and all resolution. “To him let our prayers be offered that an aroused America, casting out all doubt, will vindicate the faith of the fathers. We shall not falter, but in new-found strength will hold high, in the splendor of a bright dawn, the banner of a nation’s liberties.”

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