Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 August 1937 — Page 6

Page PDF (11.45 MB)

Back to issue view

{

PAGE 6

Sra

ope

< £5 sR a en a RA

Text of James Roosevelt's Convention Address

Yollowing is the address of Mr. standards which all intelligent mena special interest—the special in-

James Roosevelt, Secretary to the President, before the National ‘Con-

vention of Young Democratic C Jhubs |

of America. here today To take part in this, the fourth national convention of the Young Democratic ‘Clubs of America is a particular privilege. It giv eS me & chance to greet again many old friends who were present at the first convention held 1932. Tt ‘gives us all & ‘chance to greet new friends who testify to the growth ang vitality of the Young Democratic Clubs, And more stimulating than to review our part in great victories behind us and to lay our plans for even greater ones ahead Every reassembling of an organization like ours, however, a re-examination of the common interest that binds us together. All around us today thusiasm, confidence, energy for this convention well demonstrate ‘efficiency. banded together for? Every honest one of us must continually ask himself,

ganization perform =a real

could be better ways?” ‘For ‘our American horror of waste will not permit us to feel comfortable if there is duplication of effort in political activity any government administration Can we justify the expenditure of energy that goes into the maintenance of Clubs ‘of America?

plicate work that done ih other

Hails Unity of Supporti

If the Young Democratic

tics 'who seek glory by holding office in an organization of national scope, then they are hot worthy of sustained effort cetional training units for those who seek public office only in more rapid personal adva through public life ‘rather than private personal activity, then clubs should ‘deservedly peter and be forgotten. But if the Young Democratic Clubs are a real rallying point for younger people who know and who! believe in the ‘principles which have made the Democratic Party what it

is todayv—a party supported by the |

most widely diversified but the most justifiedly unified groups that have ever rallied to a ‘political standard

in our ‘country—then this ‘organiza- |

tion has a real reason for ‘existence because it has a real purpose to accomplish. T believe that is your purpose. 1 believe you young ‘men and women who would devote their lives to & government dominated only desire to contribute a needed talent in governmental efficiency to the welfare of their fellow-cifizens., 1 believe you provide machinery by which those who believe in the principles ‘of the parly are given practical help in bringing to the old and hew voters alike the story of what the Democratic Party is frying to do. T believe you will supply the parly with wave after wave and generation after generation of voters and workers and candidates fit to fill positions ‘of ‘public trust. If in ‘these clubs we ‘do these jobs and do them well—do them with enthusiasm born of conviction—then | this national organization of ‘the | Young Democratic Clubs of America | has a justified and vital place in our national ‘political life. Then it cannot be said of us that we are simply an aggregation of ambitious persons who seek only to improve our personal positions. Then we can | and will prove a maturity and sincerity of purpose by what rather than by what we say we are going to do And so as kevnhoter for this convention, I ask these questions: What are the principles of this party of long history which this or-

ganization of our new generation is | What are | the policies which have kept rallied |

pledged to cany forward?

to the banner of our party more | Americans than any other pariy has ever attracted?

PARTY “SERVES WHOLE NATION"

First and foremost,

a party which sees and serves the

glomeration of special

eral movement in the past. And furthermore it sees

of modern times—of 193

prought to civilization within our geographical boundaries — to the

speed of the airplane, the wonders |

of elettricity, and wizardry of tele-

phone and radio. Tt has adopted Yor

ARANTEED

WATCH REPAIRING

Stem or Crown... .35¢ Any Shaped Woke! vaaaaaan 190 Main Springs. «avo T9e Cleaning Teves Rees Balance Saffieene 0 Jewels Fitted «vv 9%

CONPARE! 5 Jon Sheds IRE wnt ar» |

Deal Jewelry

42-85 South Yiinois S¢

at Kansas City |

nothing is |

demands |

we see en- | And | the smoothness of the arrangements |

But what are we |

“Does our or- | and |

unique function or does it only du- |

more than in|

the Young Democratic

Clubs | function solely as a tutoring school | for young people interested in poli- |

If ‘they are merely vo- |

hope of | nee |

these | out |

offer ‘opportunity to |

career ‘in| by the |

we do |

it seams to Hie | that the Democratic Party today is |

public Tife |

‘and women have long recognized for [ their private and business lives. It has brought to the diversified elements of our population as never before the realization of their community of interests and the need for their essential unity. It has had the economic common sense to know that national income for all purposes grows only in proportion as money circulates and only in proportion as more purchasing power makes more business transactions and greater circulation possible. And it has had the political imagination to perceive that all honest, average men and women, willing to live and | let live — whether they are wage [earners in the North and East, cot- | ton farmers in the South, wheat farmers and lumbermen and miners [in the West—have a common interest in protecting the kind of a humane world in which they want to live against exploitation by a few special interests with overdeveloped | acquisitive instincts. That is why we are not afraid of those who prophesy that our party | will break up because of divergent | interests—sectional or economic. We are sure it will not break up because it. is the natural rallying point of the plain people who see these days | with clearer eyes how they have to | buy from and sell to each other, how | they live only by serving one an- [ other, how they must profit together [if they are to profit at all. Perhaps never before as at this | very hour has the Democratic Party indicated its grasp of the needs of the nation as a ‘whole. On the one hand its leadership | supports with all its vigor wages and | hours legislation because greater | purchasing ‘power for the ‘working {man in any section ‘of the ‘country | means more money to buy agricultural products inh ‘every section of the country. The families of steel workers in ‘Gary and in Birmingham | alike ‘will wear more Mississippi and | Georgia cotton and Texas wool, ‘will eat more Montana ‘wheat, Towa bacon and Katisas beef if they have better wages ‘with ‘which ‘to buy.

PRATSES JUSTICE BLACK

| This is ‘hot sectional anti-South-

{ern legislation. Tt is national legis[lation in the truest sense. I have lalways liked the realisih of the hewe est and youngest member of the Su- | preme Court of the United States, { Mr. Justice Hugo L. Black. Th in- | troducing this legislation in the Senate he said. “Ever since the War be[tween the States, the South has been economically a colony of rather than |a partner in these United States. [While the South ‘has furnished | goods for the nation’s ‘markets, it has not been able to ‘provide the markets it ‘ought to provide for the {nation’s goods.’ And ‘on the ‘other hand, the leadership ‘of the Democratic Party of | today supports legislation to insure stable farm prices, because greater purchasing ‘power for ‘the farmer means ‘more shoes from Massachusetts, more automobiles from Michi gan, more electrical appliances from Indiana used and ‘enjoyed ‘on the farms. In ‘oher words, the leadership of your party recognizes the interdependence of ‘each portion ‘of ‘the country and believes and works for an ‘evergrowing national income based upon this theory. It is a ‘consequence of that truly national and modern outlook of the Democratic Party that it recognizes as its only special interest the per- | sonal welfare of every American | an, woman and ‘child ‘wherever he or she ‘may live. Tt ‘consistently [practices its owh preaching that de'mocracy cah function only ‘where [there is a substantial ‘equality of { | opporfunity. | We are happy that the Democratic Party of today has reached its present unprecedented leader- | ship, has won its present great pop{ular ‘majority. Tt has ‘done so be- | cause it alone has recognized that | so-called democratic government is a mockery so long as it does not make available to & large proportion of ‘our fellow citizens, ‘wherever they live, the minimum requirements of a decent way ‘of life. | Most simply stated the downfall | of the Republican Party in this | country was due to its ‘devotion to

terest of the people at the top. It was good Republican economics and political science that prosperity for those on top would filter down to the vast multitudes at the bottom through the graciousness and benevolence of Lord and Lady Bountifuls among those whom Alexander Hamilton called “the wise, the rich and the good.” But they never stooped so low as to inquire whether that prosperity was filtering down in fact, and as a whole, their party became callous and indifferent to the kind of life which a vast majority of American citizens were forced to live. It is perhaps easy for us to crow at three succesive victories, each more overwhelming than the last, which have reduced the Republican Party to a rear guard of skeletons. But the moribund condition of the Republican Party is a warning written in bright colors for us ever to see and remember. That warning should lash us ever forward to a constantly broadening view of what is the national welfare. What else does the Democratic Party of today stand for? It stands for the belief that a government of the people should do its every deed and perform its every act in the open and public view. We believe in “open ‘covenants openly arrived at” ih home as well as foreign affairs. This has been the frankest administration Washington has ever known. There has been no hiding behind White House spokes-men-—no subtle closing of doors to the press or any other form of legitimate public inquiry.

No Favored ‘Cliques

With a problem as vast as Ours it is impossible that there should hot be isolated and individual cases ‘of maladministration or personal blundering. But although ‘we have been compelled to spend more money than any other Administration that ever went before us, we ‘can as a party take pride in the fact that there have been no favored cliques, no side doors, no little green houses, no little black bags and no Teapot Dome.

Remembering the vastiiess of the sums it has been the responsibility of your government to administer, brings us to another point—that our party alone has had the ‘essential faith in democratic government to be able to prove that democracy can get done ‘efficiently ‘and energetically the things that ‘modern people demand government should get done for them. Tt came into office with a mandate to rescue a government and a country whose machinery had completely broken down and whose morale had almost broken down. In almost every heart there was despair. And in almost every corner there was doubt whether democratic government could any longer get things done fast enough in the ‘ever complicating modern world. Perhaps there has been no ‘more dramatic situation ‘in the history of ‘our ‘country than on that ‘night of March 4, 1933, ‘when the Democratic administration took over from its predecessor a Nation ‘economically demoralized and almost spiritually bankrupt as well. But what dictatorship ever took hold ‘of such & vast situation as effectively as ‘did our scorned democracy? Four years later look at our pay-

rolls, car loadings, farm prices, power output—all the symbols of our prosperity. It is hard to retain even a prudent appreciation of the desperate days behind us.

In four months your party transformed a pseudo democracy that couldn't work into a real democracy that did work.

In four years it has not only pulled the country out of the slough of despond but actually has rebuilt it on a higher and firmer ground than it occupied in the lush days of 1929 itself.

That rebuilding of a nation didn’t come from magic rabbits popping from magic hats. It came from the redirection, given by common sense governmental policy, to that constant willingness of the great majority of our people to work hard and play the game with each other. That is our greatest national asset. The difference between our people in March, 1933, and in August, 1937, is a ‘difference in direction only—in direction by government—and our party can be everlastingly proud that it proved its faith that there is a way to give our people that direction without asking them to surrender their democracy as the price of security. Over 100 vears ago our ancestors had repudiated the Federalist notion of government by those who choose to call themselves “the wise, the rich and the good.” The democracy of Jefferson and Jackson sounded the death knell of such oligarchic ideas. The self-satisfied Pederalists had been led by Hamilton—a mah who with all his admitted talents, thought of the people as “a great beast.” And they have their counterparts in our day who still seek to foist their undemocratic practices and ideals upon the unsuspecting by using the sheep's clothing of a 30called “rugged individualism.”

TWO CHOICES ad

But the party of Jefferson, Jacksoh and Woodrow Wilson will repel these insidious attacks in whatever modern forms they may appear. We know from sad experience that as a practical matter there are but two available choices in American ‘government. One alternative is Big-Business—Big-Lawyer, Hamiltoniah ‘plutocracy, that cleverly asstimes the forms of semidemocrtic government even as it perverts and corrupts. Abroad that would be called fascism inevitably preparing the way for its successor communism. The ‘other alternative is what the Democratic Party of today has furnished—a democracy unafraid that it will cease to be democracy if it Is ‘modern and ‘efficient— geared to work in the interests ‘of the ‘many, in the interests of the average, self-respecting, independent American citizen. The American people have chosen

this second alternative in no un- |

certain terms. Tet us do ‘our share in the task of making certain they have no regret. That ‘means continued effort. For the wise ‘direction of the energies of a ‘people is mot over for us as indeed it will never be over for any government in the ‘modern world. To have started the ‘machinery running again is not sufficient. We must fry to improve it m0 that it will be as fool-proof as possible,

Mea

(Turn to Page Seven)

GROUP SALE

Greater Reductions

(EY IRE] RET TI

TTR TO

Men's, Children’s

LEIS LCE

ra rssh Renn 1S BV BY JB a i a ah a

B/E J

ARE NARD

TO BEAT

IN THIS GREAT PIANO SALE!! Brand Now—and SHghtly Usod—Nuut of Thom Wow

None Can Be Told From

disoriminating

Wehave assembled this a of ot samples and used studio uprights for piano buyers who would expect to pay $300 to 3400 for their piano. Every piano guarantedd.

§ Come early for best selection.

’ Li bY 4 FB 4 ' A

OPE 4

; , re LL SY TE NV TPS YS

The Rome of Mason Hamlin and Knade Piowos

LL. 6404

FRIDAY, AUG. 20,

REA APPROVES 6 PROJECTS FOR INDIANA REMGS

Fayette and Union Counties Group to Get $108,000.

Times Special WASHINGTON, Aug. 20.—The Rural Electrification Administration today announced approval of

six Indiana projects. REA has allotted $108,000 to a

project in Fayette and Union Counties serving 111 miles and 398 customers. The Fayette-Union County Rural Electric Membership Corp. is sponsor. An additionai allotment of $150,000 has been approved for the project serving T05 customers in 115.7 miles in Noble, Dekalb, Kosciusko, Elkhart, Dagrange and Steuben Oounties. 'The Noble County REMC is sponsor. An allotment of $100,000 has been approved for the project serving 880 customers in 250 miles of Rush, Fayette, Henry, Hancock and Shelby ‘Counties. The Rush County REMC is sponsor Other Grants Listed

Approval was announced for an additional $100,000 allotment for 950 miles serving 826 customers in Marshall, Fulton, Pulaski, Kosciusko, St. Joseph and Starke Counties. The Marshall County REMC is sponsor. The Fulton County-sponsored project was granted a partial allotment of $150,000 for 150 miles serving 450 customers in Fulton, Rush, Fayette, Hancock, Shelby and Henry Counties. The REA also granted approval to an additional allotment of $150,000 for the Wayne County-sponsored project in Fayette, Randolph, Union and Wayne Counties, serving 220 miles and 675 customers

5 HURT, 1 CRITICALLY

WHEN AUTOS CRASH

By United Press NEWCASTLE, Tnd, Aug. 20-— Five persons were injured, one critically, in a collision of two automobiles near here late yesterday. 8S. Ray Steele, 28, of near Middletown, was taken to a Muncie hospital, where physicians described his condition as critical Authorities said the accident oecurred when Mr. Steele backed his automobile out of the driveway directly into the path of the oncoming car.

Ladies’ New SQUARE MONARCH Season's latest square model—dainty, charming, trimly-styled! Guaranteed movement. Yellow gold color with matching link or

Cord bracelet 45¢ DOWN-—-50¢ A WEEK!

We Will Take Your Old Ring or Wateh | IN TRADE REGARDLESS OF CONDITION

= 31495

TaVel's Policy Every Customer Must Be Satisfied

MAN'S CAMEO RING

Handsome, massive, solid 51 0

gold mounting — smart 50c A WEEK!

ENSEMBLE

75¢ A WEEK!

® 8-Diomond 3 Fine Diamonds in the solitaire, 5 fine diamonds in wedding band, yellow ‘or white gold

double head modern Ca meo At, an amazingly low price

Opposite Circle Motor Inn

Vanity Bench $5.95 Batra

Convenient Terms to Suit Your Income

® Liberal Allowanee: For Your Old Furniture

These Two great values are typical of many drastic veductions on beauliful suites of all kinds throughout the stove. in today and see the many unusual opportunities the August Sale now off ers you.

Come

Fo 2 Ge bo]

$110 2-Pe. Modern Suite

Large comfortable xofa and luxurious hig chair in combinations of beautiful mohair and tapestry covers in choice of geveral col ors. A well built suite of latest style now at a very unusual saving... August Sale Special

oe i

4 Roe This Beautiful $89.50 Bedroom Suite Here iz a beautifully designed bed- . room suite in butt walnut and zebra wood veneers with genuine oak in- $ 50 bottoms and center drawer guides. oH iL Bed, chest and vanity==Special now at GUNTAIN SQUARE EL RRNITURE STORE

teriors. Hag full dustproof tops and Ave. Theatre

hn, 2

CIEE STE Lil Opp. Granada