Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 October 1937 — Page 8

PAGE 8

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 20, 1937

Text of Landon’s Topeka Radio Challenge to New Deal

TOPEKA, Kas., Oct. 20 (U, | tutional methods are too slow—it with years of experience. He turned

P.).—The text of the radio address of Alf M. Landon here last night follows: I have called a meeting 17 million men and women voted for the Republican ticket fall. I have taken it upon myself to call this meeting because 1 held the honor of being the standard bearer of the cause for votes were cast I wish to suggest ways and m by which we. the minonty can be of oustanding service t country This demands our party, the laving petty differences and feeling. Of course party there ( on details, plans \ cad these fade to significance the shadow of the aren to our republic 1s so great that i differences and { labels. he challeng try today is that ci all personal, fact prejudices and join In preserve the republic Through the modern miracle of radio it is possible for us to assemble in one great gathering, even though we be spread from one end of the nation to the other. And so I am using this vehicle to discuss informally with you two events of great importance. But first, let me digress for a moment to review some of the circumstances leading up to these eveiits which so vitally affect lives of all of us.

last

are

the

SILENCE QUESTIONED

During the past months I have received hundreds and thousands of letters, earnestly mquiring why I have remained silent so long. I would like to take a moment to tell you why. First, I believe that under normal conditions, when a man has been elected to public office, good taste and good government demand that we give him free rein to establish those policies which he promised the voters in order to secure their votes. Frankly, I had hoped that after the election we might consolidate the gains this country had made in a new vision of civic righteousness. Last December, after called on the President in Washington and told him that I wished to do my part to create a spirit of harmony and solidarity among us as a people Then, suddenly, last February, without warning, the President made an attempt to control the decisions of States. Just at the time when we were trving to heal the scars of class consciousness, just at the time when we hoped a world torn by war and threats of war, would feel that we were a country at peace at home, he instituted a bitter controversy that shook this nation to its foundations. But once more, I remained silent. I felt it my patriotic ¢uty to do nothing which would give anyone an opportunity to make a partisan issue out of this crisis. But now

act.

the time has come to

AGREES WITH ROOSEVELT

In a recent speech Mr. Rooseveit stated that progress lags in this country He said that the lawyers of our country and the Constitution have kept us 20 years behind the times Now, I agree with Mr. Roosevelt that progress lags. I think all of you agree that progress lags That K unanimous: So one of the standing questions 1 America today is “why does progvess lag?” The Pre

must accept

has said that we two alternatives. We must take his personal form of Government—we must give him more and more power. We must coerce ‘Congress. We must submerge the Supreme Court. We must strike down anyone who raises a voice of objection to the way he does things. We must do all of these things or else go back to the old order of things—back to manipulation by “malefactors of great wealth,” back to sweat shops, back to starvation wages. f

sident

one of

Of course if people believe that we must either have a one-man government or social economiz chaos, there is no question as to what their choice Is going to be. The manner in which Mr. Roosevelt puts the question reminds me of the lawyer who said to a witness, “Have you stopped beatinz vour wife? Answer yes or no. The real question facing this country today is, “Why do we lag in social progress?” I am geing to tell you why I believe social progress lags, and I believe I can prove it te you beyond all question of a doubt. The real reason why progress has lagged in America during the last four and one-half years is the failure of the President of the United States to follow our Constitutional method of Government and his failure as an administrator,

Ths President says that Consti- |

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the Supreme Court of the United |

great | ! | But what did Mr. Roosevelt do?

| takes too long to do things in the | way the Constitution prescribes. But, I submit that if we had followed Constitutional methods we would have made many times as much progress as we have made | during Mr. Roosevelt's Adminis- | tration.

DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS

I would like to point out that Mr. Roosevelt's career as President divides itself into two parts: The first phase of his career deals with the first few months when he was | in office, from March, 1933, to July, 1933. During those few months he | performed commendable service. He rose to the emergency with emergency action. He fed the hungry— he sheltered the homeless—he replaced fear with confidence and hope Then period of working out a far- | long-range program of so- | This was a different | tion This required a differtype of ability. This was a job ‘hh required quiet, hard, painsg work. During the Mr. Roosevelt's dustrial production rose 37 per cent. Things began to hum. Industry | was picking up. People were regaining their confidence. Then | ame Mr. Roosevelt's first important piece of supposedly temporary social legislation, namely the NRA. What happened? We began to slide back.

The LOL SOCK, MN reform

first four months of

We lost

most of what we had gained. And |

this has been repeated many times.

Now. as I have said. the lag in social progress is due to Mr. Roose-

velt's failure to follow Constitutional |

methods. Let me dwell on this point for just a moment because it may clarify our entire present situation. Under our Constitutional method, the President makes recommendations to Congress. He turns over

the drafting of legislation to the | of Congress | thoroughly. | They |

legislators. Members investigate all phases They hold public hearings.

allow almost evervone who is in-

terested to come in and have his |

say. They discuss the pitfalls, the loopholes, all the things that may go wrong. They listen particularly to the opposition—to the people who don't want the legislation. Incidentally,

stand. He does not want to let the opposition talk.

he will tell you that the opposition is your biggest They tell you all the things that are wrong. They tell you all the reasons why it won't work.

islation,

it is passed.

Now this may seepn a slow, tire- |

some method, in terms of weeks or months, but if vou look back over | a period of four and one-half years, it would have been very rapid indead.

came the second period: |

Administration in- |

Progress stopped. |

this is a phase that Mr. | Roosevelt does not seem to under- |

help. |

They | give vou the information that en- | ables vou to plug up the loopholes | and draft a law that will work after |

| drafting of the legislation over lo | some college sophomores. He handled it to Congress in a package and | said in effect: “Pass it this way without crossing a ‘IT’ or dotting lan ‘I. For example: When the NRA | was passed his avowed purposes met | with approval. But the NRA did | not work. As everyone knows, it was a miserable failure. Don’t take | my word alone for this. Ask Mr. | Roosevelt himself. He admits that | it failed, but excuses it all on the | basis that it was well-intended. Yet, despite the fact that NRA did not work in practice, Mr. Roosevelt con- | tinues to insist upon adoption of its | theory in one form or another, thus, making the same mistake over and over again. The Social Security Act is another example of the same policy. It is | well-intended. It is something that | is necessary in our country. {are many men in America who have | studied this problem for years. | Practically every one of them dis- | agreed, not with the idea, but with the form Mr. Roosevelt was jam- | ming through. For social security is | at least the one thing in which all | citizens should be treated equally. | The present law does not do so. It (will be changed to correct its er-

Tots when it is dealt with intelli- | gently. This is necessary because | Mr. Roosevelt failed to follow con- | stitutional procedure in drafting it. Let us next consider the question | ot relief. I do not need to tell you | that relief has been made a political football. You have seen examples | all around you. Unemployment was our biggest problem when Mr. | Roosevelt came into office in 1933. It is still our biggest problem. I | believe we are morally worse off now than we were then, because at that time everyone at least wanted to |work if he could find a job. The present policy of relief may be all | right for those who want to stay on relief, but to the self-respecting

man there can be only one ques- |

tion: When do we go back to work?

CONFUSION OVER TAXES

another situation In | America today which is holding back industrial recovery perhaps | more than any one single thing, and

There is

| that is taxes. Not just the amount |

but the confusion over taxes. No one knows from one year | to the next b What is going to 3 hap:

| of taxes,

But if you ask any | man who understands drafting leg- |

cause

if through that method we |

had obtained some legislation that |

was workable.

He refused to call in able legislators

There |

pen. How can the country go ahead under such conditions? Isn't it time, instead of jaunting across the country, that someone stayed home long enough to work out a program of tax legislation that would not have to be changed every year? Ladies and gentlemen: I think we are all glad to find a growing sentiment that the Constitution works when you give it a chance to work. I believe you must be realizing by now that our good old Constitution, instead of being a horse and buggy, is a roaring motor car, compared to the progress we have been making.

Now, I would like to make a prediction—prediction about the Wagner Labor Act. Again, “his heart | may be in the right place.” Again, | his intentions were the best in the world. But again Constitutional procedure was not followed.

And I want to make this predic|tion: That once more you will find an unworkable, messed-up piece of legislation that will have to be done all over again. True, it is a step in the right direction. It is a move in the direction of collective bargaining. Despite its present weaknesses and failings, we should place our | feet squarely upon this Act. The | wisdom and fairness of the people will eventually bring about a modification so that the justice and equal[ity of all rights, including that of the public, will be recognized. But at the present time, there are many lawyers in this country (not corporation lawyers, but labor lawyers) who will tell you that they have already found so many holes in it that it looks like a sieve. Here, again, a worthy cause will be seriously hurt if it is not corrected immediately. Incidentally, I suppose next week, I will be accused by the Administration of being antilabor because I dared to criticize the Wagner Act. But, if I am thus accused, I will have plenty of company, for our recognized labor leaders are criticizing the operation of the act.

POLICIES ARE DANGEROUS

Mr. Roosevelt's policies in dealing with labor problems have not only | been unsatisfactory, they have been dangerous. It is his specific duty to [maintain order when local authori- | ties do not do so. It is his duty to | protect the workingman, It is his duty to protect property. But when trouble came, he again | failed to follow the Constitution. He | failed to protect either the men or "the property. Of course, the prop-

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erty can be restored. But the deplorable thing was, he did not protect human life. Men were shot and clubbed. And, according to press reports, the President shrugged his shoulders. He said it was a local affair. He said: “A plague on both their houses,” and went on another vacation. I have given you the basic reason for the lag of social progress in our country—I have given you numerous examples of legislation, each of which has its heart in the right place, but all of which will have to be done over again because Constitutional procedure was not followed.

CITES INSURANCE ACT

Now I want to give you an example of what happens when a piece of social legislation is drafted according to Constitutional procedure by men who really understand the art of drafting legislation.

About the year 1905 New York |

State took up the question of revising insurance laws for the protection of insurance companies and the protection of policyholders. A certain small group of men attacked the problem. And after months of arduous toil (it may have seemed awfully long at the time), they worked out a program of legislative reform. That law is still in effect with only slight modifications. The same basic law has been adopted by many other states. Twenty-five years later our country was struck by the greatest de-

pression in the memory of living Those insurance companies, incorporated in states which had |

drafted similar laws, represented the one investment of the average man that has stood up. There is one man in the United States to whom we can be thankful as much as to anyone else for this great piece of social legislation that stood the test of a generation, and that man is Mr. Charles Evans Hughes, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. It was Chief Justice Hughes, heading an investigation. who made rec(Turn to Page 11)

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A Statement to the Public

By

Banquet Ice Cream & Milk Co.

When the Milk Drivers’ Union called a strike on three other Indianapolis dairy plants, this company, along with all other Indianapolis plants, decided that as a matter of protection to our employees we should discon-

tinue our delivery service.

During the period of non-delivery all report-

ing employees were paid their regular wage scale.

After more than a week of attempted negotiation the Indianapolis Milk Distributors decided that it was apparently impossible to come to a fair and reasonable agreement with the union and it was the unanimous decision of all concerned that we immediately resume our delivery service. Accordingly, we notified all employees to return to work Tuesday morning and planned to resume normal delivery service.

All of our trucks were loaded as usual and ready to start on routes and

a number of trucks had left the plant, and then 29 men,

including 21

route salesmen, walked out of the plans, leaving our trucks standing in

our yard.

There are 117 employees in our plant. Eighty-eight of these employees are still at work. Only 29 of our employees have refused to work.

This would certainly make it appear that there is a decided difference of opinion among our employees.

Men Who Walked Out Are Calling on Our Customers

It is reliably reported that some of the men who refused to work have gone out over our routes and are spreading misleading stories about this situation.

We ask the indulgence of our customers in this matter. membered that these complaining men

Union or we would be forced to discharge them. We have refused to agree on a closed shop because we cannot agree to discriminate between union and non-union employees, cannot agree to force men to join the Union when they have already expressed themselves as unwilling to do so.

It must be re-

have been paid their regular wages

throughout this situation. remembered that only 29 men out of a total of 117 employees have refused to work. It must be remembered that the industry has made every effort possible to make a fair and reasonable settlement with the local Union.

dairy

The principal contention of the Union has been for a “closed shop” plants. It has been our contention that we could not agree to a closed shop because this would mean that our employees would either have to join the

The fact that only 29 employees out of a total of 117 employees have refused to work today seems to prove our case —the fairness of our stand.

It must be

We have no argument with our men as to their right to join the Union, but we do contend that it is not up to us to force our men to join the Union. in all We ask the indulgence of the public and our customers until this matter can be brought to a sane, fair, reasonable settlement.

Banquet Ice Cream & Milk Co.