Evening star., 1928-10-25
BY the Associated Press.

Smith spoke here last :" ht as follows
I'VE shall use words to convey ou
m-aning. not to hide it."
On August IL of this year in tn
State of California the Republican can
didate In his speech of acceptance mad
use of the words that have Jus
spoken, and held out high hope t
the people of the Uni 4 States that il
ing would give lie American people al
opportunity to render their verdict OF
the 9Th of November in the light of {
thorough understanding of where tn
candidate stood on all of the grea
questions upon which this contest mus
be decided If lived up to, IL would b
an innovation in Republican campaign
ing.
Let us take up some of the subject
before the electorate and see how fa
the Republican an candidate has uset
words to convey his meaning
Take first the question of the devel
opment OF our great natural water
power resources.
Let me first state the question a
issue. Throughout the length anC
breadth of this country today there arr
great water-power developments. Th'
Democratic platform refers to them a!
the last line of public resources not ye
in the hands of private companies fol
private gain and private profit.
Raises Power Question.
The question Is, how are they to b.
developed? BY the Government itself
retaining ownership and control fol
the purpose of putting the Government
in Hxyo orr q
to guarantee fair rates and equitable
distribution to the users of electrical
energy, developed as a result of the.l
ownership of these resources? Or are
they to be alienated and fall into the
hands of the private power companies
eagerly seeking an opportunity to ust
the natural resources of the country
the property of all the ~eople, for theil
own profit? Early in the campaign
exposed the operation of the power
lobby and their attempts for many
years to discourage public development
and ownership. We are dealing with nc
new question, but with one that has
been before the country for quite some
time.
There can be no mistake about the
Democratic position or about my owr
attitude. I am endeavoring to apply tc
the Nation the principles that appia6
IN the State of New York, where piCo-
ably the largest and the greatest OF
these water powers now reside. Only
two years ago successfully defeated
the aspirations of the power trust by
calling public attention to the fact that
the Republican controlled Water Power
Commission of New York State was pre-
pared to turn over the potential water.
power possibilities of the st. Lawrence
River to subsidiary of the Aluminium
Company Of America.
Properly developed, there is enough
publicly water power in the State
OF New York to light New England and
1t is running to waste tonight while we
are gathered in this hall, simply be-
cause 1t has been impossible UP to date
to get any agreement as to the manner
and method of dealing with it. The
private companies have been successful
in blocking all attempts at public de-
velopment
All this is known to Mr.. Hoover, as
it is to the Republican leaders of the
country generally.
Two Sides to Problem.
There can only be two sides to the
question-either the people are to re-
tain these water-power sites under
public ownership and public control OF
they are to lease them to private COM
panies for private profit.
1t should be, in the ordinary course
of events, perfectly easy thing for
any public man to declare without
equivocation just where he stands on
the fundamental principle involved.
Take the very speech of acceptance
in which appears the text Of my speech
tonight. In so far as its deals with
water power, this is what he said:
Nearly all of our greater drainages
contain within themselves possibilities
of cheapened transportation, irrigation,
reclamation, domestic water supply, hy-
power, and frequently the
necessities of flood control. But this
development of our water requires more
definite national policies in the sys-
tematic coordination of these different
works upon each drainage area"
What does all this mean? / am un-
able to make anything out of it, and
If the American public can would like
to know what it is. Where could you
find In any political campaign of the
past a better example of the use of
words to hide rather than to convey a
Following his speech of acceptance,
the Republican candidate was con-
fronted with a nationwide demand
that he use words to convey his mean
ing and not to hide it. AS a result, on
the 18th Of August, one week after his
speech OF acceptance, he spoke at Los
and all that he said about the funda-
mental TNFtnniVlln nf Af -
source of supply was that he was In
favor of the highest dam at Boulder
on the Colorado River, that the
engineers would recommend.
Avoided Principle.
This is to do with construction. The
principle he carefully
He next touched upon water power in
the State of Tennessee, a State which
would be particularly benefited by COM
plete development of a water power on
the Tennessee River at Muscle Shoals:
and, strange to say, In his entire speech
he never even mentioned the words
Muscle Shoals"
The following Is an extract from his
speech:
violations of public interest by indi-
viduals or corporations should be fol-
lowed by the condemnation and punish
ment they deserve, but this should not
induce us to abandon progressive prin-
ciples and substitute in their place
deadly and destructive doctrines"
What did he mean by deadly and
destructive doctrines? Did that mean
public ownership and public control?
II SO, why not use words to convey the
meaning? And what did he have in
his mind when he tried to hide it?
Let me read further from the speech:
There are local instances where the
Government must enter the business
field as by-product of some great ma
jor purpose, such as improvement In
navigation. food control, scientific re-
search of national defense, but they dc
not vitiate the general policy to which
We should adhere"
What Is General Policy?
What is the general policy to which
we should adhere? What is the candi-
dates policy with regard to the devel-
opment of water power?