The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-06-20
Price of Evasion-Then and Now

where there would have been little opposition
had the question actually come to vote.
Congress adjourned before ballot could be
reached, because well-meaning but garru-
lous explainer from Massachusetts had to ex-
haust his lung-power.
That was in 1916. If the proviso had
been passed, extension of slavery into new
territory would have been forbidden, and the
Civil war, which swept the nation decade
and half later, probably would not have
occurred
Those years which led our country into
its great disaster were years of backing and
filling and avoidance by leaders of the major
political parties The Democrats relied on the
vague device of squatter sovereignty. The
Wings, meeting in national convention two
years after the Wilmot affair, lodged even
a mention of slavery.
1t was an era of compromise which
sought to "take the issue out Of politics"
Fillmore was a trimmer So was the
brilliant Clay, the man who, as one historian
said could see to the heart of any problem,
but never went to it, SO were the other big
regulars OF Lne Time.
The years of that period were swathed
in words, designed to insulate the parties
from the responsibility which it should be
the duty of parties to accept; words akin to
the modern version of evasion as expressed
in the Republican classic of 1932-"No pub
lie official or member Of the party should be
pledged or forced to choose between his party
affiliations and his honest convictions"
Eighty years ago congressional round
robin CONDEMNED all disturbances and any
further agitation" of the question by the
Democrats on a line-of-least resistance plat
form. The Wings, meeting in the same city,
pronounced the cautious doctrine OF action
on a basis of time and experience"
Political expediency, inspired by the To-
cation of a railroad right-of-way, brought
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which started the
hurricane of hatred that subsidized only after
more than fifty years.
So it was through decades of sidestep-
ping. Some clever like that by Clay and
Douglas, some awkward like Buchanans,
that the nation was made to pay in blood
for procrastination and pussyfooting
Finally, out of the maze of irresolution
there came a leader-One who cut through all
the careful wrapping of equivocation and
simply said "a house divided against
itself can not stand. 1t will become one thing
or another This government can not en-
dure half slave and half free"
Had that leader appeared before he did,
IL. l. JoJ
him, the casualty might have been averted.
The issues are not the same today. But
the human elements back of the issues are
the same And the issues themselves are
as sorely critical.
The Republican party of 1882 has met
those issues-how? With such an outpour-
ing of evasiveness as would have nauseated
Lincoln and have shamed even those other
adopts at sidestepping who led the nation up
to Lincolns day.
In the Republican nominee, Mr.. Herbert
Hoover, and in the platform which reflects
him, there is no hope. In the other major
party there is hope, dependent on who is
nominated.
In the Democrat who possesses the most
votes on the opening ballot we have another
Fillmore, another Buchanan another Hoo
yer. His name is Roosevelt. His record of
inaction and of political expediency in the
face of his one great, trying test, corruption
in the nations largest city, has proved his
type.
The election of either Roosevelt or Hoo
yer in November next will mean four more
years of indecision; four more years of the
sort that crystallized the bitterness and the
troubles which preceded 81.
In the Democratic party we have can
didate of the other type; the utter opposite;
one who not only sees to the heart of the
problem, but goes to it. That man is Alfred
E. Smith
For him, or for another man within the
party who is likewise of the positive type,
the time calls desperately,
On whether such man is nominated, or
another vacillator, will depend much, in
terms of national welfare-or national
misery.
We repeat
This nation has had about as much as it
can stand of Government nv douht "