The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-09-26
Unemployment Vital
 Issue Says Gormley
Congressional Candidate at Canaan Meeting Talks
 Needs of Nation

| for congress In the nth diStrict, a, a gathering of party leaders and adherents in Canaan. Judge Gorm. ley declared that the question of unemployment is the most vita and important issue of all and, al the same time, stated his stand or | the other matters clearly along democratic lines and in conform ity with the platforms laid down by the national and state organi- cations.
 He spoke in part as follows:
 In accepting the democratic nomination. for congress from the | fifth district in Torrington last week, I stated that my campaign would be based almost in its entir- ety uponsthe issue that to my mind was the most vital and important of all--that being the issue of Un- employment. There of course are other matters to which we all must give great deliberation, such as the questions of prohibition, tariff banking, national defense. etc. Ii is my belief, however, that the un- employment situation is one to which the next congress should give its immediate consideration in preference to all others, in or der that the terrific strain under which the people of this country have been laboring for many months might be relieved at the earliest possible moment.
 II believe one of the basic req sons at the bottom of the unem- ployment situation is the present tariff law, enacted under the guid- ance of the President of the Uni- ted States, and approved by him in order to satisfy the demands of a small group of gentlemen from whose pockets there had come the tremendous war chest to finance the campaign of 1928. This bill, re- ferred to as the "Smoot- t-Hawley Tariff Bill" might properly be called The Grundy Monstrosity.
 "We know from our study of practical economy that because of the great resources of this nation, we can produce in six months, everything we are going to use or need for an entire year. Naturally there must be an open market to J which we can send our surplus goods if production is going to con- tinue uninterrupted. However, be- cause of the now acknowledged stupidity of the Grundy tariff act as a whole, we are, and have been confronted with business world that is openly antagonistic, and which is doing everything 1t can to get along entirely without our goods and our products when 1t can possibly do so. we also know that because of the tariff barriers set up in retail iation by other countries, many of our leading manufacturing insti- tutions have been compelled to go | aboard and open branch factories to escApe the evils of these tariff barriers. If we may refer to a re- cent article written by noted Can 1 ldian journalist and economist, we will find that almost every week sees a new American industry set up somewhere in Canada, bringing nto the Dominion, millions of cap 1 ..al, work and wages for Canadian ,eople. home markets for Canadian | armers, traffic for Canadian rail- .,ays, and more business for Cana ! ian ports. Taken altogether, these 1 .evelopments have constituted one of the many factors in tiding the Dominion of Canada over the ex- isting depression. These develop ments, although blessing for | Canada, is naturally extremely det- rimental to the United States, and ! a direct outgrowth of the policy of the present administration, and can be traced, and unmistakably o the Hawley-Smoot or Grundy .ariff, call 1t what you may.
 Let us take another angle o1 the situation and go further into the question of this great industrial and agricultural panic. We all re- member the hectic period of spec. ulntion that preceded the month o1 October, 1929 when approximately according to the statistics, there were more than nine millions ol people in the United States involv' ed more or less in the process oi speculation and stock-gambling Stocks of all kinds were being bought and sold for fabulous pric es. Real, genuine values were en tirely forgotten. We were on wave of prosperity, we thought that was absolutely bound by nc limitations. On and on the org! proceeded, with little thought as t the house of cards upon which 1 all was built. Those in high politi cal place predicted that the futur' years would be just as prosperous and just as golden as were thu years behind. AZ a matter of fact only a few weeks prior to Octobe 29, 1929, the former eminent Sec retary of the Treasury, Andrew w Mellon issued a statement, whicl can be verified by an examinatiel of the newspaper files of that time indicating that all was well, tha everything was sound, that value were legitimate, and that nothin
 was to be feared. That statement coming from the Secretary of tn Treasury under Herbert Hoover, il my opinion was calamatous in It nature, for because of that state ment, millions of more dollars wer promptly invested in one form Q another. Everyone was anxious t buy more stocks even though became necessary to mortgag every possession to the hilt to ge the money to do so. Millions of dol lars which under the federal re serve act as passed in the admin istration of Woodrow Wilson wer diverted from legitimate bushes to illegitimate business, and the
 what happened? The house 0 cards began to crumble. Fortune overnight were swept away. Sma
 investors were left without even
 home, and ruin and desperation hal been the lot of millions of peopl since that time.
 What actually do we witnes o-day? Unemployment that find no counterpart in thirty years; ah solute suffering and want that wa not exceeded even in the dark day of the nineties; fear and hopeless ness in the eyes of the laborin classes when the future Is taken in to considerations; discouragemer and hopelessness on the part of tn farmers that borders closely on ah solute desperation; the ill-will an
 hatred of other nations because (
 the selfish, economic condition that I have referred to in com menting on the present tariff law many more foreclosures on tn homes of American men than eve before in the judicial history ( our country; the forced breaking up of families and the driftin