The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-08-13
(Official City, State and County
Newspaper
Foreign Representatives
SMALL, SPENCER, BREWER
Uncorporated)
CHICAGO NEW YORK BOSTON
The Hoover KEYNOTE

The Hoover Keynote
Considering the conditions under
which it was made, it was an excel
lent speech which President Hoover
gave Thursday night in accepting
denomination as the Republican
partys standard bearer.
In some respects, it disclosed new
Hoover and it is inevitable that GER
tain differences should be drawn from
it. That the public is intended to
examine the document and draw its
own conclusions is obvious. With
, that end in view, the president and
the party leaders curried it briskly,
trimmed off the rough edges and
rubbed it down fine.
It is not a great state paper, but
then acceptance speeches never are.
AS a campaign document it admir-
ably met the needs of the Republican
party, admittedly in a difficult spot.
AS he prepared his speech and as
he delivered it before a large crowd
and big battery OF microphones, the
president could not possibly have for
gotten thet one Of the worst depres-
sions the nation has known began in
his administration. He expressed the
hope, which all of us devoutly share,
that the bottom already has been
reached and that we are on the up
grade.
But his exposition of economic
theory will not appeal to those per-
sons who feel that something funda-
mental went haywire with the ma
TONS economic system. These, will not
entirely agree with the presidents in
sistence upon adherence to past
standards. The fact of his redeclara-
ton of faith was cloaked in high
sounding phrases and references to
American tradition and practice, but
the nub of the matter is there just
the same.
The Hoover speech loses nothing
and gains nothing-by contrast with
the Roosevelt acceptance, delivered
in dramatic fashion at the close of
the Democratic convention. The one,
essentially, is a defense of record.
The other was an expression Of hope
for the future.
Hoover touched upon the future,
too, but lightly. In that he showed
good political judgment. One of the
major tasks now confronting his par
ty is to erase from the minds of the
people the grandiose dreams which
they were so interested in inspiring in
1928.
The speech differed radically from
many other Republican acceptances in
history, not so much because Of what
it contained as for what it lacked.
Heretofore the full dinner pail has
been paraded in its best bib and
tucker. All that was left of it Thurs
day night was memory and the echo
OF a hollow clang from the wings off
stage. One of the major issues OF the
campaign is whether Hoover can get
it sufficiently filled, in fact or in
promise, with enough speed to
stave off defeat in November.
Where he could do so, the president
took the aggressive, but it was a diff
ficult task. A few thrusts at the
Democratic congress, a jab or two at
the ideas enunciated by party OPP
ponents and he was back at the job
Of explaining the monumental task
upon which he has labored, what he
has done in the past and what he
hopes to do In the future.
On the latter point, as already
pointed out, he was sagacious and
prudent. A man who has held Of
flee for four years Is not likely to
thrive on promises.
X X X
whatever the farmers may think
of their political prestige, 1t is obvi-
Gus that the Republicans have chart
ed their major battle-ground as being
Ia the East, where the electoral votes
are thickest. Hence the unusual de-
claration on the prohibition question.
His opponents will charge. and not
without some justification. that
Hoover is an eleventh hour convert
to the idea that prohibition has been
. bad thing fer the country. They
will point to the Hoover-handled re-
port Of the Wickersham committee
IA support o. this podtion. But the
fact remains that. late or no, It seems
% hive been fairly Icomplets. He
aces 20 far beyond the amphibian
plank adopted by his party at CHI