Evening star., 1932-10-19

BY the Associated Press
WHEELING, w Va. October l9-
The text of Gov. Roosevelt's speech here
today follows:
We are now in the closing stages of
no ordinary campaign. And l come to
the great State of West Virginia to
speak to you who have reason to know
the conditions. which face our citizens
and to speak to you frankly and in a
straight forward manner concerning
the reasons which have brought these
conditions about and the steps that We
must take to effect their cure. We are
not faced merely with a choice OF
change of administration. We have
now to make a choice between a nation
with hope for economic order and in
divldual prosperity on the one hand,
or a country allowed to drift under the
present temporizing type of administra-
tive leadership.
You have had placed before you the
Specter of fear by the Republican can
didate, and the Republican speakers.
You have been told that things might
have been worse, and will be worse if
l am elected to Office. But I say to
YOU yes things might have been
worse: indeed, We might all of us
have been destroyed. But on the other
hand remember that things might have
been better. should have been better.
and will begin to get better with a
change of administration on the fourth
Of March"
Little Credit to Leaders.
To attempt to instill panic into the
electorate at time when We must all
have courage and a firm belief that the
American characteristic of finding an
Swers to problems will bring us back on
the upward trail, is a method Of cam
paigning which does little credit to
leaders still at this time entrusted with
the welfare of the United States.
We may we'll ask the question: Are
you afraid of a change?" Certainly in
the light of three years Of almost COM
plete inaction by Republican leadership
three years in which little construc-
tive action of any kind was taken
would almost be sufficient to have us
give the answer no. we are not afraid
of a change"
But further than that I would re-
mind you of two very interesting facts.
First, things might have been worse if
it had not been for the establishment in
the Wilson administration Of what we
call the Federal Reserve System. Had
there been no Federal Reserve System.
the collapse would indeed have been
complete And that system was the
product of a Democrat-Carter Glass
and that system became law only after
| the most bitter opposition from the Re-
publican leaders-now Mr.. Hoover'S as
| sociates.
How wise were those Democrats who
fought for that measure! To them to-
day should 60 most of the credit when
we say that things might have been
worse And, may l add. how much bet
| ter off would our Nation be today II
the original purposes and principles OF
| that system had been followed by Re-
publican Presidents
Traced to Democrats.
And secondly, it has been said that
the Reconstruction Finance Corpora
ton, which, by the way, is as much a
Democratic measure as Republican
measure-for it was passed in the spirit
of bipartisan cooperation in the Con-
gress of the United States-iS another
thing which has saved the financial
structure of the country. But again,
this measure was not due to the Gre
ative genius of Republican leadership,
for it was during the period of the
Democratic administration that there
was established the War Finance Cor
poration, and it is essentially the princi-
piles of that War Finance Corporation
which have been re-eStabliShed at this
new period of crisis.
Thus we may fairly say that the two
things which have saved things from
being worse-the Federal Reserve Sys-
TEN and the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation-are both the result of the
constructive foresight of the Democratic
party and it's leaders.
And just for the sake of the record
to get it straight for future historians
let me make this clear: have not at its
inception or at any time since, criticized
or objected to the establishment Of the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation any
more than l have the Federal Reserve
system. The point is that it is not
that the Republican administration es-
tablished that agency-it is how it
used that agency. The Reconstruction
Finance Corporation has performed
many excellent services in extending
credit to banks and other institutions
but it is the fact, which I established
last Spring, and which the record OF
the subsequent months has disclosed
that I was right in saying that only a
small portion of the actual credits ad-
vanced by the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation has trickled down-seepeo
through-to the individual. to the
worker and the farmer and the mar
without a job-or, for that matter, tc
| the small business man himself.