Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-09-26
BOTH BIG PARTIES /
VAIN, SAYS THOMAS
Socialist Candidate Likens
Democrats and Republicans
to Empty Bottles.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
MADISON, Wis, September 26.-The
Republican and Democratic parties
were termed tonight by Norman
Thomas, Socialist candidate for Presi-
dent. merely glass bottles with differ
ent labels and both Of them empty of
any medicine for the sickness of our
times"
In an advance copy of radio cam
paign manager, Thomas said Of the
Democrats:
What the amiable Mr.. Roosevelt and
the Democrats want is hard to say, ex-
cept that they want office.
THE real slogan Of the democracy
was expressed by those Senators who
selected in a prize contest those thrill
ing words:
"'He haw, we're coming back!'
Imagine q party In this tragedy
which takes such q slogan.
And yet what else is it but desire
for Office that united Democrats of the
North, the South, the East and the
West; the radical and the conservative;
Barney Baruch and Burton K Wheeler,
Huey Long and Vincent Aston, and God
knows how many other incompatibles
besides.
IDEALS in Pious Hopes"
For the most part Mr.. Roosevelt
deals in pious hopes.
Farmers are to get tariff benefits
without having overproduction stimu-
lated. without any danger of dumping
and without duly raising prices.
Something Is to be done for silver.
but the gold standard must stand
secure.
and 1t will be less expensive to get re-
ceiverships. Meanwhile workers are to
get the most the railroads can pay,
tives say, except that they add that
they can only pay 20 per cent less than
they are now paying.
What leadership Is that In an hour
of crisis?"
In commenting on the administra-
ton party. Thomas said:
President Hoover and the Repub-
HcanS at least have come to a point
where they offer immense doles to bust
ness.
Outside Of Soviet Russia. no man has
ever put SO much government in bust
ness as President Hoover. And all the
the American plan.
But the purpose for which he puts
Government in business is always for
the sake of the business man, in the
hope that If the business man prospers
something may splash over to the
farmer and to the worker.
Unsatisfactory Program.
How unsatisfactory is this program.
thinking first Of the prof1t-maker, let
these times attest.
1T is the degeneration of political
action when We are asked to vote for
parties with no more program" he con-
tinued, when our attention Is focused
on one amendment-the eighteenth
and the purchase of beer when millions
among us can scarcely buy bread.
I'VE cannot afford forever to 60 on,
throwing away our votes by voting for
what We don't want and getting it. by
voting our fears instead of our hopes,
by trying to pick the winner rather than
picking the thing We desire to win"
Thomas then turned to the Socialist
program and platform.
Those natural resources which no
man made" he said, land those great
aggregations of machinery now owned
by absentee owners should be the pos
session of the great community of
workers with brain and hand
These essential tools for all of us should
be managed for use and not for profit.
under skilled leadership and not demo-
cratic principles.
We want economic plan in America,
but economic plan requires purpose.
Nothing less than the purpose of the
cooperative commonwealth will avail
1t requires also that We collectively
should own the things for which we
plan.
1T Is this transfer of natural re-
sources, the great means of production,
the banking system. the public utilities,
from private to public hands, which
is the vital issue Of our times To that,
of course. must be added. the proper
conduct of those industries
Thomas declared that with the right
ideals such industries could be prop
erly managed under the system he out
lined.
He devoted minutes of this talk to
voters in North Carolina in an effort
to get enough signatures on petitions
to place his name on the ballot there.