The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-10-17
Mr.. Hoover at Cleveland

If Des MoineS can be called the
peak of Hoover's campaign effort,
Cleveland must impress unbiased
hearers as an anti-climaX. Mr..
Hoover stood at Cleveland among the
ruins of a prosperity which, four
years ago, near the same spot, he
militantly told the voters of the ma
ton would be permanent under Re
publican auspices.
There was little new in the Cleve-
land speech except the application Of
the Republican strategy to blame the
depression and it's attendant evils
upon the war and the high tariff
walls erected by new nationalities
created by the Versailles treaty. This
position comes four years too late to
be convincing. Mr.. Hoover would
win more favor if he admitted his
error of prophesy made SO empiric-
ably in 1928.
Mr.. Hoover dismissed the Grundy
tariff as having nothing at all to
do with the economic shock. He ex-
planned that this tariff measure was
passed II months after the specula-
tive bubble burst. There will always
be a difference of opinion as to Just
when the bubble burst or where it
exploded. For more than a year the
Republicans marked time and as
sured the nation that prosperity was
just around the corner. Echoing
through Mr.. Hoovers Soho larly
Cleveland address, was his own pre-
diction, less than three years ago,
that revival in business was only
60 days away.
Confusing his arguments in the ef-
fort to win back the vote of labor
and those out of jobs was the at
titude of Mr.. Hoover's Department of
Labor which for months refused to
concede that there was any unem-
ployment problem. Fairness in this
campaign must credit the Democrats
with taking the first constructive
steps toward publicizing unemploy-
ment in the utterances of Senator
Wagner. a Democrat, on the floor of
the senate. True, Mr.. Hoover vetoed
a very constructive measure passed
by the senate under Mr.. Wagners
driving energy, but his Department
of Labor, in finally bestirring itself
on the labor issue, put into effect
many of the ideas first espoused by
the Democrats. This is the record.
X X X
Mr.. Hoover probably weakened
rather than strengthened his posi-
ton in answering charge that he
disseminated against white labor in
favor of Chinese workers. Just whom
he was answering he did not make
plain. 1t was probably a resentment
OF Walter Liggett'S latest book on
THE Rise of Herbert Hoover" Any
calumnies which may have been ut
tered against the president in that
volume should he beneath his notice
In the past presidents have never
ceIgned to reply to attacks which
SAVIOR of the roorback. II the De-
mocrats have used such material
without due investigation they owe
the public a prompt retraction
Voters are interested in vital issues.
not what happened 20 years ago.
These charges were whispered in the
Hoover-Smith campaign and Mr..
Hoover should have been assured of
public indifference to them. He
ignored them personally in that cam.
paisn. he should not have stopped to
answer them now.
In speaking to labor. Mr.. Hoover
misinterpreted the stand Of the De.
mccratic party on the tariff. He
did it In the same manner as his
colleague, Senator Smoot and Vice
President Curtis. were doing it on the
same evening in the Mormon Taber-
nacle at Salt Lake City. Senator
Smoot, the high priest Of the Repub-
lican tariff, is fighting for his po-
itical life in this campaign. Ap-
plicatlon Of Grundy tariff, which
favors only the east and leaves the
farmer to defend himself on the
world market and a poorly-protectet
home market. is not pleasing to the
great agricultural centers Of the ma.
ton. Those who have studied thu
Democratic position on the tariff anc
the votes of the Democrats in con.
: gress on tariff revision know tina
neither the farmer nor the manu-.
facturer is to be left defenseless j
Roosevelt wins. 1t is part OF tn,
] Republican strategy, and has beer
for ages, TO picture the tariff as tn