Evening star., 1932-04-14

1
political principle and a promise of
political Performances a time most
| critical in all of our history. with mil
! lions of our fellow-citiZenS out cI en-
| loyment. business and commerce para
| lived, financial and economic ruin
widespread throughout the land.
Nothing on the horizon today gives bet
ter promise to the 10000 900 people of
our own country and to our neighborS
across the sea than that this conven-
ton declare a set Of political promises
and principles which will command the
attention. the respect and the support
of the American people.
1t has been our experience particu
| larly in the recent past when the tide
of prosperity was high, that little or no
attention wes given by the great body
of our people to the operations Of the
Government. But under present con-
every walk of life naturally turns to
the operations of the Government,
which are calculated so far as the Gov
eminent can Go it to bring relief
II has been my experience in the past
that the party platform has been alto
| gether too wordy, too long. too compl-
Gated and usually put IN such Ian
| guage and terms as to be not readily
understandable by the ordinary man.
A large part of the platforms in the
past has been given to denunCiation OF
our political opponents. If ever there
was a time in the history Of the party
when that was unnecessary it is now
| The shortcomings of the present ad-
mnistration are listed daily IN Republ-
can newspapers throughout the country
which only four short years ago pro-
| claimed the necessity for Republican
ascendancy in order to preserve pros
perity.
The ordinary citizen of the United
States requires no denuncist tion of the
| Republican administration because he
feels the effects of it daily in his bust
ness and in his home.
Fault-fnding with the Republican
administration in a party platform Is
a waste of time and Of space which had
better be devoted to constructive pro-
posals.
Negative Victories Sought.
1t must be borne in mind that the
| Democratic party is the minority party
ii this country. That is revealed to
F; us by the indisputable fact that only
two Democrats have been elected to
the presidency of the United States
since the Civil War and 1 am inclined
to the belief that we are that minor
| lty party because during all of that
| period We seem to have ATTEMPTED to
win national approval as a rebuke to
the majority party In other words. we
seem to seek negative victory rather
than affirmative victory We seek to
ride INTO power upon mistakes of our
| opponents rather than upon construc-
/ tive promise and achievement on our
own part
I would like to see the platform
adopted in Chicago so brief and so
concise that it could be read by the
men on the street with understanding
/ in very few minutes.
This country today is sick and tired
OF listening to political campaign ora
tors who tell us what is the matter
with us Few, if any of them know
what the cure is. OF recent months I
have heard no cure advanced, but
have heard the old complaint ex-
| pIalned all over again with few trim
mings here and there. 1t is a perfectly
easy thing to say we must restore the
| purchasing power of the farmer. Fine!
OF course we must. But how are we
| going to do it? I would sooner have
| a short handshake with the fellow
that knows how to do it than listen
Tor week to the felolw who knows how
to tell you what the trouble is.
Related to our tariff, to unemploy-
ment and to the agricultural distress
OF the country today is unuuestionablv
the plight in which our neignborine
nations across the ocean find them
selves. Heretofore when we have suf-
Tered d depression in this country we
nave recovered from it quickly, because
the other nations of the world were not
| IN the same boat with us, but today we
/ rlno this depression not alone a fact
In our own country, but worldwide
AS result of the World War the
leading nations of Europe are heavily
/ indebted to the United States. We
have devised in the past all kinds Of
schemes for meeting the situation We
have declared moratorium for one
| year which is nearing its end But
when all is said and done one fact
| stands out far beyond the power of
anybody to dispute it, and that is that
the nations who owe us money have
not got it. You can't get from anybody
what he does not have any more than
! you can get blood out of a stone. And.
because Of these foreign debts and be-
cause Of our tariff wall, American ex-
ports have fallen Oft in the last year
more than so per cent.
Sales Abroad Necessary.
We are a great creditor nation We
| oNN "a OAdOAAlB Oil Oul 1dlIIlS ana IN our
| factories millions of dollars of products
which cannot be sold to our own people
| and which we must sell in foreign
| commerce, but our foreign customers
! cannot buy because they are already
| heavily our debtors. They cannot even
pay us what they owe, much less buy
additional merchandise from us. and
we have stood idly by, strangling the
| trade of the world and our own
| trade with foreign nations by holding
these debts over their heads, by raising
a tariff wall which shuts out their
products, and makes it impossible for
them to pay us in goods. Our wheat
is rotting on our farms while other
nations starve for bread Our ware
houses are piled high with merchandise
while other nations go unclothed and
in want
| In order to restore the buying power
OF the American people we have not
only TO stimulate business within our
own borders but We must sell American
products to the other nations of the
world II there is any chance of
collecting the money due the United
states from the foreign governments,
there exists the necessity for our selling
TO them the products of our farms and
our factories. Why not cut through ali
the red tape and get away from all the
involved economic ideas that are con-
nected with it and deal with the
problem on pure business basis?
Let us say to the natiors of Europe
VINO owe us money that we will forget
all about it for 20 years and not only
Will we do that, but we will write off
as paid each year 25 per cent of the
gross value Of American products which
they buy from us. This, in effect. is To
say 10 any nation which owes US money
II purchases Sl0O 100000 Of our cotton
We will forget S25 900 900 of its in
debtedness. If it will buy 500 900 600
| Of OH wheat nllr fruit our tnLnnoo