Evening star., 1932-10-01
ROOSEVELT GIVEN
MORTGAGE REPLY
lts Charges New Yorker
| Msrepresented Position
" Of President Hoover.

1pocial Dispatch to The Star.
ST. LOUIS. Mo. october direct
reference to Gov. Franklin Roosevelt,
&ss1ocratic presidential nominee, was
made by Ogden L. Mills, Secretary Of
the Treasury, in his address here last
night.
Mr.. Mills said, in part:
II have and shall continue to treat
Gov. Roosevelt with all the courtesy to
which he is entitled as candidate for
a great Office, but as such he is expected
to observe the proprieties. In practically
every speech he has made he has COW
ertly and slyly misrepresented the posi-
tion Of the President of the United
States.
Last night he did SO openly and di-
rectly. This will not do The American
people will not tolerate it. Last night at
Sioux City referring to the latest move
to deal effectively with the farm mort
gage situation the Democratic candidate
said:
Today read in the papers that for
the first time the administration of
President Hoover has discovered the fact
that there is such thing as the farm
mortgage.
Grossly Inaccurate"
This is statement which is grossly
and demonstratably inaccurate.
But, before giving the facts. let me
remind my lifelong friend and neigh
Dor, Gov. Roosevelt, whose country es-
tate on the Hudson, which became his
farm overnight, is no more mortgaged
than is my farm only six miles away,
that Herbert Hoover knows the meaning
OF farm mortgage as few men in high
position do. For he was born on an
Iowa farm. and the word mortgage
must be among his earliest recollections
To boy of 10 it probably meant little.
but there is burned in the memory of
the man the anxiety and care which
these words brought to the fireside of an
humble home.
He heard the term SO years ago and
sensed its meaning then. He has not
forgotten it.
Indeed, throughout this depression
he has constantly reminded me that the
salvation of the borrower must be borne
in mind He was the one that was
being destroyed. His was the home.
whether farm or urban, that must be
saved.
Provided for Borrower.
"In the first conference held with
congressional leaders on October 6, 1881,
at which the President informed them
of the great danger which threatened
our people following the European col
lapse. the President emphasized the
position of the farm borrower.
Even then he included in his pro-
gram in increased capital to the Federal
land banks to permit greater leniency
to farm mortgagors and the creation
of an emergency finance corporation to
provide for their further needs.
In the whole of the gigantic relief
program which he initiated and car
ried through the needs of the borrower
were particularly provided for.
Who are the principal loaners on
farm mortgages? The banks, the in
Surance companies. the Farm Loan
Banks and the Joint Stock Land Banks
Ali of these are authorized to borrow
from the Reconstruction Finance Cor
poration. To save the credit machinery
of the country? Yes. But also to lend
strength and help to the users of the
credit and borrowers who. through the
terrible falling prices, are finding them
selves in a more and more difficult sit
uation.
Called Empty Promise.
The resources are available. The
machinery is set up. The latest move
which causes the Governor so much
concern is simply an organized effort
to make the machinery function more
effectively before Winter comes.
What of Gov. Roosevelt'S offer?
"All he says is that I will do every
thing in my power to bring relief
Just one more empty promise added
to the scores with which he has
flooded the country, without once stat
ing specifically what he will do or how
he proposes to make good"
Gov Roosevelt's speeches furnish
confused picture of where he stands on
the tariff question. He accepts the
Democratic platforms declaration in
favor of competitive tariff for revenue,
and has been sharp in his criticism of
both the tariff act of 1922 and that CT
1880. Yet in his Topeka speech, he
definitely promises the farmer a full
measure of tariff protection.
He says he will attempt to broaden
our export market by sacrificing part OF
the home market to foreign goods.
though he has failed to specify whether
the increased purchasing power abroad
will be adequate to replace the less OF
the home market to American pro-
ducers He would accomplish this result
by a series of bargaining tariffs with
foreign countries Which contries?
What American goods. produced by
American labor. are to be sacrificed in
the hope of obtaining foreign market
for other American goods? What sec
ton of the country is to be sacrlhced?