The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-16
M. E.TracySays:
ROOSEVE

DRESIDENT ROOSEVELT is a great dis
appointment to some people He rides no
hobby horse has no pet remedy to sell, and no
pet theory to prove. That is a new and uneX-
pected kind of leadership. People have been
schooled to associate one-idea men with action
and reform, especially since the war
Every European dictator represents a doctrine
of some kind or other. The Mussoinis, Stalins
Psudskis and Hitlers have risen to power by
riding some peculiar scheme, and have retained
it by ruthlessly silencing all those who disagree
Even here in America our elections are sup
posed to turn on some single issue and our
Presidents to follow some fixed program.
When President Roosevelt took Office, it gen.
orally was assumed that he would adopt a cast
iron attitude in behalf of certain measures and
that partisanship presently would re-shape itself
according to the division they suggested.
During the last eight weeks, the various
schools of thought in this country have done
their best to present President Roosevelt as the
champion Of their respective doctrines, but his
candor. common sense, and openmindednesS
make it impossible.
LIE is not a crusader, revolutiOnist or even
l. Il a dictator in the commonly accepted sense
of the word. He is just good citizen, drafted to
meet an emergency, ready to assume such re-
SponsbilitieS as the task requires, and no more.
1t is not going too far to describe him as the
most typical American who has occupied the
White House in many years That more than
anything else, explains the confidence he has
developed among all classes of people.
President Roosevelt is ready to do what the
situation calls for, but no more. He is not
going to use it as an excuse for making dan
gerous experiments. He frankly admits that
some of the measures which he advocates may
fail, and that. if they do, he will be the first
to discard them.
Such attitude represents no more than good
sense, but how many leaders adopt it? How
many have the courage to acknowledge their
falibility?
We are all human, but a little power and
prestige make us forget it. The old illusion
ment that kings can do no wrong fingers to
plague republican government.
Many people regard it as a political mistake
for a leader to be honest with himself or them.
That is one reason why we have so much USE
less quarreling, intolerance, and oppression.
DRESIDENT ROOSEVELT stands for the kind
l. of leadership that is essential to re-estabsh
democracy, to overcome this Anticipated notion
that the twentieth century can't get along with
out dictatorS tyrants, and despots to remind us
that the principles for which humanity fought so
many years and which eventually found express
sion in modern governments are not dead
Civilization can not sacrifice the victories it
has won, or throw away the safeguards Of human
liberty it has erected, because of this depres-
sion or even the holocaust out of which it grew.
certain amount of readjustment is neces-
Sary, but that does not mean the destruction of
a system which has done so much to promote
happiness and prosperity.
President Roosevelt is bringing rot only
America, but Europe. back to a Saner viewpoint,
to a realization of the dangerous tendencies
which have been developed by the ruthless am
bition Of vain doctrinaires who have not scrupled
to capitalize human misery.