The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-03-29
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

l. spicious examples of shameless effrontry in
the past, but rarely has is produced more
amazing instance than Herbert Hoover'S recon-
mendation of a return to Republican rule as
the sole means of restoring prosperity and con-
stitutional government to the United States.
Hoover and the Republicans could not even
hold prosperity when she thrown in their
laps. How can they expect 70 woo her back?
The Republican regime from 1927 to 1929 held
four aces and a wild JOKER and still it could
not save the jackpot.
Mr.. Hoover says that:
THE Republican party today has the great
est responsibility that has come to it since the
days of Abraham Lincoln"
One may agree with this, but not with the
implication that Mr. Hoover placed upon it, The
responsibility of the Republican party today is
to be able to muster enough sense of historical
propriety, social realism, and patriotic duty to
retire gracefully from the political scene It be-
longs to the dinosaurs.
If Mr.. Roosevelt has done nothing else, he
has certainly put an end to any possible logi-
cal function of the Republican party in Ameri-
can political life.
THE role of the Republican party in America
Il since the Civil War has been to protect
property rights and the propertied class Mr..
Roosevelt has now assumed that function and
made the Democratic party much of bull
wark Of property as any party can be without
inviting national disaster.
If capitalism can be saved with no more in
roads than Mr.. Roosevelt has made on property
it will be miracle. If the property interests of
the country have any modicum of reason and
sense they will rally behind him as their last
hope. To back up more reactonary party and
President would mean the ultimate extinction of
all private property.
After the Republican party guided us into
depression by permitting and in too many cases.
fostering that looting and speculation by finance
capitalism which brought us to ruin, Mr.. Hoo
yer recommends that we go back to- the same
old suicidal policies followed from 1921 to 1929
After things went from bad to worse under
four years of his leadership, he has the audacity
to assert that 1--WE stand on the threshold of
great forward. economic movement, if only the
paralyzlng effects of mistaken governmental poll
cies and activities may be removed. In short
remove the policies and achievements which
have taken US as far as We have moved from
the abyss of the closing days of February, 1888.
Mr.. Hoover contends that "the freedom of
men to think, to act. to achieve, is now being
hampered."
lust when did Mr.. Hoover become a cham
- pion Of human freedom and deep think
ing? Did he as President ever once raise his
hand in behalf Of civil liberties? Did he ever
stimulate free and independent thinking even
in his own university at Stanford, to say moth
ing of the White House? Would even any candid
Republican allege that civil liberties are at a
lower ebb today than in the Hoover administra-
ton.
And just how does the MIRA, the child of the
United States Chamber of Commerce and of Mr.
Hoovers friends, Julius Barnes. Silas Strawn and
Henri L Hartman hamper" business-at least
that big business for which Mr.. Hoover speaks?
Clause IA, the only observation-disclosures for
business, has been effectively smothered.
Finally, Mr.. Hoover tells us that
There must be confidence in the security of
the job OF the business, of the savings which
sustain the homes. d. There must be con-
stantly improved safeguards to the family from
the diSlOcations of economic life and of old age
Very true words, but what has the Republican
party OF Mr.. Hoover ever done to justify the
common men Of America in turning to them for
hope of unemployment and old-age insurance
or the protection Of their home and savings?
What did Mr.. Hoover have to say in behalf Of
unemployment insurance from 1929 to 1888, when
our ranks of the unemployed grew from 45OO,-
600 to 100000? Were not his cronieS in bust
ness ard finance the very men who staged the
speculative orgy and Quilted our banking sys-
tenn. thus sweeping away the savings Of both
the EMPLOYED AID the unemployed?
And what did Hoover and the Republicans do
fer the farmer? Let US not forget that it was
during the u years Of Republican rule that the
American farm income shrank from Sl5000,-
100000 year to s5200000000. The Republicans
debated the farmers.
To return to the Republicans today would be
like going back to stagecoaches to solve the
traffic problems of metropolitan New York City.