The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-04-15

president ROOSEVELT today faces the
l. largest and most vocal lot Of calamity
howlers and chiselers that have let them
selves loose since he came into Office.
With the work-relief law passed, many
members of Congress are ready to sidetrack
the rest Of the Presidents program. Hostile
interests by direct and indirect opposition see
a chance to block that program once and for
all. They are willing to undermine public con-
fdence in the President as a leader. That
their success would play directly and inevitably
into the hands Of the Longs. Coughlins and
s~elf-appointed usurpers Of the presidential
function bothers them not at all. But it would
bother the nation plenty.
In normal times the question Of whether
a President loses prestige or power is not a
grave national issue, but something merely
for himself and his party TO worry about.
These, however, are not normal times. The
emergency created by the depression still ex-
lists. The fate of more than a hundred mil
lion individuals is almost completely in the
hands of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Any po-
litical enemy who would tie his hands i'm
perils the economic lives of the entire Amer
lean people.
We may like him, or we may not like him.
We may think him all-wise, or W may think
him laundering. Anyway, he is at the wheel
put there by the greatest national vote ever
given an American President. He is going to
be at the wheel for the next two years. These
two years will see us we'll on the way out of
danger, or much deeper in. To try to wreck
Roosevelt now is insanity. He can not be
wrecked without wrecking the nation. Run
him into the ditch and American industry and
labor go with him. Then we are all through
for a longer time than is pleasant to contem-
plate.
NIHAT is the alternative to cooperation
" with Roosevelt? 1t is to let the reaction
aries have their way, though what that way is
no advocate of the old deal has had the courage
or the imagination to state publicly. The al
tentative is to howl with the Longs and Cough
lins-and the net result would be to compound
the chaos. The result would be to block the
only leadership backed by public Endorsement
and possessed of sufficient governmental
powers to lead; to halt the only recovery pro-
gram with even a chance of being put into
operation within the next two years. Even if
the Roosevelt recovery program were weak, it
would be better than the only alternative
which is no functioning program at all.
But the Roosevelt program is not weak. 1t
is immeasurably stronger than any American
dared hope Tor two years ago. We do not
agree with all of it, any more than any one
else. We think parts of it will fail and should
fail. All OF it needs closer coordination. But
It's faults are few compared with the rich bene-
fits it can bring to our harasSed people. if it
can be saved from the reactionaries of both
old parties, the selfish interests of both CAPT.
tai and labor and the radio propagandists.
The next step In that unfolding program is
the legislative outline laid by the President be-
fore Congress. He has requested Congress to
extend the MIRA and protect labor's rights, to
pass the social security bill for unemployment
insurance and old-age pensions, to extend the
Home Owners Loan Corp, to legislate on
bank reform, railroads, utility holding COM
panies, pure food and drugs and the munitions
racket.
The time has come to put the spotlight of
publicity on the destructive agents., regardless
Of party, and upon the Democratic congress
sional leaders who are running out on both the
President and their party's pledges. Commit
tees which should be working to improve much
needed, but in some instances poorly drawn,