The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-06-15
Liberal Viewpoint
BY DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

Gathering of Grass Root Republicans at
Springfield, Ill. to invoke the spirit of Abraham
Lincoln and ancient Republicans against Presl-
cent Roosevelt is devastatingly funny.
Harrison E. Spangler. Stalwart Republican
from Iowa. stated the issue before the country:
The issue today is the PHILOSOPHERS OF Lin
coin against those of Franklin Delano RooSe-
Welt The people have a right to a party
which will express the beliefs OF washington,
Jefferson and Lincoln"
The implication is left that the conservative
Republican party comes nearer to the philosophy
of Washington, jefferson and Lincoln than DO
the policies of President Roosevelt. Gov. Low
den went further and interjected the states
rights issue into the discussion:
THE very cornerstone of our government is
the division of power between the states and the
central government. We sell this the Federal
principle. 1t is now proposed to strike down,
once and for all, that great principle.
It is here implied that the Republican party
can with historical propriety uphold the states
rights philosophy in the face of President RooSe-
velts centralzing program. Let us look Tor
moment into the historical record.
Washington did not talk SO much about revo-
luton as some Of the other fathers, but ne acted
about IT, He risked his life and property to lead
the colonial forces in the Revolution, and he pre-
sided over the great legal revolution embodied in
the New Deal" of 1889, which gave us our Fed
eral Constitution.
JEFFERSON advocated revolution in season
j and out. His writings are replete with such
statements as this
Il hold that little rebellion now and then
is good thing, and as necessary in the political
world as storms in the physical. The tree OF
liberty must be refreshed from time to time with
the blood of tyrants. 1t is its natural manure"
Lincoln was equally outSpoken on this point:
"Any people anywhere being inclined and
having the power have the right to rise up and
/ vic a
new one that suits them better. This is most
valuable, a most sacred right-a right which we
hope and believe is to liberate the world"
If the Grass Rioters" wish the principles OF
WASHINGTON jefferson and Lincoln to prevail
that is certainly their privilege. But they had
better learn what these principles really were be-
fore they invoke them too seriously as conser-
vative foil to the New Deal. They are on the
way to making themselves look as silly as though
! they were to invoke the spirit OF Wllllam Jen-
| nings Bryan against free silver.
BourbonS and plutocratS should be especially
wary about quoting Lincoln. The Great Emancl-
pator once said that labor is prior to capital and
the rights of labor superior to those OF capital.
He further observed that the international BOND
of the workingmen of the world stands about the
bond of patriotic duty to the nation and next to
| the bond of family relations.
IF the Republicans wish to caress the Grand
Old Party as first step in unhorsing Roose-
velt they should do homage to the Republican
party of 1896 and 1900 and quote Mckinley,
Mark Hanna, Thomas G. Plat, Matthew Quay,
j. B. Foraker and the like. Whether we like the
Republican principles Of 1896 or not, they were
certainly Dramatically opposed to those of Mr..
Roosevelt and the New Deal.
But it is dangerous for reactionarleS TO go
back to the Republican party OF the days OF Ere
mont and Lincoln. 1t was then a liberal-almoSt
radical-and idealistic party, intently bent on
giving the country New Deal which would Tree
it from the dominion of the southern slavocracy
and the Eastern plutocracy alike. 1t was based
upon working class radicalism IN the East and
/ frontier idealism in the West.
And of all the ridiculous postures IN recent
political controversy the spectacle OF conserva-
tive Republicans taking up the cudget for states
rights stands away out in front. The Repuo-
licans drenched the nation in blood to support
Capitalization over the deadbody Of states rights
Especially absurd is it for Republican farmers
to stand up as protagonists of property interests,
Law and order and the like. From the days OF
Green Mountain Boys, Shays Rebellion and
Populism to the recent anti-foreclosure and milk
strikes. the farmers have been the backbone OF
American disSentband rebellion.
To one statement made at Springfield we can
heartily assent Gov. Lowden said that mo
crisis so grave as the present has confronted the
American people since the Civil War. II this
crisis is to be passed safely it must be mastered
bv up-to-date methods and not by any reversion
to those policies which were inadequate forty
wears ago and whose very inadequacies at that
time helped to lay the foundations for our pres
ent desperate plight.