The Washington times., 1935-06-12
RIOTERS
SIGHT GUNS ON
PRESIDENT
Prairie States Republicans
Blame All on Roosevelt
Instead of Brain Trust
BY GEORGE R. HOLMES

SPRINGFIELD. ILL.,. June IL
G.N.SO The pattern of the 1886
campaign for the presidency stood
out today in sharp, bold outlines.
The Democrats, perforce, must
stand on the record of the Roose-
velt administration and defend
the New Deal agencies which it
has created to meet complex So
cial and economic questions.
The Republicans must-and
will-attack. Their offensive is
to be launched from the trenches
that have been dug this week in
the shadow of Lincoln's tomb.
Those trenches went beyond the
grass roots" of mere political op-
position, and penetrated the per-
sonal field.
Blame Put on President
American history records no
more stinging indictment of a
National Administration than that
drawn up and approved here by
the 8,000-odd Republicans from the
prairie States of the Mississippi
basin. They said in their plat
form:
I'VE hold the President per-
SOnally responsible for the rec
cord of his Administration"
Then they proceeded to de-
nounce that record as "subversive
of our institutions, unsound eco
nomically, conflicting, confusing,
contradictory" and finally "un.
American"
This means that the armistice
is over. No longer are the brain
trusters" and "the professors" at
washington to be blamed for the
Administrators acts and policies.
Henceforth, the Republicans are
going to attribute things to Frank
lin Delano Roosevelt.
The quaSi-personal immunity
which Mr.. Roosevelt has enjoyed
politically since those dark and
critical days of 1888 is ended.
From now on it's war.
The unbridled denunciation of
Rooseveltian policies was sectional
in character, as was the Grass
Roots conference that produced
it. But the expectation is that
this will become a pattern for
national copy.
The leaders spent a good many
uncomfortable hours over the AAA
and the NRA. There were those
in the convention who favored
throwing both the NRA and the
AAA completely out the window
and going the whole way in oppo-
Sition.
Practical Politicians
But the practical politicians
prevailed. And the result was a
Republican Endorsement of the
principle of collective bargaining,
and a rather curious agricultural
plank which set forth that ANY
program for national security
must, inevitably, start with ag-
riculture."
The farmer, it said, must obtain
a fair and proportionate share of
the national income and receive
a parity price for the products of
his farm in the domestic markets."
Recognizing these facts, the
creed continued, Republicans IA
vored enactment of such Iegisla-
tion as would accomplish the pur-
poSe-Such legislation to be ap-
proved by the farmers themselves.
The grass rooters made them
selves crystal clear on the issue
of the Constitution las is" and
the protection of the sovereign
rights of the States. Stand by
the Constitution" was the theme
song of the Springfield conven-
ton.
What the grass-rooters are look
ink for is another Lincoln-a Lin
coin attuned to the motor and
radio age. He didn't appear here,
but they hope to find one before
year from this month, when
the Republicans face the grim
business of naming candidate
for the Presidency.