The Indianapolis times., 1936-02-14
FRIDAY. FEBRUARY IA, 1896.
STATE OF CONFUSION"

"STATE OF CONFUSION"
CCORE truism for Herbert Hoover. He says the
~ state Of the nation is state of confusion. After
reading and listening to that flock Of Republican
speeches delivered in the name of Abraham Lincoln,
let's browse about bit and attempt some recaptu-
lation about the Republicans and 1886 as that cam
paign year finds itself after month and 13 days.
And let these rambling remarks be dedicated to
st. Valentine
Both the applause machine and reader reaction
seem to give the honors to Hoover. The other
ddates better look alive. They are being outcassed
in wit humor and epigram enunciation, pronuncia-
tion and radio manners.
For example, Vandenberg in New York came
right after Hoover in Portland. In that particular
competition Vandenberg didn't rate; partly because
he too much of that oratorcal order which
went passe when the mike" appeared the politi-
cal rostrum, and partly because his speech hadn't
been manicured to the fine polish that character
lied Hoovers
Like what he says or dislike it, as matter of
political policy, you're listening to different
Hoover to person you wouldn't recognize as the
pontihcal and dolorous deliverer of the 1882 brand
of Hooverian oratory. The jeremiah of that day
didn't smile when he said it. Now he does, and his
of dire things. but nothing so hackneyed as grass
in the streets. There is Tilt to his stuff today;
class in the way he rings the alarm; lightness in
the touch Of his attack; fighting with rapier
rather than the pitchfork of yore.
So we would say that on basis of Lincoln Day
oratory by all participating the palm goes Hoover
as a matter of sheer entertainment il for no other
reason, and that all other contestants, who have
kinda been thinking that Hoover was politically
dead, had best be sharpening their pencils and
rycombing their vocabulares.
Incidentally there's something in the suggestion
that Dan Kidney of our staff made after listening
to the Republican hopefuls-that the speakers would
have been more appropriate if they had appeared
on Benjamin Franklins birthday because Franklin
invented the lghtning-rod.
WE wonder whether they keep up the pace
W After ALL this is the most unusual campaign we
have ever seen, in the matter of timing. All those
speeches sound like October, not February. October
is the time when a presidential contest ordinarily
does its crescendo But the charging and the viewing
and the pointing all as intense and strdent and
loud right now as they customariy are at the climax
-and with more than eight months to 60 It's
pretty nearly impossible human feat to shout at
the top of your voice for eight months
AS for what was said, Editorial Writer Max Stern
contributes this
SIX MEN OF INDOsTAN
It was six men of Indostan,
To learning much inclined
Who went to see the elephant
CTho all of them were blind,
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind
JOHN C. SAKE.
You remember how the six blind men then de-
scrbed the elephant. To the who fell against its
side the elephant like wall. To the others it
was like SNAKE tree, fan, spear rope-de-
pending on whether he encountered his trunk, leg
ear, tusk or tail.
Judging from those Lincoln Day speeches, the
learned of the G. o. P. having the same
trouble getting together what the New Deal is
like.
To Senator. vandenberg the New Deal is "a third
party" whose high ministers of state frankly pine
for revolutionary order"
To Col. Frank Knox it's just the opposite tory
movement with Roosevelt "the arch-tory of them all"
To Senator Dickinson it's scheme to turn our
economic system into hodge-podge of Tugwel
collectvism."
To Senator Steiwer It's a sort of Fascism usurping
the rights of states and individuals and welding the
"toos of dictatorship" to forge shackles that never
will be worn by the free men and women of America"
To Senator Hastings it's political autocracy"
seeking to regiment and control the ctizenry through
"demagogc appeals to the masses"
To Hoover it's fountain of fear" Ak