Evening star., 1936-03-01
costly breakdown Of local responsi.

costly breakdown of local responst.
bility. -
Federal financial aid was abviously
necessary in our recent emergency =
| he said, ''but every community knows
best how to care for its own. The
Federal relief program has lacked the
| fiexibility to meet local conditions. In
many cases, the way 1t has been car
ried out has denied aid to truly de-
serving. In other instances 1t has
encouraged too many to become
! chronic indigents.
Slammed Door on Clients.
"The w. P. A. program has slammed
the door to employment on public
works to every one except permanent
relief clients. As result, those VINO
might otherwise have become self-sus-
tanning have been forced back on re-
lief in order to obtain temporary en-
ployment. -
':.The original idealism Of the relief
program has been wrecked by confu-
sion, contradiction, delay and miser-
able party politics.
Recently the impression has been
spread that a change in administers
ton would jeopardize the relief in
tended for the deserving. The time
has come to call halt on such po-
litically inspired fear. Let us, as Re-
publicans, make it clear to the needy
everywhere that the changes we pledge
will bring order out of chaos by purg-
ing the Federal Relief Administration
Of partisanship, of waste and OF in
competence. In short. what we pro-
pose is to make relief both honest and
effective
Looking for leadership.
The American peoplc, Landon said,
are looking for true leadership in the
Nation and in the States-leadership
that will reinforce their faith in the
American system of representative
government.
They will welcome a chance to sup
port a leadership capable of saving
them from the breakdown of popular
governments breakdown which has
already engulfed so large part of the
Old World The road our people wish
to travel avoids the bondage of bu-
reaucracy on the one hand, and on
the other it avoids the tyranny of
monopoly and economic dictatorship.
In the field of government today
the word equality best describes our
main objective. We must strive for
equality of justice under law; equality
for the wage learner and the wage
payer In their negotiations; equality
in the marketplace for agriculture"
Partisan Politics Hit Farmers.
Agriculture, he said, has suffered
all too much from pa. tisan politics, "
and remedial legislation still is re-
quired. Beyond that legislation, he
asserted, there is much that can be
done by informed ana sympathetic
administration. The discrimination
in national policies, against which our
farmers so justly complain, must end.
"Once we have restored the pur-
chasing power of the American farmer,
we shall have gone long way toward
providing work for the unemployed.
New jobs would be made available in
factories, railroads and merchandising
establishments. On most of the Ma
tion's six million farms, there is need
at this very moment for additional
labor. There are farm buildings to
be painted and repaired. There is
farm machinery to be oyerhauled.
There are fences to be built. There
are terraces and dams to be con-
structed.
1.-The farmer has lacked money to
do these jobs. He couldn't afford
to hire the additional hands. There
are many chores that would be shifted
from the farmer and his wife to other
shoulders, if the family income would
permit. Given the buying power he
fairly earns, it is not too much to
say that the farmer could provide
jobs for many of the millions still
unemployed and eager to work.
Not Bothered by Merit.
Political spoilsmen," Landon said,
"have seen to it that not one in a
hundred, out of the 235.000 new job
holders added by this administration,