The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-10-02


 you can be ready for your share of 1t tomorrow morning. The smear department of the national committee will be working Cver- time tonight to see if it isn't poS- sible to tie you all up to the pred atory interests and the oppres- sive.
 Steps will be taken, likely, and we can pass it over with g smile. but nevertheless, to my way of thinking, that is, a rather serious situation in this country-for this reason-it tends to breed class hatred.
 It tends to set one class of our people against another. And that's not healthy in this country. And real Democrats do everything they possibly can to escape it.
 Now, let us see what it should really be. The President, speaking at Rollins College in Florida, on the 23rd of last month, and he spoke of a very beautiful senti- ment in this. And this is what he said:
 "The good neighbor is not just the man who lives next door to you. The objective includes the relationship of your family with his. It extends to all the people who lived in the same block. It spreads to all the people who live in the same city, the same country and the same state.
 It spreads to all people who live in the same city, the same county and the same state, and most im- portant of all to the future of our nation 1t must and shall extend to all your neighpors, to your fellow citizens in all states and in all re- gions which make up the nation. That's 8 beautiful sentiment of brotherly love. That promotes the natural instinct of love of neigh- bor, but when the President re- ported to Congress on the state of the nation, as he is required to do by the constitution, he had some different things to say about his neighbors in the nation.
 Neighborly Spirit
 And in the course of his long re- port on the state of the nation, he used the following, hatred of intrenched greed, "unscrupulous money changers, {" "their own stub- bornesS," and their own incom- petence," "cowardly close" "en- slavement of the public" "rnanu- factured poisonous fear that IS be- ing spread steadily" T am confi- dent that congress is ready to wage increasing warfare"
 There's neighborly spirit for you! Well. I don't want to give my opinion about it-if I can get an opinion that suits the situation better I think I ought to give it to you, so I'll give you the opin- ion of General Johnson. General Johnson is supporting the New Deal in the columns of a metro- politan newspaper, but immedi. ately following that report on the state of the union over his own signature, this is what he said about 1t: "A rabble.rouser, 8 dee liberalist appeal to tax the joy of every advocate Of class hatred here and in Russia"
 Right or Wrong?
 Now, I'm in complete favor in taking the general explanation of it. In January, last, I made speech in Washington. It was not cloaked in general terms. was specific about what I said. And invited criticism in the event that I may be wrong with respect to the record. I took the democratic platform as it was adopted in Chi- cagc, plank by plank. and I read 1t to the assembled guests, and then pointed to the record. Now was either right or I was wrong.
 If I was wrong, why it was a perfectly easy thing for any rep- resentative of the New Deal to pick up that same platform and point to the accomplishment of the different blanks by a legisla. tive or by executive action. Well, did anybody attempt that? They did not! But one of the democra- tic leaders undertook to make a reply to it. And what was the reply? AIS gone high-hat.
 That's 8 perfectly good excuse for disregarding the sacred prom ise of the party given to the peo- pie in 1882. There's another mis- take about 1t. have a high hat. So has every other man that ever goes to a wedding or & funeral. But I also have & brown derby.
 And listen. I grew up to the derby from no llat--I didn't try to reach down and get 1t,
 Always Available
 Then there was another very potent and very forceful argument in defense of the New Deal, and that was that Al moved away from the fish market and he forgot his old neighbors. Well, nothing could be further from the truth than that, because there's 6 good many of them in this building tonight and anybody connected with my organization knows that the door of the Empire State ofice of mine is open to them just the same as it was when sat in the clubhouse night after night to meet them. while I was 6 mem. Der of Assembly. Nobody can sue. cessfully dispute that.
 All the sidewalks of New York still are in existence, although according to the newspapers dur. ing the progress of the convention at Philadelphia, word came from one of the steering committee to the han6master not to play 'The Sidewalks of New York any more. That's & democratic song.
 Now another one of the power ful arguments that was made in defense of the New Deal division as against my Washington speech was my business associates. But just let me deal with that for about a half 6 minute.