Imperial Valley press., 1936-10-14
The Democratic Viewpoint
EDITED BY
The Democratic County Central
Committee
By GERALD w. JOHNSON
Editorial Writer. Baltimore Evening SUI

am not against Landon. am for Roosevelt
Certainly Governor Landon has exhibited ap-
probation of some things RooseYelt has done
and has intimated that he will continue shen
if elected But he has uttered no word that
evidences an understanding of RooSevelt's great
achievement. which is the establishment Of con-
tact between Statecraft and reality.
am not for Roosevelt the man, I am for
Roosevelt the statement. 1 am for ROOSeVe {
precisely bcauSe I, like the Sun. believe in a
free competitive system under capitalism govern
ed dsmocratcally I believe that Roosevelt is
the great bulWark of capitalism, conservatism,
and democracy.
The most dreadful failure of which any
form of government can be guilty is simply
to lose touch with reality, because out OF this
failure all imaginable forms of evil grow This
was the catastrophe failure Of the Harding
Coolidge Hoover regime Have We forgotten how
Coolidge and Mellon repeatedly assured us that
all was well at the very moment when We were
plungng the edge OF the abyss? They were
probably sincere enough; they simply didn't
know what was going on
Then when the Inevitable crash came they
were incapable of learning. We had to sweat
through four years Of depression under Hoover
although every single thing that Roosevelt has
done might Just as We have been done years
earlier
The banking situation might have been
cleared up in 1880 or 1881, just as well as in
1888. The public works program might have
been started years earlier. The problem of So
cial security might have been tackld long ago.
Something intelligent about the tariff might have
been done while Cordell Hull was still merely
congressman
say they might have been done but in
truth they couldn't have been done. because
Washington at that time had not the brains and
the courage necessary to do them. IVA politi-
clans then IN power could not think, act
or even feel otherwise than in the old traditional
way.
am for Roosevelt because he is not eXtrava-
CANT Extravaganza is spending money without
getting anything worth while for it. Hoover'S
Farm Board was gross extravaganza; it spent
money on a hopeless project. The RFC was
extravaganza, because it spent money on
hopeless project. The RFC was extravagant,
because it spent money attacking the depres-
sion without making a dent in it.
During the World the country spent
$50 0000000000 in year and a half and all it
got in return $4,000 corpses and a lot of
bad debts Since l933-that is to say, in twice
the tme-the New Deal has spent third as
much and for it we have many thousands of
miles of roads and streets countless school
houses, bridges. dams. canals power plants,
forests, sewer and water mains play grounds
airports, and other things. But, above all We
have avoided getting lot of corpses Troops
are not fighting milk farmers, as they were
Just before Hoover went out Quenehing that
fire was worth the money if we had received
none OF the public works.
The mans administration has been alert,
honest and amazingly successful. More than
that. it has been libertarian. Il is ridiculous
TO describe as a dictator the man under whom
we have seen the abolition of prohibition; TIN
abolition of the more idiotic censorship of books
periodicals and plays.