Montana labor news., 1936-10-22
LandOn and Hearst-A Pair


for William Randolph Hearst that impelled the
publisher to take his retinue of top talent to
Topeka last Winter for final appraisal, is more
than met the eye of the embarrassed Kansas
City Star newsmen who went along to the
Executive Mansion to make the introductions.
1t should have been realized by a neutral OBJ
server that there existed between the two men
a certain spiritual relationship. This would have
been observable to any save the uncomfortable
member of the little coterie of Jayhawker jour-
nalists who had first sponsored the 18th, or
was it the 18th, consecutive budget balancer of
the state.
For Mr.. Hearst is by repute a very discrim-
mating connoisseur; he has rarely let it be
known that his selections were not his own in
the first instance.
AS the campaign progresses this similarity Of
mental qualities becomes more apparent. Re-
Gently the effort of Mr.. Hearst to support the
charge Of Ogden L. Mills and Col. Frank Knox
that the chief aim of the Roosevelt Admins
tration has been to further the ambitions of
the Stain regime in Russia has disclosed that
exactly as does Gov. Landon, the publisher is
a staunch supporter of public policies during
OQQ uullU6lGQ Years WHICH lit DIS NGllGIllGIltly
denounces during even numbered years. There
is a sameness in this trait that is peculiarly the
property of the strong silenced man Of Kansas
and his liege lord Of San Simeon.
For example, Candidate Landon today asserts
that planned economy is incompatible with
the democratic form of government. It must
lead to ever increasing executive authority"
In 1898, as chairman Of a petroleum conference
in Washington, appointed by Secretary Ickes,
Gov. Landon said: "a compact between the
states (Which this year he advocates) is an
iridescent dream. In the end we must have the
iron hand of a dictator" And he then insisted
upon a price-fixing provision in the oil code.
Today Candidate Landon refers to the NRA
as an autocratic and alien philosophy of gov
eminent "foisted upon us in the misery of the
depression by a Federal administration that
used the emergency to absorb the powers of
the states-an administration that assumed we
had suddenly outgrown American Institutions"
But in the odd year, to be exact in July, 1888,
Gov. Landon telegraphed to Secretary Ickes:
Federal control under present act (NRA), is
our only hope, and if we are to be protected
it will be necessary for a dictator to exercise
authority in the premises and fix allotment to
states, also to pools within the states, also on
storage withdrawal and imports"
Well, this is so like Mr.. Hearst as to go some
distance toward explaining their affinity in the
present crusade to defeat President Roosevelt
and wreck his program for complete economic
recovery. illustrations are innumerable but a
quite recent one may suffice. Last Sunday the
publisher issued one Of his inimitable edicts
which included this sentence:
"Mr. Roosevelt compelled the recognition Of
the bloody dictatorship Of Stain in Moscow
a dictatorship born in riot and revolution and
sustained by murder and plumber"
But in the odd-numbered year of 1888, where
in all that Candidate Landon now eXcoriates
was by Gov. Landon extolled as essential, Mr..
Hearst proclaimed in his New York American
Nov. 22):
"On the initiative of President Roosevelt, the
United States and Russia have at last resumed
normal relations on terms that are entirely
honorable, mutually advantageous and in har-
mony with "a happy tradition of friendship
AS the Hearst newspapers, in their long advo-
cacy of the restoration of friendly relations with
Russia have repeatedly pointed out, friendly
political relations promote trade relations and
trade relations, when maintained on a fair basis,
promote friendly political relations"