Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-02-21
Invoking the Past

Birthdays of famous figures in Amer
lean history are singled out this year for
political speeches. The principles and
policies of Washington and Lincoln, JET
ferson and Jackson, all have been or
will be invoked by partisans for and
against the Roosevelt New Deal. Presi-
dent Roosevelt himself started the ball
rolling with an address at the Jackson
day dinner, which was broadcast to Dem
ocrats all over the country. The day
celebrated, it is true, was not the birth
day of Andrew Jackson, but the day he
defeated the British at New Orleans.
Senator Borah of Idaho, candidate
for the Republican presidential nomina-
ton, will be heard over the radio the
night of Washingtons birthday, tomor-
row. The Idaho Senator who made the
most of George Washington's advice to
the Nation against becoming entangled
in foreign affairs during the historic
Senate battle against American entry
into the League of Nations, is expected
to declare again for the principles of
Washington in opposition to those OF
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Abraham Lincoln's birthday, Febru-
airy IL, was the occasion for an explosion
of Republican wrath from coast to coast.
Among the speakers were former Presi-
dent Herbert Hoover, in far oregon, and
Senator Vandenberg of Michigan, who
delivered a blistering address on the New
Deal in New York. Neither Of these gen.
tlemen is an avowed candidate for the
G. o. P. presidential nomination, al
though both of them are suspected of
having aspirations Vandenberg's dia-
tribe against the New Ordeal" was in
terpreted in many quarters as aligning
the Michigan Senator more directly
against the Roosevelt experiments in
Government than any previous utter
ance.
And now it is announced that Presi-
dent Roosevelt has been invited to make
the principal address at the Jefferson
day dinner at New York on April 13, al
though, owing to previous engagement
invitation was accepted, the occasion
will be probably postponed to later
date, perhaps week from the natal
day Not long ago Al Smith, speak
ing at the dinner of the American Lib
erty League, accused the President of
having deserted the principles of Thomas
jefferson, the patron saint of the Demo-
cratic party. The President is to in
wade the particular bailiwick of Mr..
Smith, and his address may turn out to
be answer in considerable part to the
Smith speech.
The President, in his Jackson day adj
dress, stressed the similarity between the
fight which Andrew Jackson, as Presi-
dent, made against privilege" and the
fight which the New Dealers are making
today against "entrenched greed
Throughout the country his speech was
regarded as picturing Roosevelt as the
Andrew Jackson of today.
When the President speaks to the coun-
try at the Jefferson dinner it is expected
that he will take the career of the Sec
ond President of the United States as a
text, and that he will read into the New
Deal plenty of the Jeffersonian prin-
ciples. That his speech will be political
and another blow at his critics, includ-
ing AL Smith, is expected to be the case.
Smith has declared that he will be salts
fed with answers to his speech from no
one except the President himself. Per-
haps he is to be rewarded in the belated
Jefferson day dinner, although it is not
expected that the President will so label
his address.