Evening star., 1936-06-24

the century revealed between Is and
16 million laborers in idleness.
Down went every economic index,
while the savings Of lifetimes ran
slowly out like sand in a weary hour
glass, and every month new thousands
left the security of work until Is mil
lion workers tramped the streets in
hopeless agony Of effort.
Down we were hurled for "three
long years" while confidence like a
prodigal went into a far country, and
the courage which had braved these
barren shores in the days of the
Puritan and under the pioneers had
extinguished a continental wilderness
began TO faint on every hearthstone.
Three long years" of Republican
superiority found local charity and re-
lief everywhere collapsing, and mil
/ lions Of human beings were begging
for bread, raiment and shelter and
uncounted numbers OF them found
sleep only by the roadside, or upon
park benches. from which they
crawled with the rising sun like dogs
! from kennel.
Upon the crowded street corner
the soap-box agitator found it not
difficult to lash into fury the emo
| tions which were aroused in the dis
illusioned souls of men. who had lost
not only lands and buildings and jobs
and scraps Of paper. but their faith
| in government. in society and justice
and the spiritual foundations which
sanctify the use and enjoyment of
every earthly possession.
HamiItonian Exploitation
Came to End in 1929.
In 1929 the debauch of the Cool
| idge- Hoover revelry and the "l2 long
| years" of Hamiltonian exploitation
were over. The dance was ended at
last. The gaunt pipers of bank
ruptcy, starvation and unemployment
| had come to claim their fee.
One sudden blast of wrath from
outraged truth and decency and honor
and prudence and thrift and common
sense-and the tinsel tower of false
dreams, false pride, false promises
and false hope collapsed in irretriev-
able ruin and dreary desolation.
Three long years" Of normalcy
and they had wiped out half the val
ueS accumulated in this Nation since
Christopher Columbus and half the
total income Of all the people of these
United States.
Three long years" and
We did not dare to breathe a prayer
Or to give our anguish scope,
Something was dead in each Of us,
And what was dead was hope.
Then came Franklin Roosevelt and
assumed the heaviest burden that
ever descended on any man since
Washington knelt in the snow and
Lincoln watched the Confederate
flags across the Potomac. AS his first
act, he also knelt before an altar and
prayed. AS his second, he opened his
breast to the raging storm and
checked it in a day.
Where were his detractors then?
They had sought refuge in the storm
cellar They now cry, The Republic
is in peril. The Republic is lost" and,
for all of them, it might have been.
The president of the United States
Chamber of Commerce asked the
President to assume the powers of
dictator "for three long years"
The Capital was flooded with paper
plans of impotent puppets of Toryism
begging Government to assume re-
sponsibility for all.
The President scored these sug-
gestions. With every word and act
he breathed new confidence in Amer
lean institutions, confidence In the
courage of traditional Americanism.
and he twitted the Nation for its fear
Of fear.
There Is not an American who does
not know what happened then. Faith
returned. Confidence revived. Ma
tional courage rose like the sun at
dawn. Faces that for three long
years" had forgotten how to smile
frightened and looked up. American
ism returned to America.
Shall I recount the steps by which
this task was charted and is moving
to fulfillment?
Have the American people forgot
ten the valley into which they were
led, and are they unconscious OF the
resistless tread of their feet out of
that valley and up the long, rough
slopes to the heights from which they
had descended?
Public Confidence
In Banks Restored.
Need I remind you of that stroke of
boldness which proclaimed the holiday
Of banks? Or the passage OF the
emergency banking act? Or the bank
ing act Of 1885, which together re-
stored not only banking but public
confidence in banks? Which withdrew
banks from the feverish speculation of
the stock market and made them
banks again? Which strengthened
their foundations and guaranteed
their deposits and enticed from hiding
places billions Of dollars which had
sought security in seclusion?
And need I remind you that the Re-
publicans who manipulated the Cleve-
land convention nominated a man for
President who before the American
Bankers Association denounced the
Federal deposit insurance act, which
guaranteed the deposits of the people
throughout the United States, and as
Governor of his State exerted every
ounce of influence at his command to
prevent the banks Of Kansas from
entering the guaranteed system?
What now ask and the people
have a right to know is whether the
miscellaneous assembly of hetero-
geneous elements which met at Cleve-
land two weeks ago, and the ticket
which 1t nominated, approve this great
financial program and its results, or
whether, II returned to power. they
win scuttie a aeatn O. they scuttled |