Evening star., 1936-06-24
Barkley VS.. Rarkley.

Coming from Senator Barkley of Ken
lucky. the Democratic keynoter, these
statements strike resounding chord:
The cost of Government in the United
States has increased out of all propor-
tion to the needs of the people, or to the
benefits received by them.
Shall we pay service to economy, or
shall we abolish every unnecessary office.
every useless commission, every re-
dundant bureau that has been estab-
lished and lift from the backs of
the American people that intolerable
and unbearable load which weighs them
down today until they can scarcely look
the sun in the face?
We shall reduce the constantly in
creaSing burdens of extravagance in
Government by the elimination of all
unnecessary and unproductive activities
which have grown up without precedent
In the history of the world.
This Government of ours is the beo-
pies Government. The Constitution is
their Constitution.
It is not a wholesome thing to have
eight or ten million men and women un-
able to procure labor from which to sup
port themselves and their families in
Nation which has boasted of its supreme
wealth"
What makes these words more striking
now than when they were delivered by
Senator Barkley in his keynote speech
four years ago in Chicago is that they
represent an epitome of some of the
issues on which the Republicans now
go forth to battle. They were hurled by
Senator Barkley in 1882 as part of his
keynote challenge to the Hoover regime.
Two weeks ago they were used, in
phraseology only slightly changed, as
challenge thrown by the Republican
gladiators to the Democrats. Few bet
ter examples exist of the pot and kettle
polemics of keynoting
But Senator Barkley makes a neat
Job, in his keynote delivered last night,
OF answering his own criticism. The
Senator Barkley of 1886 grabs the Sen
ator Barkley of 1882 and gives him the
trouncing Of his life, doing it after
fashion that should bring bushes to
Senator steiwer, the Republican key
noter, over his own inadequacies.
The Senator answers himself, in the
matter of the cost of Government by
showing that a healthy percentage of
the money spent on recovery will
eventually be returned to the United
States Treasury from agencies that bor-
rowed from Uncle Sam because they
were powerless to borrow elsewhere, and
that expenditures, instead of being COM
pared with those of the twelve long
years from Harding through Hoover,
are to be compared with those of the
World War period, one difference being
that the United States was spending
billions in destructive effort during the
war, while the billions spent under
Roosevelt have been for constructive use.
In replying to the Barkley of 1882 on
the Constitution the Barkley of 1886
points out that the Constitution is in
terpreted by members of a Supreme
Court who may differ among themselves
as to the Interpretation, and that diff
culties with the Constitution and its in
depreciation have dogged the steps of
other great Presidents, from Jefferson
down through Roosevelt. AS for the
eight or ten million persons out of work,
they have been kept from starvation,
even if their jobs are still lacking.
The Senator has delivered a highly
orthodox and rather impressive keynote
speech. After the fashion of politics,
all the ills of this part of the world
are traceable to the twelve long years
Of Republican administration. All the
hope and progress are attributed to
the present administration. Four years
ago it was Paradise lost. Now it is
Paradise regained-or nearly so-just
lacking, one may believe, four more years
Of a Democratic administration to re-
move all doubts.