Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1937-04-29

lowest standard of today calls the nee
essities of lie.
IL see one-third of a nation ill
housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. 1t is
not in despair that l paint you that
picture. l paint it for you in hope,
because the nation, seeing and under
standing the justice in it, proposes
to paint it out."-Pres. Roosevelt, Sec
ond inaugural, Jan. 20, 1887.
How is President Roosevelt prorOs-
ing to paint out that picture? BY pro-
posing budget that cuts relief fully
SO per cent. By saying nothing about
Il housing program or the relief of
farm tenancy. and definitely indicat-
ing his disapproval of any further ex
penditure to improve the conditions
of that one-third of the nation which
is ill-hOused, ill-clad, ill-nourished.
You can't change black into white
by adding more black. The Roosevelt
budget is a soak-the-poor budget. 1t
is betrayal of the promises he made
during the election campaign and in
his second inaugural speech. 1t is a
surrender to those forces of reaction
that moved heaven and earth to pre-
vent Roosevelt's election and are to-
day doing everything in their power to
defeat his court reform plan. No won
der the Wall Street Journal is able
to write an editorial, "A Sound Budget
Program" No wonder the Tory Her
ald-Tribune declares: There are
sound thoughts of economy in the
Presidents budget message" Yes,
economy at the expense of that one
third of the nation that are at the
bottom of the pit. But war prepare
transportation not to save, but
to destroy life for the glory and profit
of Wall Street-these must continue
greater than ever. Peace, security
from war. is one of the great needs of
the American people. But huge war
budget won't guarantee peace, nor will
aids the Fascist aggressors in Spain.
Collaboration with the Soviet Union
and the peace forces everywhere will
keep America out of war by keeping
war out of the world.
Failure of receipts to come up to
expectation is given as the reason for
cracking down on WPA and social
legislation. But what is responsible
for this failure? 1.-The receipts for
the first nine months of this fiscal
year. the budget message states, in
dictate chat ether revenues will be
1881, 100000 less than the estimates
which is due in large part to the OBJ
struction of collections by numerous
lawsuits against the government" In
other words, the rich are sabOtaging
the tax laws-not to mention outright
tax evasion (page Pierre du Pont and
John j. RaskOb) in the same way
that they sabotaged the Wagner Act.
And Roosevelt rewards their patriotic
efforts by taking it out of the poor.
The budget needs to be balanced and
can be balanced through increased
taxation of the big corporations and
millionaires whose profits are today
the greatest in the world. Make the
rich pay. Not a decrease in WPA
funds, but an increase is needed. Not
S1.500.00O as proposed by Roosevelt
with Wall Streets blessing. but 49,
OO0,OOO,O0O as proposed by the Work
ers Alliance and embodied in the
Boileau bill. Disaster threatens one
third of our nation. United, deter
mined action can prevent it.
Abraham Lincoln once said, you can
fool all of the people some of the
time and some of the people all of the
time, but you can't fool all of the
people all of the time. And the
writer would like to know the follow
ing: Had there been as much time,
energy and money spent for the pur
pose of educating and uplifting the
human race as there was for the pur-
pose of betraying and exploiting them
of the product of their toll, so as to
keep them in ignorance and in bond
age by the most of our labor and
farm leaders and our ministers, law
yers and political leaders and a large
part of the press and newspapers in
our past history, where would we be
today? l would like to get the an
swer.
LAURENCE V. UBL.
Hinckley, Mimi, April 25, 1887.
EVOLUTION