Evening star., 1938-05-03
MKELLAR Halls
SPENDING PLANS
Declares in Forum Talk
That New Deal Policies
Have Met Test.

Following is the text of an address
on President Roosevelt's relief and
recovery program delivered last night
by Senator Mcclellan, Democrat, of
Tennessee in the National Radio Fo-
rum, sponsored by The Evening Star
and broadcast over Nationwide net
work of the National Broadcasting Co.:
Some of us are Democrats, some Of
us are Republicans, some of us are
ProgreSsives, and some Of us have no
politics at ALL but all of us are Ameri-
cans first All Of us love our great
country, and all of us want to see it
happy and prosperous.
have been requested to talk to you
briefly tonight about the Presidents
relief and lending and spending pro-
gram announced in his message to
the Congress April IA, 1888.
This program. accepted with practi-
cal unanimity by his advisers called
into conference. accepted by the peo-
pie generally as the only thing to
do, has been bitterly attacked and
criticized by some of the Presidents
political opponents and some of his
"die hard" opponents who can see
no good in anything he says or does.
Their chief attack, broadly stated,
Is that none of the Presidents poll
cies have heretofore been a success,
and that this last policy. like all his
preceding ones, Is doomed to failure.
Let us take up these contentious and
analyZe them. I begin by asserting
that the policies put in force by the
President and his administration have
not been failures but have been Won
derful successes.
Conditions Contrasted.
To show the truth of this assertion
need only call the attention Of sound
minded and unprejudiced persons first
to the condition that our country was
in when Mr.. Roosevelt became Presi-
dent on March 4, 1888, and then call
attention to its present condition.
We Americans are such forgetful peo-
pie! We have such short memories!
Many of us disregard and forget all
of the past! We think only of the
immediate present! We forget the
good already accomplished and look
only at present difficulties. 1t is my
purpose tonight to remind you of the
good which many of you may have
forgotten.
For some three years prior to Mr..
Roosevelt's administration more than
half of all the banks in America had
and more than S4,000,000,000 of the
peoples money in such banks had
been lost or tied up, and no person,
however well to do, knew one day
whether he would be able to draw
money out of the bank the next day,
whatever the amount of his deposits
therein.
The prices Of agricultural products
had gone down so low that they were
less than the cost of production, thus
rendering it impossible for farmers
to buy the things they needed and
making their condition intolerable.
Cotton was about cents, corn %
cents, wheat 38 cents, hogs 212 cents
and cattle 212 cents, and every other
farm product was selling for less than
the cost of production.
bankruptcy. also, and industries were
shut down all over the country. They
could not sell their products, because
the people had no money with which
to buy, and many of the manufac-
turers could not get the money to
carry on their business.
Starvation Faced by Poor.
Millions Of Americans were on the
verge of starvation, and for years
they had been supplied by private in
dividuals, organizations, localities,
cities and States until all the supplies
had run out and the poor were facing
actual starvation.
Those were the essential facts Of the
situation at that time. We all know
those were the facts. No honest per-
son can deny that those were the facts
that met Mr.. Roosevelt when he en-
tered Office on March 4, 1888, 80 that
to claim now that this country is no
better of than it was in 1892 shows
either total loss Of human memory
or total disregard of the plain truth
Did Mr.. Roosevelt, like his prede-
cessor, just allow things to take their
course, hoping Micawber-like that
something would turn up to restore
sound conditions? Indeed, he did not!
Quite the contrary! Without a mo-
ment's hesitation he set about at once
to formulate policies to change and
improve these deplorable conditions.
The first thing that he did was to
close all the banks for few days and
then open up all the good ones. Then
he recommended to the Congress over
the protest of the bankers of the
country that it pass law providing
for the Government guaranteeing the
deposits in every bank with certain |
limitations. This bill was speedily |
enacted by the Congress and signed
by the President and put into effect. |
Since that time bank failures have |
substantially disappeared and no de-
positors have lost money in banks since |
MIR. Roosevelt has been in Office Banks |
are the main spring of our economic
system. They are the life blood of
trade and commerce. Was this policy
failure? This policy so vitally neces-
sary to the prosperity of our people? |
Can even the most prejudiced claim
that that policy was failure? as
sert it was not only not failure, but
1t was a success from the very be-
ginning and is still a success and q
living monument to the sagacity and
wisdom of our great President.
Farm Prices Revived.
Then the President took up the ques-
ton of the restoration of agriculture,
and within short time. by judicious |
laws and the wise administration of |
those laws, prices Of all agricultural |
products went up and continued on |
the upward grade until about six
months ago, doubling and sometimes |
''EcZEMA'S ITCH
IcuDTnVnII ~ |