Montana labor news., 1938-01-06
Continued from Page 81

lAOfltlllutQ llOil x 81
happen to this country in the year
5000, or ~thereabout, doubtless sends
chills down the backbone of intelii-
gent Americans in 1887.
Return Special Privilege, Real Aim
of Opposition
The laundering minority party is
being criticized for or being
sympathized with-according to the
views of the person voicing the senti-
ment-because it has no policy, no
program, and no leader. That is not
an adequate survey Of the situation.
There is a policy and a program all
right, only the spokesman do not
dare to voice it. The Liberty League
leadership is still there. The policy
is to bring back the era when the
government, instead of distributing
relief to the needy, awarded plums
to the richest among us.
1t is not surprising that nobody
has the hardihood to promulgate
openly such a doctrine. Neverthe-
less, that is what the old outfit is
driving at.
Stocks go up and stocks go down.
The fortunate or the skillful make
profits either way. The ordinary
Spectator who just takes a flying
gamble may make ONE money on
the bulges and lose it on the re-
cessions. But as long as industry
continues to function and people
have their jobs, as long as the farm
ers and the working folks retain
their purchasing power to consume
these products, the mutations Of the
stock market NEAR very little, be-
yond the circumstance that they af-
ford an opportunity for the political
panic-makers to beat their breasts
and tear their hair and gravely as
sert that the end Of everything i'm
ponds unless the President and Con-
gress again take orders from the
princes of privilege.
Stock Fables and Bogies
When they are not talking about
the hopeless viciousness of the New
Deal principles nowadays, they are
invoking the old favorite fable of
Roosevelt's seeking a dictatorship.
And then they trot out the old DOGGY
of a third term. Now, l know no
more about what conditions will be
three years hence than the next man.
I only know that I a conceive of
nobody being eager or even willing
to take an additional four years of
the exasperating drudgery of the
Presidency after eight years of that
anxiety and servitude. I have no
doubt that at the present moment
the President is looking forward
with a great longing to the peace
and rest that will be within his grasp
on January 20, 1941, He has said on
several occasions that his only ambi-
ton was to turn his desk over to his
successor with a country at peace
and in content.
However, nothing is going to stop
the speculation on this subject, per-
haps up to the time of the next Dem
ocratic national convention. Obvi-
ously, the President cannot in adj
vance decline a denomination that
may never be offered him. Just as
obviously, with the world in such a
turmoil as it is today outside of this
continent, it cannot be ~forecasted
whether the American people would
permit him to lay down his burden
in view Of possible ev%entualities.
AS I have said, I don't know any
more about it than the next man,
but we may look forward with Ger
tainty to a lot of expressions of the
most positive character from the
commentators, with their exclusive
information, from ian intimate adj
visor of the President" and "a White
House ~%confidant" who got his inside
dope at "a private and intimate on
v~ersation." The more I read Of these
amusing disclosures, the more l mar
vel at the columnists' imagining for
a moment that they can make their
readers believe that the President
of the United States discloses his
personal or his political secrets to
anybody capable of rushing off and
whispering the confidential commu-
nication to those most hostile to
Roosevelt.