Evening star., 1940-10-26

lS4U Is Ql8NeI tIldIl IL was III 1917.
This may be true. have no way
Of telling, and neither have you,
because the 1910 national income
is still an estimate, 1t is still on
order.
The latest published figures
the latest figures on hand-are
for 1889. And these figures show
that per capita income for 1899
was less than the per capita in
come for 1929-even after ad-
justing for cost of living.
The third term candidate
stated that average hourly earn
ings in manufacturing today are
II cents higher than in 1929. He
neglected to point out that pri-
vate pay rolls--pay rolls in all of
American business-were 1912
billion dollars less in 1899 than
they were in 1929.
The only way we can get a
clear idea of the performance of
the New Deal is to compare the
average record Of the seven New
Deal years with the average rec
ord of the seven years that pre-
ceded the New Deal-including
three depression years. Surely
this is fair comparison.
But when we make that COM
parison, what do we find? We
find that the national income
under the administration of the
third-term candidate is down IL
per cent; that industrial produc-
ton is down 5 per cent, con-
struction contracts are down SO
per cent; farm Income, including
Government payments. down 20
per cent: industrial wages and
sa.aries down 81 per cent; divi-
dends down 80 per cent, and
new corporate capital, used to
expand our industrial plants to
make jobs, down "a per cent.
A Tragedy That Only War
Can Start Job Pickup.
However the candidate may
twist and turn, these are the
facts. These are facts on which
he is running for third term.
There is in addition one more
fact. The candidate last Wednes-
day made a boast. He boasted
that in the month of August
this year. 100000 men were added
to the private pay rolls. and he
told us that in September an
other 100000 men went to work.
That is good. We all want
these men to find jobs But I
say that this is dangerous
boast. AS every one in this coun-
try knows, the reason that these
men are being employed is be-
cause we are engaged upon a
program of building armaments.
1t is a tragedy that in this
peaceful land of ours it should
take war and the consequent
demand for armament to start
our people back to work. 1t is
not a boast that man should
be proud of. The manufacture
of armament is a, heavy duty
that we must all perform. 1t
is tremendous burden upon
the American people and will
involve them in staggering debt.
Now, I intend to build arma-
ments, too, when you elect me
President of the United States.
That is exactly what I have
been talking about from one end
of the Nation to the other
building national defense that
Is on hand and not on order.
But at the same time I want
to stimulate our domestic econ
omy so that when the defense
program has been completed
there will not be defation and
unemployment of hundreds of
thousands of men and financial
chaos. If We do not stimulate
our domestic economy it is in
evitable that the United States
at the completion of its defense
program will have one of the
greatest panics in its history.
The third-term candidate tells
us that he is an old campaigner.
That is true. And, as cam
paigner he has made the Ameri-
can people many promises.
For instance, in November,
1882, just before his first elec-
ton, he said that the idea that
the United States might go off
the gold standard and repudiate
its obligations was. in the quoted
words of the candidate, "a libel
on the credit of the United
States" Yet, within six weeks
after the candidate had been
elected, the United States went
off the gold standard and refused
to pay the American people its .
obligations in gold.
Hopes That Peace Pledge
Is Kept Better.
Now. in his talk last Wednes-
day, the third-term candidate
made us another promise. a most
serious promise, a promise that
"o~nS every man, woman and
child in America. He said that
he was working for peace. He
said that he would stand by the
Democratic platform of 1910, and
he quoted this pledge in the
platform: 1--WE will not partici-
pate in foreign wars and we will
not send our Army, naval or air
forces to fight in foreign lands
outside of the Americas, except
in cases of attack"
I hope. sincerely hope, that
pledge by the third-term candi-
date, based upon the 1910 plat
form of the Democratic party,
is remembered by him longer
than he remembered the honor
of the credit of the United
States, which was based upon
the Democratic platform of 1882.
I sincerely hope that on some
future occasion the third-term
candidate will not tell the re-
porters that as of the day he
made that pledge he had no in
tention of going to war.
The American people want