Imperial Valley press., 1940-09-22
A lO0-YEAR-OlD
TRADITION IS ENDED

Editors Note:-After 100 years during which
it has never supported any but a Democratic
candidate for president, the Cleveland Plain
Dealer most powerful newspaper in Ohio will
this year support Republican candidate Wendell
L. Willkie We believe the reasons advanced
by the Plain Dealer merit consideration. The
following is partial text of the papers editorial,
announcing its change)
"The Plain Dealer supports Wendell
l.. Willkie for president of the United
States.
I'VE come to this decision with no re-
gard either for party names or political
considerations. Rather, our decision is
based on the best analysis we can make
of the moral problems confronting the
United States of America. We have
reached this conclusion, which seems in
evitable to us, with the regret which de-
cent people feel about breaking old ties.
For close to hundred years the
Plain Dealer has refrained from support
ing for president any other than Demo-
cratic candidates. We say this in no
spirit of apology or of boastfulness. On
occasions we probably were wrong.
"Now for the first time We depart
from this century-old Plain Dealer tradi-
tion We recommend the defeat of
Democrat who is seeking a third term
to the presidency,
eff anyone reads into this an act of
desertion, we insist that the result rests
on the shoulders of Mr.. Roosevelt and
not on ours.
THE Plain Dealer chooses to remain
Democratic The Roosevelt adminstra-
ton, by contrast, has abandoned the de-
mocracy of jefferson, Jackson, Cleveland
and Wilson.
"The Plain Dealer elects to abide by
the idea that the country should make
social progress as fast as it can pay for
it, whereas Mr. Roosevelt has attempted,
not a liberal but radical goal. The only
possible outcome of his policies, as we
see it, is state Socialism, followed newt
ably by some form of Fascism
Eight years ago we supported Frank
lin d. Roosevelt with boundless enthus-
iasm. Four years ago we supported him
with some misgivings The course of
events since then, eliminating in the
presidents ill-disguised and successful
maneuver for a third term nomination,
forces upon us the conviction that we
can no longer support the president
whom this newspaper helped twice to
elect.
Mr. ROosevelt's eliminating Offense
against his party, his country and the
worldwide spirit of democracy stood
clearly revealed in the hollow and thea
trical circumstances of his third term
nomination at the Chicago convention
The talk of drafting the president for
the run IS veriest nonsense. His whole
strategy for a year before the conven-
ton was to make impossible the conven-
tion's choice of any other candidate.
"The situation Jefferson warned his
countrymen against in 1921 has now come
to pass. An ambitious executive, finish
ing his second term and wishing another,
coniures up the old world theory that he
alone in all America is capable of lead
ership. Mr.. Roosevelt paints the portrait
of The indispensable Man, and, 10, the
likeness is of HIMSELF!
"These are perilous days in world his
tory for any democracy to experiment
with indispensable men. The German re-
public tried it. Italy tried it. Russia
tried it. The pathway of government
since the World War is strewn with the
twisted remnants of democratic institu-
tions wrecked by indispensable men.
Every modern dictator the world has
known has first persuaded his country
men that he was indispensable to their
welfare.