The Wilmington morning star., 1940-10-24


+ lieved.
Have Had Success
Dictators have had great sue
cess in using this technique; pu'
only because they were able te
control the press and radio, ano
to stifle all opposition. That il
why I cannot bring myself to be
Iieve that in a democracy like
ours, where the radio and a par
of the press remain open to bott
sides, repetition of deliberate mis-
statements will ever prevail.
I make the charge now tina
these fal%sifications are being
spread for the purpose of filling
the minds and hearts of the Ameri
can people with fear. They are
used to create fear by Installing
in the minds of the people doub'
of each other, doubt of their gov
eminent, and doubt Of the purposes
of their democrac-..
This type of campaign has g
familiar ring. It reminds us of the
scarecrow of 1886, that the socia.
security funds were going to be
diverted from the pockets of the
American working man.
1t reminds us of the scarecroW
of 1882 that grass will grow ir
the streets of a hundred cities; g
thousand towns; the weeds will
over run the fields of millions Of
farms"
The American people will not be
stampered into panic. The effort
failed before. 1t will fail again.
They will not be scared by this
blitzkrieg of verbal incendiary
bombs. They are now calmly
aware that once more, 1.-The only
thing we have to fear is fear it.
self"
Public Duty
I consider it a public duty to
answer fa%lsifications with facts. l
will not pretend that l find this an
unpleasant duty. l am an old cam
paigner, and I love a good fight.
The presidency is not a prize to
be won by mere glittering pro-
misses. 1t is not a commodity to be
sold by high pressure salesman
ship and national advertising. The
presidency is a most sacred trut.
1t ought not to be dealt with on
any level other than an appeal to
reason and to humanity.
The worst bombshell of fear
which republican leaders have let
loose on this people is the ac-
cusation that this government,
withoug knowledge of the congress
or of the people, has secretly en-
tered into agreements with foreign
nations. They even intimate that
such commitments have endan-
gered the security of the United
States, or have pledged the parti-
cipation of the United States in
some foreign war. 3
1t seems almost unnecessary to
deny such a charge. But so long as
the fantastic misstatement has been
made, I must brand it for what it is.
No Treaty
I give you this most solemn as.
surance: There is no secret treaty,
no secret obligation, no secret com
mitment, no secret understanding in
any shape or form, direct or in.
direct, with any other government
or any other nation in any part of
the world, to involve this nation in
any war or for any other purpose.
The desperation Of partisans who
can invent such treaties drives them
to try to deceive our people in other
ways. Consider, for example, the
false charge they make that our
whole industrial system is PROSTATE
that business is stifled and can
make no profits.
The American people have not for
gotten the condition of the United
States in 1882. We all remember
the failures of banks, the bread lines
Of starving men and women, the
youth Of the country riding around
in freight cars, the farm foreclosures,
the home foreclosures. the bank
ruptcy and the panic.
At the very hour of complete col
lapse, the American people called for
new leadership. That leadership,
this administration and a democratic
congress supplied.
Ended Distress
Government. no longer callous to
suffering, moved swiftly to end dis
tress, to halt depression, to secure
more social and economic justice for
all.
The very same men who must
bear tho responsibility for the in
action of those days. are the ones
who now dare falsely to state that
we are all still in the depth OF the
depression into which they plunged
US; that we have prevented the
country from recovering, and that it
is headed for the chaos Of bank.
ruptcy. They have even gone to the
extent Of stating that this admins
tration has not made one man a job.
l say that those statements are
false. l say that the figures Of en-
ployment, Of production, of earnings,
OF general business activity - all
prove that they are false.
The tears for the laboring man
and woman now being shed in this
campaign come from those republi.
can leaders who had their chance to
prove their love for labor in 1882
and missed it.
Back in 1882. these leaders were
willing to let the workers starve if
lfho,, oo,,la 49, 49,