Evening star., 1940-07-16

}, chairman Of the National Conn
vada.
are tangible and enduring for fu-
ture generations who will praise
our foresight in establishing them.
This administration conceived
and set up for all times q humane
and necessary program for the
softening of the hardships Of the
aged and inf1rm Of the rigors Of
illness and the despair of unem-
ployment and for the support Of
widows and dependent children and
the blind.
We established, financed and set
up on firm and enduring founda-
ton the great Tennessee Valley
Authority which, for all time. will
furnish a great vehicle for the de-
velopment and conservation of the
commerce and resources of that
great geographical area which it
serves which will be a potential
factor in flood control and naviga-
ton and which offers now ready
assistance In our preparedness pro-
gram for the manufacture of mary
Of the essential ingredients of ma
tional defense.
AS yardstick for the control of
excessive power and light rates, it
has been largely instrumental in
forcing the reduction of charges to
consumers in the United States of
$500, 100000. We have taken the
position that the waters in our
rivers are the God d-given heritage of
the people and that private utility
companies have no vested right to
have a monopoly on their exploita-
ton.
H. o. L. c. Saved Homes;
Labor Given Rights.
We established and made actively
effective through the Home Owners
Loan Corp. the possibility of saving
hundreds of thousands of our most
deserving citizens from the agony
and ignominy of being evicted from
their rooftrees and firesides. We
have constructed innumerable slum
clearance projects, especially in the
great cities, to provide decent home
steads for the poor and under
privileged, white and colored alike,
and through the Federal Housing
Administration, have afforded credit
and facilities to hundreds of thou
sands of our citizens to finance and
build their own homes.
We have guaranteed for the first
time in our history by law the basic
principle Of giving to labor in this
country the right to organize and
bargain with employers for the bet
terment OF their wages and working
conditions and through the wage
and hour law, have assured to every
man and woman who tolls in the in
dustries of the country a decent
wage scale and fair hours of labor,
and predict here and now that the
great masses of labor in this coun-
try, organized and unorganized, will.
when they go to the polls next
November not forget that the Dem
ocratic party has been its friend
and not its oppressor.
Instead of being content with an
effort to enlarge and stabilize our
foreign trade through the provi-
sions of log-rolling and privileged
favored tariff laws, we embarked
upon a program infinitely more
fair and effective in providing re-
clprocal trade treaties with our
foreign neighbors which, under the
admirable leadership of Cordell
Hull, have already resulted in tre-
mendous benefits to our producers,
including farm products and man.
ufactured articles, many of which
treaties still exist, and many more
we hope, will be restored and in
creased, If and when there is any
stabilization of governments in
wartorn Europe, the major prin-
ciple of which policy the Republic
can platform indorses.
Upon that partial record of social
and economic legislative action
we propose to wage the coming
battle without any spirit of time
serving or apology, but, upon the
contrary, with an aggressive justi-
f1cation of the record of this Demo.
cratic administration.
Republican Platform Group
Brought = Weasel.
We have now had opportunity to
examine the Republican platform
adopted at Philadelphia, which is
supposed to represent the deliber-
ate judgment of the best minds in
the Republican party. If such there
be. If that be the case, it reminds
me of an incident that occurred in
a Southern border State during
the 1896 presidential campaign
when, as you remember, the vita
issue was free silver versus the golc
standard. A certain shrewd ole
politician was running for re-elec.
ton. He was to make . speech ir
q community where he was very
doubtful as to the sentiment of thu
people on that issue. During thu
course of his speech he was pressed
many times by bewhiskered spec.
tator in the crowd to define hi
views on the money question, ant
finally, seeing that he was driver
to make an answer, he replied
MY friend has asked me to stats
my position on the money question
and I will do 1t with entire frank.