The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-07-17
Permanent Chairman
OF Convention Also
Scores C. O. p. Deceit
Policies of Former President Herbert Hoover Attacked
in Spirited Address; Record Of New Deals Achieve.
ments Compared to G. 0. P.'s lnactiNities

devastation, not only in the field
of business and industry, but had
set blight on all financial activ-
tiles. Banks and confidence in
them had collapsed. Wheels Of
industry were motionless. The
market places for both money and
commodities were bereft of con-
structive or profitable activities.
Agriculture dropped and died from
dry rot inflicted by legislative
and administrative incompetence,
while the feet Of fifteen million
American laborers wandered in
vagrant anxiety over the question
of tomorrow's food and shelter.
Homes and firesides, millions Of
them, which must be the sanctu-
airy of the true spirit Of America,
were on the verge of permanent
loss through the cry Of the
auctioneer.
Abuses Of the financial, eco
nomic and social realms of our
existence had grown so chronic
that the nation despaired of any
constructive or effective remedy
against them. The status quo be-
came the law of our being, and
the government initiated that
acknowledging bird which never
knows where 1t is going but can
only see where 1t has been.
American commerce with the
world, which in every great indus
trial nation has been and must
be a substantial portion Of the
yardstick of its prosperity, had fled
from the seas and the marts OF
trade.
RemOlding Faith.
Encouraged by our own example
of folly, insurmountable barriers
had been erected by nation
against nation through the effort
of provincial minds to set metes
and bounds to the genius and ini-
tiative of man. In our own hemi-
sphere, peopled by the children of
those who had fought for the Gre
alton of a new ideal Of democratic
thought and conduct, suspicion
and fear, political and economic,
retarded the efforts to consumate
solidarity essential to the pres
ervation and protection of the
common interests Of all the Amer
icas.
The effort of the past seven
years on the part of our govern
ment has been devoted to the task
of remolding the faith OF our peo-
pie in their own brand of democ-
racy.
We have heard much from COM
placent threats in recent years
about free enterprise. The spokes-
men of the Philadelphia assem-
blage invoked the spirits of the de-
parted in behalf Of free enter
prise, and ex-President Hoover
began his diatribe by proclaiming
it the duty of his party to save
America for free men. He, of all
men ought to cry for the return
Of freedom, because he and his
regime fastened more Shackles on
the physical, economic and spirit
ual aspirations of the American
people than any other group who
ever mismanaged the affairs Of
this republic.
What freedom IS it that we have
destroyed, and, by the same token,
what freedom Is 1t that the plat
form and nominees Of the Phila-
delphia convention will restore?
Is 1t the freedom to juggle and
manipulate and determine the
value of the securities Of Ameri-
can corporations in which millions
Of our people have invested their
savings?
Labor's Rights.
Do they propose to destroy the
freedom we have guaranteed to
labor in the United States to sit
across a table from its employer
on terms of equality and bargain
collectively over wages, hours and
working conditions?
Do they propose to restore the
uncontrolled freedom of some en-
ployers to exploit employees by
long hours and low wages?
Do they propose to remove from
agriculture the freedom to CO.
operate within itself and with the
government of the United States
in securing a larger portion Of the
national income for the service
they render to society?
Do they propose to return the
American farmer to the income Of
1882 instead Of twice that income
which he has received under the
New Deal?
Mr.. Hoover, who constitutes the
remaining living symbol of Re-
publican wisdom, In his speech at
the convention, said the Republic
can party was first to bring relief
to the American farmer. What he
no doubt meant to say was that
Republican leadership was the first
to bring the need for relief to the
American farmer.
What freedom have we de-
stroyed that they propose to re-
store?
Will they restore the freedom
Of vast holding companies, draw
ing their substance from local
utilities and their consumers to
continue their depradations upon
the public, to prevent which the
utility holding company act was
passed over the vehement protest
of the present Republican candi-
date for president?
In truth, the reason for the
shifting OF his political robes was
the enactment of this legislation,
plus the completion and develop
ment Of a great natural resource
in the Tennessee Valley, begun
during the first World War in the
administration Of Woodrow VIII
son.
Bread Lines?
viii they destroy or undermine
the laws We have enacted for the
aged and unemployed?
VIII they resetore the freedom
as well as the compulsion OF old
age to descend to the grave In penury
and want?
VIII they restore the freedom as
well as the comnulsion of ffnems