Evening star., 1940-10-26
Large Silent
Vote Is Held
Sign
True Americunism
Seen in Necessity
For Finul Pleas
BY JAY FRANKLIN.
A letter to the undecided:

|
tion-whether to vote for Wlllkie or
to re-elect Roosevelt. AS you prob
ably know, you are only one of mill
lions of citizens who are still un-
decided. At least every survey re-
ports that in the great key States
there is an undecided group which
in some cases amounts to nearly 20
per cent of the electorate. AS you
go, so goes the Union.
This situation seems TO me thor
| oughly wholesome We who believe
in democracy cannot believe that
a democracy consists OF rival armies
of regimented voters-men and
women who have signed away their
political sovereignty in favor Of
either party. Unless our people
| feel themselves free to decide the
issues in the privacy Of their own
| thoughts. and to hammer out their
own decisions in the light OF all
| the evidence, we are not citizens, We
are just rooters. I personally have
such faith in democracy that l ain
willing TO trust to YOU who are
still undecided, our national de-
| cisions for the next four years If
| you decide against what I believe
is wise and necessary I shall regret
it, but I shall not repine and I shall
! devote my energies to making your
will effective. For l agree with
/ William Jennings Bryan, that the
people have the right TO make their
own mistakes" and I believe that
much Of our recent discord has
arisen from the reluctance of the
/ minority to accept the meaning and
consequences of majority rule.
Appeals Are Necessary.
During the closing days Of this
campaign every possible appeal is
being made to fear and folly. as
well as to interest and conviction.
Both appeals are necessary. If we
are a nation of towards and fools,
the sooner We know it the better.
Certainly 7 can imagine no course
more perilous for America than for
our people 10 enter this growing
crisis in ignorance of our true at
titude toward the challenge of the
modern world. For that reason I
welcome the tact that the RepuD-
ucan candidate is making en-
tirely contradictory statements and
pledges. I welcome the fact that
the Republican party is agitating
the issue Of war or peace. I well
come the fact that our national
unity and our political integrity is
being tested. I believe that the
mass OF the people have the evi-
dence before them and can be
trusted 10 choose wisely between
President Roosevelt and Mr.. Willkie.
between the New Deal and the
G. o. P.
In making your decision there is
one point which you will consider.
The old-style minority Democratic
party is gone-Mr. Willkle proclainls
the fact his reason for becoming a
Republican - while the Republican
party IS still in the. control of the
same industrial and financial in
terestS which gave us the Harding
administration. 1t is still the party
of the Pews. Girdlers. Weirs and
FordS the party of the Morgans,
Rockefeller and Du Points. the party
of Joe Grundv and Charles Hilles.
the party of Berry Mccormick and
William Randolph Hearst.
I Willkie Means G. o. P. Rule.
. If you decide TO vote for Mr.. WILL
kie you will be forced to vote for
the Republican party, if he is to
function at all as the leader of the
organization whose candidate he is.
You Will have to vote for the party
of the isOlatlOnists, the appeasers
and the pro-NaziS, the party of
Hoover. Lindbergh and Bill Castle
the party of the men who talked
with the notorious DR.. Westrick-
the party which is the beneficiary of
appeals to the Germans, italians and
Irish on non-American grounds and
I the recipient of favors from Father
Coughlin and our home -breWed
anti-SemiteS. If you are voting for
| Mr.. Willkie you are voting for the
return to power of the Republican
party. You may wish to consider
what this may imply in terms of the
G. o. P.'s record in foreign and do
mestic policies during the 192Os and
IN terms of the consistent Repub-
llcan opposition to the social and
economic reforms of the New Deal
and to the plain necessities of ma
tional defense.
! On the other hand. the New Deal
| Democratic party has regrouped
Itself around those reforms and
around the principles of total de-
fense. In voting for President
Roosevelt you will be voting for the
New Deal Democratic party, which
gave you farm relief. work relief.
the c. c. c., T. V. A, social security,
labor reforms, the good neighbor
policy and national defense. You
will be voting for the party which
in eight years has cost the lives Of
fewer American soldiers and marines
on foreign soil than died in the four
years of Hoover or in the six years
of Coolidge or the two years of
Harding
You will be voting for the party
which has steadily purged itself of
its evil elements. which prosecuted
its own corrupt bosses in Louisiana
and Kansas City and which has
shown a capacity to change and
grow with the times.
/ Consider these things we'll in max
/ ing your decision. for on it depends
the fate of great Nation and a
great people in a world which is no
/ longer safe for second guessers.
Releaset py Consolidated News Features,
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