The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-08-24

SeeeS-@~~O- that battle. Even the grave stones were madeto send telegrams to pro- test against the holding company bill. But the Democratic party stood firm and the bill passed. It is no longer easy TOT interruptions opera tors to sell fake securities to unwary citizens.
 SECURITIES REGULATION
 PRODUCED BIG HOWL
 And when the administration set out to clean up the whole game of high finance and threatened to es- tablish the Securities Exchange Commission, there was another howl. The Republicans said Roosevelt was fighting against business and de- stroying confidence. They called him demagogue. A demagogue because he was rallying the powers of the people to fight for the interests of the people.
 The Democratic party is not against business-it has never been against business. I believe there are more business men in the ranks of democracy than the Republicans ever had. I defy anyone to prove the contrary. You know and know that the greatest enemy of business in America has been the unseen power of concentrated financial in- terests. It was this power that cap- tured control of one business after another and so mismanaged and cor rupted the natural course of all bus mess that, in 1892, it had brought business to standstill. This admin istration had to protect business against entrenched wealth, and the job is only begun It is another fight for freedom, and, of course, there are howls at anyone who dares to fight for the people.
 The Republicans accuse the Dem- ocrats of taking the nation to bank ruptcy. They have a short memory or they would not speak of bank ruptcy. They forget what happened few years ago. They do not seem to remember the sorry spectacle of a proud and rich nation, groveling in despair, helpless and frantic. They don't recall the financial crack-ups of 1929, the suicides of 1880. the bread lines of 1881, the closed banks of 1882, the food riots, the hunger matches, the evictions, the hardsh1ps and the sufferings. All these things escape their memory in 1940.
 LAND OF OPPORTUNITY
 IS OUR HERITAGE
 Consider the incredible experience of those early years of the thlrtles. Here is a land, which by natural wealth and endowment, is the most favorable place for man to live rn all the world. It is not overcrowded. d. With only 6 per cent of the worlds population, it has 45 per cent of the wealth of the world. It has 60 per cent of the worlds supply of mon- etary gold. It is able to and does furnish 62 per cent of the worlds oil production. It mines a third of the worlds copper and a third of its coal. It possesses 30 million of the worlds 43 million automobiles; 20 million of the worlds 40 million telephones. It raises half the world $ cotton; half its fruit. What is equally important, this nation has an abundance of labor, skilled and unskilled. Our technical and scien- tific knowledge surpaSses that of any people on earth.
 In such a land and with such a people, we were literally prostrate on March 4, 1883. Prostrate because of twelve years of bungling political mismanagement, the like of which has not been witnessed in modern times. Every financial institution in the nation was paralyzed; the arteries of commerce were dried up; business was at standstill. And the party which wrought this havoc, now has the unmitigated and brazen impudence to charge that the Dem- ocratic party has brought the coun- try to bankruptcy.
 But try as hard as they could, the Roaring Twenties could not produce a depression so big that the Demo- crats couldn't pull the country out of it. Since the nightmare year of 1892, our national income has 'aap- ed from A billion dollars to 72 bil- lion annually.
 REPUBLICAN LEGACY
 WAS MANY UNEMPLOYED
 The increase in national debt about which the Republicans shed SO many tears could be wiped out with the increased income of one year with the billion dollars to spare, if the people choose to do it. The Republicans bequeathed us IS million unemployed. Half this stag gering number have been put to work and in addition some mill lion new employables have been ab- sorbed into the industrial system. Legitimate business has increased to a point close to the prosperity of the boom years, and industrial activity has mounted from a small fraction of capacity in 1883 to near capacity in 1889 and 40.
 And now let us look at the na- tional debt which the Republicans say will break the nations back and bring 1t to ruin. Of this amount. 2 billion was incurred by prepayments of war bonuses already obligated. That leaves i8 billion.
 We have 2 billion in the reserve account of the old-age insurance fund. That leaves i0 billion.