Evening star., 1940-08-28
- the Associated Press.

SALEM. Greg, Aug. 2S.-The
teri OF Senator Charles L. Nc
Nary OF Oregon speech accepting
the Republican Dtce presidential
nomination:
I accept the nomination for Vice
President so generously bestowed
upon me by the Republican Ma
tional Convention last June. I in
dorse the platform and renew my
LOYALTY to the candidate for Presi-
dent, the able, magnetic and force
full Wendell l.. Willkie.
This is no ordinary campaign.
The impact of the wars raging
beyond both our oceans, together
with our urgent concern for the
peace of this hemisphere, surround
the political decision We are about
to make with a heightened gravity.
Domestic issues, linked as they are
with preparedness and foreign re-
lations, take on enlarged significance
In our present mood.
For more than seven years, we
. have fingered in backwater, deny
ing our destiny; neglecting our de-
fenses, both spiritual and material
1.-The great energies of America have
been hindered-where not actually
stifed. Some have lost faith in the
future: faith in work, the source
of well-being. No party is solely
responsible. We of the minority
have, perhaps, failed in vigilance.
But the overwhelming responsible
ity rests upon the party in power.
They have the mandate.
This campaign is more than
mere contest between rival political
parties. This campaign is conflict
between PHILOSOPHERS - PHILOSOPHERS
of government and of action. We
must choose in November whether
America shall advance again along
the path of her historic mission;
or retreat still further into the
fields of futility.
I should be guilty of a narrow
partisanship unsuited to the great
West were I, however, to condemn
the New Deal in its entirety. Candor
REQUIRES me to credit this admlnlS-
tration with certain social gains
which have made the lot OF the
average man more secure-if not
more fruitful and satisfying. I, for
ane, do not choose to rellnqulsh
these advances, where they are gen.
uine; nor to detract from the hui
manitarian impulses actuating the
President. In this campaign, shall
not seek to indict the New DealS
motives. I shall, with all the force
at my command, attack the New
Deals capacity to govern and the
political and economic heresies
which have DETECTED us from our
course.
Every administration since Wash
ington has made progress toward
fulfilling the American dream. The
New Deal is exceptional in that 1t,
alone, has sought to substitute new
states of mind for old, to inculcate
reliance on the Government in
place of self-reliance and to sup
plant hope with fear of what lies
ahead.
We may forgive the New Deals
incompetence in dealing with eco
nomic forces; its inability-or un-
willingness-fo further the employ
ment of idle capital and idle hands.
We might overlook the confusion
In theory and practice that have
curbed initiative, stalled the en-
gines Of production and multiplied
debt. We are still rich country.
What we cannot forgive is that the
New Deal, finding itself unable to
restore national vitality, fashioned
its plan upon the thesis that Amer
.jca is finished, that our economy is
inevitably contracting, that oppor-
tunity has been extinguished and
that, hereafter, we must look in
creasingly to the Government for
Jobs, for security and for the over
sight of our private lives.
That concept, old as human pessi-
n1ism, terminates now from a Eu-
rope which has been Transformed
by poverty, political immaturity and
war into dismal despotism. That
concept is statism; the doctrine of
the ascendancy of the state over the
Individual. I deny its validity in
terms of a youthful, vital America.
I charge, moreover, that the diffu-
sion of that concept has impaired
the nation spirit, and, if persisted
in, might well rob us in time of the
will to be free.
What we need, in times like these,
Is more democracy-not less. In an
earlier period of doubt and diSmay,
Walt Whitman, the good, gray poet
of dynamic America, thus admon-
ished his country:
"Sail, sail thy best, ship of democ-
racy,
OF value is thy freight, 'tis not
the present only,
The past is also stored in thee"
The Philadelphia convention,
meeting in the birthplace of our
liberties, handed us our sailing or
ders; bidding us look to our vigorous
past, reconstruct America and set
her anew on her course. I accept
those orders in full confidence that
we shall triumphantly make port
in November.
Reading Lessons In
The Oregon Trail.
The occasion is, in a sense, a per-
sonal dedication. I make no apol-
ogy, therefore, for personal refer
ences. Lacking only four years, I
have served my native State of
Oregon in the United States Senate
for third of its existence. In that
% years, my record has been open
to the view of my countrymen. I
have supported progressive meas
ures. I have sought to conserve
and employ, for the benefit of all,
our heritage of soil, water power
and forest. I stand on that record.
Not one uttered word can be ex-
plunged, not one vote recalled; nor
would I wish it otherwise, consid-
ering the light that then guided me.
I should be lacking in sentiment