The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-07-17
Willkie Assailed AS political Chameleon

have driven out and which they
will entice back to this land Of
the free?
Is it the freedom now possessed
by American youth to share the
physical, moral and intellectual
training which the New Deal is
helping them to secure under con-
ditions compatible with both pride
and responsibility?
Task of Restoration
Do the Philadelphia glarantors
Of a rturn of freedom propose to
abolish the Civilian Conservation
Corps or the National Youth Ad-
ministration?
The task which lay at our feet
seven years ago was q task Of
restoration. 1t has not been COM
pleted. But the ascent from the
depths of the valley has been con-
slant and is still in progress.
Mr.. Hoover, in his Philadelphia
exegesis, announced that the New
Deal had stabilized unemploy-
ment. Having himself multiplied
it beyond all previous calculations,
even ne ought to welcome some
degree of sterilization.
National Income
During this pretended eclipse Of
free enterprise in America the ma
tional income has increased from
thirty-eight billions to seventy
one billions of dollars per annum.
The last Republican Administra-
ton had reduced it from eighty
billions to thirty-eight billions and
had inaugurated that succession
Of annual deficits which they now
proclaim as the peculiar patent
Of the Roosevelt administration.
The fundamental difference be-
tween the two situations is that
Roosevelt deficits have been re-
Elected in vast improvements and
additions to the values Of property
and life in every community in the
United States, while there cannot
be found in any part of the nation
any evidence of value or increased
enjoyment of life that previous
deficit spending had accomplished.
In this same period during which
they believe freedom has fled from
our shores and the credit Of the
government has been jeopardized,
the price of government bonds on
the markets Of the nation and the
world rose from eighty cents on
the dollar to nearly one dollar and
twenty cents, Notwithstanding a
substantial decrease in the rate
Of interest which these obligations
bear
During this same period the
total indebtedness of the Amer
lean people has decreased by more
than ten billion dollars, which
does not indicate that they are
headed towards predicted bank
ruptcy.
These improvements, these aids
to industry and to labor, and the
general restoration Of the morale
Of our people have cost money.
We do not deny that. They have
made 1t necessary for us to Dor
row money, and levy taxes which
under normal conditions would
have been unnecessary and UNI
desirable.
But the American people are not
and will not be frightened into
panic when they realize that dur
ing the last seven years, while the
debt Of the national government
has increased by twenty-five bill
lion dollars, their total other pub
lie and private debts have de-
creased by more than thirty billion
dollars, and that during this same
seven-year period their aggregate
income has increased four times
as much as has the Indebtedness
Of the Federal government.
Responsive to Needs
All this has been done in order
to restore the faith of the Amer
lean people In their government
and to emphasize the fact that our
government Is not an austere,
unapprocahable, inanimate thing
off yonder in Washington, taking
no account of or interest in the
affairs of those who support 1t.
All this has been done to demon
strate that the processes Of de-
mocracy can be made to respond
to the needs Of men and women.
It has been done in order to prove
that under our Constitution and
without changing or undermining
our form Of government, 1t can
be made an instrument Of service
under the stress Of great crisis.
Everywhere 1t seemed that the
doctrine proclaimed by Thomas
Jefferson that all governments de-
rived their just powers from the
consent of the governed was on
the march and would at length
cover the earth like the waters
cover the sea.
But in the last decade or two
this process seems to have gone
in reverse. Whether as the result
OF some evil spirit loosed by the
agonies Of the World War, or in
consequence Of the impotence Of
existing regimes to understand or
respond to the needs Of the people,
we need not here undertake to de-
termine. But we do know that
autocracy rears its ugly face in
larger portions of the world today
than at any time since the forma-
ton of the American republic, and
we do know that we are confronted
with the alternative of defending
and preserving our democratic in
situations as we have built them
and enjoyed them, or seeing them
COMPOUNDED by the conveyance of
antagonistic ideologieS in a world
dedicated not to the proposition
that all men are created equal, but
that all men are created to feed
the NAV of grasping, greedy, to-
talitarian states.
In the midst Of these alterna-
tives there Is but one choice that
the American people can make
with honor to themselves and fl