Evening star., 1940-01-09

part of our land.
feel very much the same way
about Jackson-not Jackson the
Democrat but Jackson the Amer
ican, who did the big job Of his
day-to save the economic DEM
ocracy of the Union for its west
ward expansion into a great
Nation, strengthened in the ideals
and practices of popular govern
ment.
Reelection illustrates
Instinct Of Public.
I have always thought it a
magnificent illustration of the
public's instinct for the quality
of a leader that the people trium-
phantly reelected Jackson in
spite of the fact that in the
meantime, in his fight for eco
nomic democracy, Biddle and the
bank had sought to create an
economic depression in order to
ruin him.
OF all of these great American
figures, I like to think-and I
know I am right-that their pur-
poses, their objectives, their mo-
tives, placed the good of the
Nation always ahead of the good
Of the party; that while they used
the mechanics of party organiza-
ton in many ways, they dropped
mere partisanship when they
considered it against the national
interest.
I saw a good deal of the govern
orship of New York before be-
came Governor of the State, and
I saw a good deal of the inside Of
the White House for many years
before I occupied it. Many years
ago it had become clear to me
. that, properly availed of, the gov
ernorship and the presidency, in
stead of being merely a party
headquarters, could become the
most important clearing house for
exchange of information and
ideas, and facts and ideals, af-
fecting the general public welfare.
In practice, as you know, l
have tried to follow out that con-
cept. In the White House today
we have built up great mosaic
of the state of the Union from
thousands of bits of informa-
tion-from one man or woman
this thought, from another, data
on some event; scrap here per-
haps and a scrap there; from
every congressional district in the
Union: from rich and poor, from
enthusiast and complainant, from
liberal and conservative, from
Republican and Democrat.
I like to think that most Ameri-
can Governors or Presidents have
seen the same opportunity in
their office, and that their mo-
tives have been primarily of serv-
ice rather than Of party or per-
sonal aggrandizement.
Discarded Hair Shirts
If They Matured in Public Life.
Doubtless they have all been
irked by the commentators Of the
day, who ascribed other motives
to them. Doubtless after much
experience in the public life of
America, with its free speech and
press, the irksomeness wore of.
Doubtless, all of them wore hair
shirts whcn they started, but If
they matured in public life most
of them discarded those shirts in
their earlier days. They had to
drop their hair shirt or else lose
their political shirt.
And when you have learned not
to worry about all these things
there is really lot of fun in this
job.
For when you reach that point
of understanding. there is deep
satisfaction in pursuing the
truth through the medley of in
formation that reaches the White
House. the overstatement, the
half-truth, the ghttering gen.
erality, the viewing-with- alarm,
and the pointing with pride.
There is practical satisfaction in
sitting a tiny particle of truth
from the mass of rrelevances
in which it is hidden. And there
is the philosophers satisfaction
of fitting that particle of truth
into the general scheme of things
that are good and things that
are bad for the people of the
Nation as whole.
I said a moment ago that the
measure of greatness of any
party leadership of a country is
the measure in which it gets done
in it's time the big job that has
to be done BY this test do not
think any one can say that the
many people in these last seven
years who have given composite
leadership have failed in their
obligation. Most of those who
call for a wholly different type
of leadership must admit the
fairly constant progress of these
years. Most of those who COM
plain now were the shouting
optimists of 1929.
do not believe that the
American people who swallowed
that canned optimism in 1929
will swallow canned pessimism in
1940-particularly out of the
same can.
People of United States
Recognize Two Great Facts.
The people of the United
States recognize two facts today:
The first is that the world out
side our hemisphere is in really
bad shape. This is a matter not
for pessimism or optimism; it
is a matter for realism. It is
a fact-a fact so big that few
people have grasped its meaning
"a fact so big in its effect on the
future of the world that all our
little partisan squabbles are
shameful in the light of it.
The second is that we have