Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-06-04

progress by going into the ditch on
either the right or the left side of
the road.
The first job of the Farmer-Labor
party is to take a realistic look at
itself and determine where it is at
and where it is going. 1 have come
to certain conclusions:
l. No political party is going to
be successful or stay in power, if
it does not have in its heart a pro-
found allegiance to the American
form of government and the deep
rooted American principle of free
dom.
We liberals must not forget that,
with all her faults, the United States
of America has achieved greater
prosperity, more widely distributed
among our people, than was ever
achieved by any country at any time
in the entire history of the world.
This was done under the American
form of democratic government with
individual initiative and industry, CO.
operative effort, racial and religious
tolerance, and civil liberties. We
need only to look abroad to see that
when democracy is destroyed, the
people become wage slaves of the
government, and freedom of religion,
speech and press go down in the
ruins. There can be no place in the
Eorro or-T oh0r norfxy for nnnp1n hD
want to destroy the basic structure
of the American form Of govern
ment, be they Nazis, Fascists, or
Communists.
2. No political party is going to
be successful or stay in power in this
state unless it pledges itself with
sincerity to give the people an or
derby and economical administration
of the public finances, and fulflls
those pledges.
The people of Minnesota will not
tolerate, even in ordinary times, a
wasteful expenditure of the money
which they pay into the state treas
ury in taxes. Today, in the midst of
war, faced with vast and ever in
creasing demands from the federal
government, they rightfully expect
that the state tax load be kept down.
1t is only by keeping down the tax
burden of state and local govern
ment that our people will be able to
meet the tremendous necessities of
the federal government and preserve
for themselves a decent standard of
living.
3. No political party in this state
can be successful or stay in power,
if it is run by a small group at the
top for their personal advantage.
A political party belongs to the
rank and file. My experience leads
me to the conclusion that the great
mass of the membership of any of
the political parties in the state are
we'll meaning. They are decent,
patriotic men and women, represent
ing a pretty fair cross-section of our
people, no matter what political al
legiance they happen to profess.
1t is the leadership of political
Pal IlSS "lllSil SOCS "lOliS. oOiiiC-
times the leadership goes wrong be-
cause it plays with that group of
rich and greedy men who use large
campaign contributions to buy con-
troll for the advancement of their own
selfish interests. Sometimes political
leadership goes wrong because it lets
what Theodore Roosevelt called the
''lunatic fringe" overcome its COM
mon sense and lead it to the COM
mission of foolish acts. And some
times political leadership goes wrong
because it becomes drunk with its
own power and importance, comes
to think itself indispensable, and for
gets that the people who gave it
power can in turn withdraw that
power.
The leadership of the Farmer
Labor party must assure the people
that it will not abuse its power; that
it will never sell that power to rich
men for money; that it will listen
to the advice and judgment of men
and women in all walks of life and
Will IlOl lcl ltSSlI NC pOSIlSO OSyOIIo
the bounds of practical common
sense; that it will not get into its
head the foolish notion that it is in
dispensable; that it will keep faith
with the people, and regard its pow
err as public trust to be used solely
for the advancement of the public
welfare.
I am advocating sane, construc-
tive liberalism which offers oppor-
tunity for growth.
The words liberal and "reac-
tionary" have been used by so many
people with so many different mean
ings that it is difficult to define them.
I suppose they mean different things
to different people. To me liberal
ism is fundamentally an attitude
of mind. A person who sincerely
wants to better the lot of the ordi-
nary man and woman is, at heart a
liberal. A person who is not inter-
ested in the mass of our people,
whose real interest is to perpetuate