Evening star., 1944-09-25
The Bors Are Down

The Burs Are Down
President Roosevelt's speech to the
TeamSters Union was as political
as torchlight parades and free cigars.
It laid once and for all the incon-
gruous myth of political campaign
that was not to be conducted in
the usual partisan political sense.
And it proved that the President is
still "the champ" in that free-swing-
ing political league where no holds
are barred ana anything goes.
There can be no question that the
speech will inject new life into a
tagging Democratic campaign. Nor
is there any reason to doubt that it
gives the signal for a campaign in
which the principal weapons will
be personal abuse and vituperation,
not sober discussion of the i'm
portant issues. The speech to the
teamsters let the bars down. From
now on we may expect to see the
seamy side Of American politics.
Mr.. Roosevelt was not willing to
concede vestige of good faith to
his Republican opponents. They
were taxed with inconsistency and
insincerity. Their pledges to main
tain social reforms adopted under
the New Deal were branded as "the
most obvious common or garden
variety of fraud" He implied that
the Republicans could not be trusted
with the conduct of foreign policy,
that they dealt in double talk when
they professed their belief in inter-
national cooperation to preserve
the peace after this war.
He chided the labor baiters"
among the opposition and ignored
the labor baiters" in his own party.
With the record showing upward
of $4,000 wartime strikes, Mr.. Roose-
velt went no further than to refer
in non-critical fashion to the "oc-
casional strikes which have oc-
Cured - and to imply that these had
given concern to none but the labor
baiters.
He dragged Hitler and Goebbels
into the campaign, compared his
Republican opponents with them,
and found the latter wanting. The
President lashed out with particular
vlgor at the campaign Justification"
that his administration had failed
to prepare for the war. He doubted
that even Goebbels would have tried
that one, for Goebbels would never
have dared hope that the voters of
America had already forgotten that
many Republican leaders" in and
out of Congress had tried to block
nearly every attempt which the
Roosevelt administration had made
to warn our people and arm our
Nation. Reading that loose and un-
Just charge, one wonders if the
President has forgotten such Re-
publican leaders as Representative
Wadsworth in the House, or Sena-
tors Austin and Gurney, or the anti
administration Democrat, former
Senator Burke of Nebraska. Does
the President remember that these
men were leading the politically
dangerous fight for such things as
the Selective Service Act, the low
ering Of the draft age and COM
pulsory manpower legislation when
his own policy on these vital meas
ures was timorous and vacillating?
Might he not have conceded little
something to these men who risked
their own political fortunes to con-
tribute so much to the achievements
for which his administration now
seems prepared to take full credit?
Turning to postwar domestic prob
lens, the President, like Governor
Dewey, promised full employment,
high wages, protection for the
farmer, etc. He did not answer Gov
ernor Dewey's charge that after
seven preWar years in Office and the
expenditure of many billions of dol
lars there were still 100000 un-
employed under the New Deal ad-
ministration. Nor did he say how
he proposes to solve domestic prob
lens after the war which his admin
istration could not solve in the years
before the war.
Perhaps these questions of funda-
mental Importance will be dealt with
In specific fashion in subsequent
speeches by both candidates. But
the greater probability is that the
campaign, as we move closer to cleo
ton day, will take on more of the
color which the President impaired
to it when he emerged before the
teamsters, not as the national leader
far removed from politics, but as the
old political campaigner who loves
a rough and tumble fight.