Evening star., 1949-08-20


TO the Editor Of The Star;
notice that the assertion of ex.President
Hoover that we are on the last mile to
collectivism and that we are blissfully driv-
ing the back road to it at top speed is giving
rise to quite lot of comment. would like
to have little space in your paper to COM
ment on some of the things I saw along
the road we drove for IL years before we
turned of on the road we now are travelling.
When the Republicans took over the
reins of Government in 1920, the country
was prosperous, labor was fully employed
at good wages and farmers were receiving
good prices for all the food and fibre they
could produce. Banks had plenty OF money
and were in a sound condition. Industry
was f1ourishing, but that was Democratic
prosperity and the Republicans, who had
prophesied. that the grass would grow in the
streets of our cities within a year If Wood
row Wilson were elected. were envious A
new word was coined and a new course was
charted. That word was Normally" and
was coined by Warren G. Harding. and we
made the start not forward. but backward
down that road. With burning feet we
walked out every hlistering rod OF 1t. We
did not know in 1920 that it would take
us II long years to travel that road down
to its disastrous and bitter end.
Mistake followed mistake and inaction was
added to inaction; the lines OF the unem-
ployed grew longer: prices OF farm products
sank lower and lower. At last industry
started closing down: factory chimneys
ceased to smoke; the bread lines heightened
and the soup kitchens filled up The banks
began to fail. During the eight years OF
Harding and Coolidge, 4,374 banks failed
in the United States, and during the four
years that Hoover served. 4,997 more failed.
Insurance companies declared a moratorium.
Business failures were on every hand. We
had no Deposit Insurance Corporation and
many Of our old folks, who lost their meager
life's savings in the closed banks and were
too old to start again. were left in a pitiable
plight indeed. Some Of them took their
own lives.
Benefits To Farmers Denied.
We farmers were selling wheat for 30
cents a bushel. corn for IL cents a bushel.
hogs at $2.75 hundred, butter fat for
hine cents a pound. and eggs for six cents
dozen; and no Republican raised finger
or voice to help US. A delegation Of farmers
had gone to Kansas City. not to demand.
but to implore the Republican Convention
that nominated Herbert Hoover, to put q
plank in their platform permitting relief to
agriculture. They were elected from the
convention hall 1t was then that they
came home to the party Of Jefferson, Jack
came from his foreclosure sales and his
sheriffs sales; from his taxes which he
could not pay: and his notes which he could
not meet.
Labor came also from the highways and
byways. from empty box cars. from Tobacco
Road, and from the vineyard where Re-
publicans had been growing the Grapes OF
Wrath. They came from the breadlines
and soup kitchens. but the Democratic Party
An,A hats Nd Thav
answered it with the legislation which the
Republican politicians chose to call the New
Deal and which Mr.. Hoover says marks the
way to collectivism. Road markers OF this
legislation are the insurance OF bank de-
posts that has ended the collapse OF banks
and old age insurance that permits man
who has served society for a lifetime to
spend the sunset years of his life free from
want and secure in the knowledge that he
will not become burden on his children
or be sent over the hill to the poorhouse.
Also UNEMPLOYMENT insurance that relieves
the worker from the constant fear that his
family will suffer If he becomes unemployed:
a farm program which cut farm interest
rates, raised farm prices, increased the
value OF farm land and tripled farm in
come; the Minimum Wage act, which took
men and women from the sweat shop and
raised the pay of millions OF workers and
reduced their hours of labor: the Security
and Exchange act which halted the sale
of wild cat securities and saves investors
billion dollars year: the Labor Relations
act which guarantees laboring men the right
to collective bargaining that Mr. Hoover'S
party is still trying to destroy. 1 mention.
too, the REA lines. which took the blessing OF
electric light and power out into the country
so that the hard working farm woman could
throw away the old oil lamp and have for
the first time in history, light. running water.
electric refrigeration and motor on her
washing machine at the turn OF switch.
Families Living Better Than Before.
These road markers are working so we'll
that we have not had bank failure in
several years. Farmers are receiving the
highest prices in peacetime history for their
food and fibre. Every American family IL
living better than it ever lived before. There
is more money in circulation than there
ever was before; there are more boys ana
girls in colleges and universities than ever
before; people own more cars and better
cars than they ever owned before. There
are more refrigerators, bathtubs, washing
machines and radios in the American homes
than ever before. Products of farms, fac
tories and mines stand at higher level
than ever before We have the biggest Navy
and Merchant Marine in any peacetime year
in our history. A
do not blame Mr.. Hoover personally
for the debacle that climaxed in 1882. He
was victim of the basic philosophy OF
his party-a philosophy that calls for tight
credit, high interest rates, low wages for
labor and low prices for the food and
fibre produced on the American farms The
opposite philosophy, the one Mr.. Hoover
deplores, calls for adequate credit, low in
terest rates, labor employed at good wage,
and parity prices for food and fibre pro-
duced on the American farm. This philos-
ophy has produced the greatest overall
prosperity this Nation has ever known.
GEO. H. CHRISTOPHER. M. C.,
Sixth District, Missouri.
Discusses Columnists in Terms
OF Sharp DisapprOval
Thomas l.. Stokes and Lowell Mellett.