Text of Barkley's Address as Permanent Chairman of Convention
- — -■. , ...» -*■ • ' - - :__
Republican Platform
Attacked, New Deal
Record Praised
Senator Charges G. 0. P.
Administrations Cut
U. S. Defense Sharply
CHICAGO, July 17.—The text
of the address of Senatqr Bark
ley, permanent chairman, deliv
ered last night before the Demo
cratic National Convention, fol
lows:
Fellow Democrats:
To the national committee which
recommended, and to this conven
tion which has chosen me as
permanent chairman, I express my
profound appreciation.
I shall endeavor to preside over
your deliberation with promptness
and fairness to the end that you
may consummate your task in dig
nity and good order.
We assemble here in circum
stances so uncommon, in the midst
of world disorders so unprecedented
and surrounded by domestic ob
ligations so compulsive as to charge
us with the duty of preparing our
Nation to meet consequences which
Will project themselves indefinitely
Into the unpredictable future.
The Democratic party has faced
one crisis after another during its
long and glorious history.
It has been tested in the crucible
of faith and achievement. It has
never faltered in its devotion to
the higher interests of the people
of America. It will not falter now.
But we do not come together in
any vainglorious spirit prompted
by the mere desire for a partisan
or personal victory. Unless by our
record in the past and our con
cept of duty for the future we are
equipped for the tasks of states
manship, we have no claim on the
American people for further pre
ferment.
Party's Accomplishments
And Record Praised.
The record we have made Is
Written in the history of the Re
public. While we lay no claim to
perfection and fulminate no pre
tensions that this record contains'1
no errors, nevertheless we con
template with pride the great tasks
we have undertaken and accom
plished in behalf of democracy and
those who believe in it and strive
to advance it.
Let us be equally unequivocal in
the program we shall here an
nounce, so that the American people
and the w’orld will know what we
think and what we propose to do.
The chief, if not the only reason,
for the existence of political parties
Is to afford a vehicle for the mould
ing and expression of public opin
ion and for the fixation of responsi
bility in the conduct of the public
business.
There have been occasions when
political organizations were afraid
to speak plainly or intelligently on
problems of transcendent import
ance to this Nation; when language
was employed not to convey, but
to conceal thought: when each
pronouncement made a frontal
attack on all others, and the whole
appeared to have been written In
mud by the migratory heel of a
weasel. Such is the platform
adopted by the Republican party
at Philadelphia three weeks ago.
It is the perfect example of the
uncertainties and ambiguities of
men who do not know where they
are going or what they will jio
when they arrive. The day on
which it was written was described
by Walter Lippmann as “black
Tuesday in Philadelphia.”
Republicans Chided
On Presidential Nominee.
Having assembled this political
ragout and found it without form
and void, its fabricators concluded
that what it lacked and needed
Was color. They wanted not only
color, but they wranted a variety
of colors. But while they wanted
color, they did not desire fast color.
They desired color whose changing
shades and shadows would be de
termined by the degree of regula
tion which a fearless government
saw fit to impose upon a vast em
pire of power hitherto uncontrolled
In its exercise of dominion over the
social, industrial and economic life
of millions of Americans. They
seemed unw'illing or afraid to nomi
nate any man who had been a
Republican for more than two years.
Hence, they chose a political
chameleon.
The Philadelphia convention
constituted the second charge of
the Light Brigade, in the heroic
Battle of Kilowatt.
It is not my province or my pur
pose on this occasion to attempt
any detailed review of the history
of the world or our own country
during the past eight years. Much
of that history has been spread be
fore our eyes with such kaleido
scopic rapidity as to render the
succession of events a little vague
to all but the meticulous historian.
It is no exaggeration to assert that
no similar period in our history has
been so crowded with engrossing
■ spectacularity or fraught with such
: consequences to our institutions or
■ our methods of life.
Our efforts here at home have not
• been inspired by the punitive desire
to set group against group or to
array section against section.* We
Inherited chaos eight years ago. We
Inherited fear, which was almost
universal We inherited lack of con
fidence, not only in private enter
prise, but in our public institutions.
The American people had been led
to the brink of a precipice by the
fallacies of a smug and blind re
gime, which found itself impotent
to draw back or to avert the dis
aster which it had contrived.
Financial Blight
Of Eight Years Ago.
This impotence had wrought its
devastation, not only in the field of
business and industry, but had set
a blight on all financial activities.
Banks and confidence in them col
lapsed. Wheels of industry were mo
tionless. The market places for
both money and commodities were
bereft of the constructive or profit
able activities. Agriculture drooped
and died from dry rot inflicted by
legislative and administrative in
competence, while the feet of 15,
000.000 American laborers wandered
in vagrant anxiety over the ques
tion of tomorrow's food and shelter.
Homes and firesides, millions of
them, which must be the sanctuary
of the true spirit of America, were
on the verge of permanent loss
through the cry of the auctioneer1.
Abuses of the financial, economic
and social realms of our existence
had grown so chronic that the Na
tion despaired of any constructive
or effective remedy against them.
The status quo became the law of
our being, and the Government imi
tated that backward-flying bird
which never knows where it is go
ing but can only see where it has
been.
American commerce with the
world, which in every great indus
trial nation has been and must be
a substantial portion of the yard
stick of its prosperity, had fled from
the seas and the marts of trade.
Encouraged by our own example
of folly, insurmountable barriers had
been erected by nation against na
tion through the effort of provin
cial minds to set metes and bounds
to the genius and initiative of man.
In our own hemisphere, peopled by
the children of those who had fought
for the creation of a new ideal of
democratic thought and cpndhct,
suspicion and fear, political and
economic, retarded the efforts to
consumate a solidarity essential fo
the preservation and protection of
the common interests of all the
Americas. +>
Effort to Restore
Faith in Democracy.
The effort of the past seven years
on the part of our Government has
been devoted to the task^of remod
eling the faith of our people in their
own brand of democracy.
We have heard much from com
placent throats in recent years
about free enterprise. The spokes
men of the Philadelphia assemblage
invoked the spirits of the departed
in behalf of free enterprise, and ex
President Hoover began his diatribe
by proclaiming it the duty of his
party to save America for free men.
He, of all men ought to cry for the
return of freedom, because he and
his regime fastened more shackles
on the physical, economic and spiri
tual aspirations of the American
people than any other group who
ever mismanaged the affairs of this
republic.
What freedom is it that we have
destroyed, and. by the same token,
what freedom is it that the platform
and nominees of the Philadelphia
convention will restore?
Is it the freedom to juggle and
manipulate and determine the value
of the securities of American corpo
rations in which millions of our
people have invested their savings?
Do they propose to destroy the
freedom we have guaranteed to
labor in the United States to sit
across a table from its employer on
terms of equality and bargain col
lectively over wages, hours and
working conditions?
Do they propose to restore the un
controlled freedom of some em
ployers to exploit employes by long
hours and low wages?
Attitude on Problems
Of Agriculture Asked.
Do they propose to remove from
agriculture the freedom to co
operate within itself- and with "the
Government of the. -United States
in securing a^largar. portion of the
national income' Tor the service
they render to society?
Do they propose to return thfc
American farmer to the income of
*932 instead of twfc* that income
which he hag received unde# the
New Deal? ■ ^
Mr. Hoover, who constitute the
remaining living symbol of Repub
lican wisdom, in his speech at the
convention, said the Republican
party was first to bring relief to the
American farmer. What he no
doubt meant to say was that Repub
lican leadership was the first to
bring the need for relief to the
American farmer.
What freedom have we destroyed
that they propose to restore?
Will they restore the freedom
of vast holding companies, draw
ing their substance from local
utilities and their consumers to
continue their depradations upon
the public, to prevent which the
Utility Holding Company Act was
passed over the vehement protest
of the present Republican candi
date for President?
In truth, the reason for the shift
ing of his political robes was the
enactment of this legislation, plus
the completion and development of1
a great natural resource in the Ten
nessee Valley, begun during the first
World War in the administration of
Woodrow Wilson.
Greater Uniformity
In Social Security.
Will they destroy or undermine
the laws we have enacted for the
aged and unemployed?
Will they restore the freedom as
well as the compulsion of old age
to descend to the grave in penury
and want?
Will they restore the freedom as
well as the compulsion of unem
ployed men to walk the streets in
search of work or take their places
in bread lines where they stood in
1932?
We have made but a beginning
in this great field of social security.
It is my opinion that we must
strengthen and simplify the law,
not only to provide greater assist
ance, but also to provide greater
uniformity in the benefits accruing
to those entitled to them under the
social security law. There ought to
be greater uniformity throughout
the Nation in the provisions for old
age pensions, and I am convinced
that this uniformity can be secured
only when the Federal Government
assumes greater responsibility tor
the administration of the benefits
which the law accord.
What is this freedom which we
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.
Do the Philadelphia guarantors
of a return of freedom propose to
abolish the Civilian Conservation
Corps or the National Youth Ad
ministration?
Rise In National Income
In Recent Years Cited.
The task which lay at our feet
seven years ago was a task of
restoration. It has not been com
pleted. But the ascent from the
depths of the valley has been con
stant and is still in progress.
Mr. Hoover, in his Philadelphia
exegesis, announced that the New
Deal had stabilized unemployment.
Having himself multiplied !! beyend
all pwvloagvcaicuiationi.'tve& %•
CHICAGO.—BARKLEY REVEALS PRESIDENT’S STAND—
Senator Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky, permanent chairman of
the Democratic convention, as he notified the convention Presi
dent Roosevelt had “no desire or purpose” to be a candidate for
renomiribtion, but that “all the delegates of this convention are
free to vote for any candidate." —A. P. Wirephoto.
ought to welcome some degree of
stabilization.
During this pretended eclipse of
free enterprise in America the na
tional income has increased from
38 billions to 71 billions of dollars
per annum. The last Republican
administration had reduced it from
80 billions to 38 billions and had
inaugurated that succession of an
nual deficits which they now pro
claim as the peculiar patent of the
Roosevelt administration. The fun
damental difference between the two
situations is that Roosevelt deficits
have been reflected in vast im
provements 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 80 cents on the
dollar to nearly one dollar and 20
cents, notwithstanding a substan
tial decrease in the rate of interest
which these obligations bear.
Total Indebtedness
Declared Decreasing.
During this same period the total
indebtedness of the American people
has decreased by more than 10 bil
lion dollars, which does not indicate
that they are headed toward pre
dicted bankruptcy.
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
R -necessary for us to borrow money,
and levy taxes which under normal
conditions would have been unnec
essary and undesirable.
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 22 billion dollars,
their total other public and private
debts have decreased by more than
30 billion dollars, and that during
this same seven-year period their
aggregate income has increased
four times as much as has the in
debtedness of the Federal Govern
ment.
All this has been done in order
to restore the faith of the Amer
ican people in their Government
and to emphasize the fact that our
Government is not an austere,
unapproachable, inanimate thing
off yonder in Washington, taking
no account of or interest in the
affairs of those who support it.
(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, it can
be made an instrument of service
under the stress of & great crisis.
Autocracy Rearing Head
In Many Parts of World.
Everywhere it 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 re
verse. 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. Blit we do know that
autocracy rears its Ugly face in
larger portions of the world today
than at any time since the forma
tion of the American republic, and
we do know that we are confronted
with the alternative of defending
and preserving our democratic in
stitutions as we have built them
and enjoyed them, or seeing them
confounded by the convergence 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
maw of grasping, greedy, totalitarian
states.
In the midst of these alterna
tives there is but one choice that
the American people can make
with honor to themselves and fidelity
to the traditions and principles for
which the Nation was created and
to which it is dedicated.
That choice is to fight against
those who would assault our terri
tory, our Independence, our ideals,
or our vital interests, or anything
which we are committed or pledged
to defend and preserve, whether
that assault is launched from a for
eign source or is instigated by dis
loyal or subversive influence with
in our own borders. ,
It cannot be denied that democ
racy was Ip sore need of this proof
'■at its efficacy and its power,
; Never before in our history has
President Does Not Wish
To Run Again, Says Barkley
Br the Associated Press.
CHICAGO, July 17.—The statement of Senator Barkley of Ken
tucky to the Democratic National Convention last night, outlining the
President's views on a third-term renomination, follows:
"I and other close friends of the President have long known that
he has no wish to be a candidate again We know, too, that in no
way whatsoever has he exerted any influence in the selection of
delegates or upon the opinions of delegates to this convention.
"Tonight, at the specific request and authorization of the
President, I am making this simple fact clear to this convention.
“The President has never had, and has not today, any desire
or purpose to continue in the office of President, to be a candidate
for that office or to be nominated by the convention for that office.
“He wishes in all earnestness and sincerity to make it clear that
all of the delegates to this convention are free to vote for any
candidate.
"That is the message I bear to you from the President of the
United States.”
democracy been under attack on a
wider front than during the last
decade.
For a century and more prior to
the World War, the races of men
were moving toward the goal of
freedom and self-government. Be
ginning with our own revolution
and a little later with the French
revolution, the theory of democra
tic institutions found acceptance in
all parts of the world. During this
century most of South America
established its freedom frpm Spain
and other foreign dominations un
der republican forms of govern
ment, patterned largely after our
own. France drove the last Bona
parte from the throne and estab
lished the French republic. China
proclaimed a republic throughout
her vast territory, and among the
far-flung elements of the British
empire a commonwealth of nations
emerged in which the people
strengthened their local institu
tions and extended their privileges
of independent action.
In the smaller nations of Europe,
even those which clung to the tra
ditions of monarchy, the people in
creased their power over and par
ticipation in their governments.
In Russia the Czar and all that
he represented were unhorsed in!
what was supposed to be a revolu-1
tlon of the people. In Germany,
the Kaiser abdicated and fled his
country following the establishment
of a republic. In England the
House of Lords was shorn of some
of its ancient prerogatives. In
Italy, the king became a puppet,
and in South Africa the principles
of self-government became an
established fact following the Boer
war.
Responsibility of Keeping
Freedom on This Continent.
We are charged with the re
sponsibility of determining for our
selves whether this democracy which
we have instituted and developed
is, first, worth preserving, and, sec
ond, whether we have the courage,
the fortitude and the intelligence
to exert the effort and make the
sacrifice essential to its preserva
tion. We must determine whether
the restoration of confidence in the
American system for which we have
labored these last eight years, after
all, was worth the effort, and
whether we are ready to announce
to all the world that, not only the
United States, but the entire West
ern Hemisphere has been dedicated
as a sanctuary for free men, and
that any effort from any outside
source to encroach upon it terri
torially, politically or by any other
form of insidious penetration will be
met by the total impact of all our
resources of men, money and mate
rial, until the encroachment and
those who undertake it shall have
been broken and driven back.
This does not mean that we de
sire war. It does not mean that
we do not cherish peace and good
will among all nations and all races.
It does not mean that we propose
to become involved in the military
conflicts among foreign nations. It
does not mean that we propose or
intend to send the armed forces of
this Nation to the battlefields of
Europe or Asia for the purpose of
determining military superiority
among the nations involved.
But it does mean that we pro
pose to see that at least one con
tinent on this earth shall be kept
free for the exercise of the indi
vidual and collective rights and priv
ileges of free men. It means that
we propose to hold fast to the doc
trine that the state is created for
the service of the people and not
that the people are created for the
exploitation of the state. Tor this
task we must be prepared, morally,
spiritually, physically, mechanically,
economically.
Disarmament Following
World War Recalled.
In the inept conglomeration,
called the Republican platform,
adopted at Philadelphia, we find
the following brilliant piece of fic
tion:
“The Republican party stands for
Americanism, preparedness and
peace. We accordingly fasten upon
the New Deal full responsibility fbr
our unpreparedness and for the con
sequent danger of involvement in
war.’’
No responsible political party ever
promulgated a more deceitful alibi
in all the history of political parties
in the United States.
Let us take a look at the record.
I do not reiish the necessity to
indulge in partisan dispute over the
question of preparedness. It oughtj
not to be a partisan question. But,
in view of the fact that the Re
publican platform seeks to make it
a partisan question, I am not afraid
to discuss it on that basis.
Following the World Wgr. the
nations sincerely sought peace and
disarmament. >
The United States, in the early
days of the Harding administra
tion, called thp Washington Dis
armament Conference. This con
ference was hailed as a great step i
toward lifting the burden of arma
ments from the people of the na
tions involved. War vessels were
sunk. Blueprints were tom to pieces
and ships under construction were ;
ordered scrapped. But following !
this conference it turned out that,!
under the administrations of Re-1
publican Presidents, our naval build- :
ing program did not approximate the I
ratio allowed by the agreement en- j
tered into. Our actual ratio began
to fall below that which the treaty :
allowed us to maintain. While oth- !
er nations built, we took a nose dive '
in the ratio of our naval establish- j
ment.
Agreements of Nations
To Banish War Cited.
Then came the so-called “Nine I
Power Pact" entered into by nine
nations during the control of our
Government by the Republican par
ty, under w'hich the construction
and maintenance of an adequate
Army and Navy were still further
retarded.
Then came the so-called “Briand
Kellogg Pact,” by which nearly all
of the nations of the world agreed
to renounce war as an instrument
of national policy.
This hope for world peace was
made the excuse for further reduc
tions in appropriations and in con
struction for our national defense.
I do not decry these efforts for
world peace. The American people,
in common with most of the peoples
of the world, sincerely hoped and
prayed that war would not again
drench the earth in Human blood.
But it cannot be claimed by those
who were then in power in this Na
tion that anything substantial was
done to build up or even maintain
the minimum requirements of our
national defense equipment.
In his address at the Philadel
phia convention former President
Hoover made the statement that
in the six years preceding the
Roosevelt administration the Na
tion had expended $680,000,000 a
year on preparedness, but that in
1934 Roosevelt had drastically re
duced expenditures for our defense
to $550,000,000, reducing the ap
propriation for the Air Corps alone
by $20,000,000; that President Roose
velt had reduced by 50 per cent the
commissions issued the graduates
of the Naval Academy; that the
National Guard had been reduced
in its appropriations and equip
ment; that the Roosevelt admin
istration had reduced th$ Regular
Army to the point of having only
75,000 fully equipped men in the
United States Army.
Replies to Mr. Hoover
On Military Reductions.
If Mr. Hoover had made these
misstatements of facts in the heat
of debate, we might excuse him,
but in these delicate and unsteady
hours of our Nation’s history the
people have a right to the truth
from one who has been honored
with the highest office within their
power to bestow.
Mr. Hoover did not make these
misstatements in the heat of de
bate. He made them deliberately
in the quiet, sequestered drawing
room where he composed his pre
pared address. But when he made
these statements he knew that it
was he who, in his budget message
to Congress for the fiscal year end
ing June 30, 1934, recommended
the reductions to which he refers
and they were*, made before he
retired from the presidency and
before Franklin D. Roosevelt as
sumed that office on the 4th of
March, 1933.
Istead of reducing the equip
ment for the National Guard and
the Regular Army, which had been
brought about under Mr. Hoover,
President Roosevelt recommended
and secured increased appropria
tions not only to restore the de
creases Mr. Hoover had brought
about, but to increase these
branches of the armed services
beyond the figures attained at any
time during the previous admin
istration.
Instead of having only 75,000, we
have 241,000 equipped soldiers in
the United States Army, and the
present Congress, on the recom
mendation and under the leader
ship of the President, has author
ized an increase to 375.000 men
and will authorize further increases
as fully and as rapidly as may be
required.
Military Expenditures
Of Last Seven Years Cited.
In view of the abortive effort of
the Republican convention to fasten
on the New Deal the responsibility
for any lack of adequate prepared
ness that may now exist and to elude
any portion of that responsibility, let
us make some comparisons.
During the seven years since 1933
our Government has expended $1,
300,000,000 more on the Army than
was expended during the previous
seven years.
In these same seven years, the
United States has expended $1,500.
000,000 more on the Navy than was
expended during the previous seven
years.
These expenditures were recom
mended and appropriated under
President Roosevelt and they were
made necessary largely because the
Republican administration had sore
ly neglected both arms of our na
tional defense.
During the last year of Wood
row Wilson's administration, when
Franklin D. Roosevelt was Assist
ant Secretary of the Navy, appro
priations for the Navy amounted
to $960,000,000. In the first year of
the Harding administration they
were reduced to $485,000,000. Dur
ing the 12 years of Harding, Cool
idge and Hoover they continued to
decline until the fiscal year of
1934. when they reached the in
significant sum of $266.000 000,
which was the last naval appro
priation enacted as Mr. Hoover was
about to retire from office.
During these 12 years not a single
battleship was laid down for con
struction and only 20 other types of
combat vessels, such as cruisers,
submarines and gunboats, were con
structed.
115 Combat Vessels
Built in Last 4 Years.
During the last four years we have
completed 115 combatant naval ves
sels. We have under construction
now 138 additional vessels, consist
ing of 10 battleships. 5 aircraft car
riers, 4 heavy cruisers, 17 light
cruisers, 61 destroyers and 41 subma
rines.
In addition to these vessels now
under construction we have pro
vided for the construction of enough
naval warcraft to give us the largest
navy in the world, sufficiently strong
to protect our interests in both the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans against
any aggressor from any source in
any part of this world.
What else does the record reveal?
When the naval appropriations
bill for the fiscal year 1939 was
passed in the Senate a majority of
Republican Senators, including the
Republican candidate for Vice
President, Senator McNary, voted
against it.
When in the spring of 1939, there
came before the Senate the bill in
creasing the number of Army air
planes from 5,500 to 6,000, a ma
jority of Republican Senators, in
cluding their present candidate for
Vice President, voted against it.
When in the Senate the naval ap
propriations bill for the fiscal year
1940 was adopted, nearly half the
Republican members voted agaiiut
it.
When in May, 1939, the naval
appropriations bill carrying $1,000,
000,000 for the Navy was before the
House of Representatives, of the 58
votes cast against it, 54 were Repub
licans.
When the House of Represent
atives was considering the Army
appropriation bill for 1940, four
amendments were offered by Re
publicans to reduce the sums for
signal service, ordnance and air
planes. Of the 150 members vot
ing for these reductions 145 were
Republicans. Only eight Repub
licans voted against the reductions.
Willkle Stand on Defense
Declared Unstated.
In the United States Senate one
of the Republican candidates for
President, Mr. Taft, urged an
amendment reducing appropriations
for the Army and Navy.by 35 per
cent; and so far as I have been
able to learn, the man who nosed
i
him out for the Republican nomi
nation, Mr. Wendell L. Wlllkie,
uttered no warning or advice to hia
newly-made Republican brethern on
the subject of national defense. He
was probably too busy talking about
balancing the budget and trying to
prevent the efforts of the Securities
and Exchange Commission to un
scramble his billion dollar utility
holding company omelet, and en
deavor to thwart the objective of
the great Tennessee Valley project
which was begun 22 years ago as
a part of our national defense pro
gram.
And as late as last Thursday in
the House of Representatives, when,
at the urgent request and recom
mendation of William R. Knudsen
and Edward Stettinius, member of
the Advisory Committee on National
Defense, and also at the urgent
solicitation of Mr. Dunn, a member
of the engineering firm which Mr.
Wlllkie consulted in his fight against
the Tennessee Valley Authority, an
effort was made to provide for the
construction of an additional dam
for the purpose of inaugurating
the speedy manufacture of neces
sary aluminum for the construction
of airplanes, the effort was blocked
by Republican members of the
House of Representatives.
In spite of these unfortunate rec
ords made by those whom the people
have trusted, I am convinced that
the vast majority of Republican
voters of the Nation are in full
agreement with the President and
those who are working with him on
his defense program and on his
foreign policy.
Mr. Roosevelt’s Efforts
To Avert War Recalled.
But what of our Involvement In
war?
The Republican platform me
chanics have sought to conceal their
own past attitude and record by
proclaiming themselves as simon
pure, 100 per cent, blown-in-the
bottle preservers of peace for the
American people.
No man who evef occupied the j
presidency of the United States ever I
strove more valiantly to avert the |
present war in Europe before its
outbreak than did Mr. Roosevelt.
No man ever condemned in more
unmeasured terms the wicked de
termination to resort to the brutal
force of arms in conquering peace
ful and friendly nations, or in set
tling any legitimate controversies
among the nations of Europe.
No political party or administra
tion in the history of this or any
nation ever made greater sacrifices
to avoid involvement in war than
have been made by the Democratic
party and its present administra
tion.
For more than a century we, as
a nation, have insisted on the free
dom of the seas. We have insisted
that our flag and every flag had
the right to sail the seas in time of
war, subject to certain rights of
search and seizure. We have in
sisted on the right of Americans
to trade and travel under an in
ternational law that had been rec
ognized for centuries. It was our
insistence on the observance of these
rights that finally drew us into the
World War in 1917.
Neutrality Law and Credit
Restrictions Are Cited.
But in order to avoid the possibil
ity or likelihood of our involvement
in this war through incidents in
capable of being foreseen, we have,
in the neutrality law recommended
by the President and enacted by a
Democratic Congress over the pro
test of the Republicans, prohibited
American ships to sail in belligerent
or dangerous waters or American
citizens to travel there, and we have
prohibited even the granting of
credit to belligerent nations and j
required them to pay cash for what
they buy and to transport it in
their own or other foreign vessels.
If the Republicans in Congress
had been successful in defeating this
legislation we might already be in
volved in the war which they pre
tend so much to fear.
But, notwithstanding the puny ef
forts of our antagonists to pitch this
campaign on the low level of narrow
partisanship, in the task that lies
ahead of us there is no room for
partisan rancor or personal aggran
dizement.
It serves no purpose now to blame
one man or group for not knowing
in advance what the world was com
ing to. But we, with all the world,
have learned our bitter lesson. The
events of recent years have brought
changes in our thought and attitude
which may be irrevocable. New oo
ligations fasten themselves upon us
as a Nation and as a member of the
sisterhood of nations.
In 1823, James Monroe proclaimed
the doctrine which bears his name.
Under that doctrine any effort on
the part of any foreign nation to
gain a foothold in America was to be
regarded as an unfriendly act and
Inimical to our safety.
That doctrine is even more vital
today than when it was uttered
117 years ago. We have qet the
Americas apart as a proving ground
for a new type of liberty and self
government in the world. We have
thus far defended, preserved and
extended it. But we cannot as
sume that wishing alone will con
tinue to make it so. We cannot as
sume that those who have no respect
for democratic institutions elsewhere
will respect them in America. They
respect only those whom they fear
or whom they know to be able to re
pel their assaults.
In these days of peril and un
certainty, we invoke the spirit of a
united America.
We shall expect to make sacrifices.
We shall expect to forego some lux
uries and conveniences. Already
the impact of world conditions has
colored our thoughts and remodeled
some of our conceptions and meth
ods of life. But it has not lessened
our resolution. It has not made us
afraid. It has not cowed the spirit
which discovered, populated, devel
oped and civilized this America of
ours. It has but served to strengthen
our determination and fortify our
resistance.
In the midst of these threats we
call on our people for unity. The
relationship between a people and
their government is not a one-day
thoroughfare. The obligations are
reciprocal. They call for that con
cert of soul and purpose which
knows no distinction of race, origin,
color or religion.
We know that Jew and Gentile.
Catholic and Protestant, white and
colored, rich and poor, native-born
and foreign-bom will rise in all
their might and holy zeal to guard
these portals against the fate which
has wrecked other peoples and other
civilizations.
To this high commitment we
pledge ourselves and all that we have
here undertaken.
In its consummation we Invoke
the guidance of God, who, we be
lieve, still sits upon His Throne,
still rules in earth and Heaven and
still holds in the hollow of His hand
the destiny of nations and of men.
Pennsylvania Envisions
Home Defense Corps
By the Associated Press.
HARRISBURG, Pa., July 17.—A
home defense corps will grow Into
existence if and when Pennsylva
nia's 14.000 National Guardsmen are
called into Federal service for ex
tended training, says Maj. Gen. Ed
ward Martin, adjutatnt general and
commander of the State troops.
A framework of officers in the
department of military affairs ex
ists for formation of local "home
guards,” who would be organized
and supported by local communities
and trained and equipped by the
State.
Enlistment would be voluntary, as
with the National Guard. The force
would consist largely of men outside
the conscription limits, those a little
below Army physical standards and
those exempted from the Army and
Navy for other reasons.
Created in Civil War days, the
reserve last was brought into be
ing during the World War. It
served until the National Guard
was reconstituted, about 1919.
Madrillon
Woah. Bldg., 15Hi b N.Y. Ave.
On Thursday
We Sene a
$1.60 Dinner at
*1
And even if it wasn't
maid's night out—
you'll want to come
to the Madrillon and
enjoy this special
treat:
Fried Chicken
Maryland Style
Served from 5:30 to 9:30.
Dinner-d tncing from
7:30. Supper-dancing, 10
to one, with
TWO ORCHESTRAS
—CARR and DON—and
TRIO LIRICO —playing
for unintorupted dancing
—in the delightfully cool
temperature of the
Madrillon.
Adelita Varela
Mietreee af Ceramaniee.
a ^ •‘"‘S'
Control Tlmo
Union Station Morning AHornoeg
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All alik* from Tip Top Tap to Boa vox Tail
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