Farmers Independent

CLEARWATER COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE

This column sponsored by the Clearwater County Democratic Committee.

A BETTER REPUBLICAN

"I am supporting Roosevelt in 1932, and I am a better Republican than either Herbert Hoover or Calvin Coolidge," says Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska, in the current edition of Liberty. Speaking further, Senator Norris says:

"The controlling of our government by special interests destroys Lincoln's dictum of government "of the people, by the people, for the people." If Lincoln were in politics today he would be probably denounced as a Bolshevist for uttering these memorable words, which express with sublime simplicity the basic principle of Republican government-the principle for which Governor Roosevelt stands.

"If Lincoln were alive today he would support Governor Roosevelt. 'Big business and Mr. Hoover would agree with Lincoln in the first of his three propositions. But they would disagree with him on the others. They would say with Lincoln: "the government of the people." But at that point they would vary the text. Big business wants a government of the people by big business. And because I cannot subscribe to this doctrine I cannot support Herbert Hoover.

"I support Franklin D. Roosevelt on a wet platform, in spite of the fact that my personal predilections are dry. I am seventy-one years of age. But I am not too old to learn, nor to admit an error. I cannot conceal from myself the sad fact that the noble experiment has ceased to be either noble or an experiment. We need no further trial to convince us that prohibition has failed.

Other things being equal, I might have supported Herbert Hoover on a dry platform. I might have supported him on a wet platform. But I could not support him on the dubious plank which, with the aid of Federal office holders and the delegates from the rotten boroughs of Republicanism, he forced upon a hamstrung convention.

"Mr. Hoover is the Janus of politics. One face beams upon the drys another smiles equivocally upon the wets. He has learned the art of carrying water on both shoulders. At present, he carries upon one shoulder a pitcher of water, while upon the other he balances a jug painted to resemble a pitcher of beer. I do not like Mr. Hoover's attitude on the subject of beer. I relish even less his attitude on water and water power. Mr. Hoover would be perfectly willing to dispense beer to the people if he could turn over the water in the land to the special interests. Mr. Hoover is always two-faced, always equivocal, except when he champions big business. With a singleness of purpose worthy of a better cause he plays the devoted henchman of high finance. One eye in each of his faces, no matter what his lips may say, always winks understandingly at the power trust and at Wall Street.

"I take my stand with the Republicanism of Lincoln against the Republicanism of Hoover. What does it profit us if we strike the chains of slavery from the black man and then allow powerful monopolies to forge the same chains upon our own necks?

"Lincoln emancipated the black slaves. Hoover refuses to take a single step to free the white-collar slave, the wage slave, and the agricultural slave.

"I have often spoken out when I might have been silent. The worst sin that can be committed by a public official is to remain dumb when it is his conscientious duty to speak. If that makes me a bad Republican, then I glory in being a bad Republican. I am a bad Republican solely because I believe that President Hoover's attitude toward every vital problem that faces the Republic is wrong and that on most of these questions Mr. Roosevelt is right. Wall Street and the power trust will disagree with me."