The Daily Alaska Empire

The Next President.
(New York World-Telegram.)

We feel that the Nation will be better served if the Hoover Administration is not returned-that it has been and is an administration of failure.

Despite the effectively critical and enlightening campaign of Norman Thomas, the Socialist candidate, who promises to poll an extraordinary vote, the defeat of President Hoover must mean the election of Governor Roosevelt.

Whether a Roosevelt Administration can meet the challenge of the national crisis we do not know. We merely know that he and his party offer a fresh start and, we believe, a better chance.

Since Governor Roosevelt has yet to prove himself a great leader, since the men in his party with whom he must work in Congress have yet to demonstrate outstanding leadership, we cannot underwrite a Roosevelt Administration in advance. But we can say that Governor Roosevelt's expressions of political philosophy are expressions of the philosophy in which we believe. We quote him:

There are two theories of philosophy and of wellbeing:-

First, the theory that if we make the rich richer, somehow they will let a part of their prosperity trickle through to the rest of us.

The second theory-That if we make the average of mankind comfortable and secure, their prosperity will rise upward through the ranks.

Those words of Governor Roosevelt, as the advocate of the second theory, are the words of a liberal.

We can only trust that his deeds, should he become President, will live up to his words. This Nation has had its fill of that other noble experiment of prosperity by percolation.

As Liberals we have supported Governor Roosevelt, in New York as Governor and as Presidential candidate, whenever he was on the liberal side.

We shall continue that policy during the campaign, and if he enters the White House. It is our hope that he and his party will merit such support increasingly.

Fortunately for the country, both Governor Roosevelt and his party have developed in constructive liberalism recently. At the Chicago Convention the divided and partly reactionary Democratic Party united on the shortest, clearest and most progressive platform ever pledged by either major party.

Since then Governor Roosevelt, by actions and words, has overcome much of the evasive tendency which marred his earlier record.

After initial delay, he handled the Walker-Tammany menace to clean government with courage and wisdom. He has been forthright on Prohibition repeal and Volstead modification. His campaign speeches show that he has an intelligent approach to such difficult problems as tariff, taxation, railroads, public utilities and power.

His basic philosophy of government, as outlined at San Francisco, is that of the progressive committed to a more equitable and efficient distribution of wealth, thereby to provide a mass market for mass production.

There remain many important issues on which Governor Roosevelt is not committed or not clearly-the bonus, civil liberties, debts, disarmament, foreign policy and others. There remains also the mediocre character of most of the Democratic leaders in Congress, which is the chief handicap to a successful Democratic Administration.

Therefore we, as an independent newspaper, are in the same position today as that of the independent citizen. We have no desire to become mere bandwagon riders. We have no desire to go partisan and join in a political ballyhoo.

We can do better than that. We can and will continue to challenge Governor Roosevelt and his party if they fail to live up to their pledges of liberal leadership, but we will continue to fight for them when they are fighting for the political philosophy in which we believe, and to which they have committed themselves.