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Uo. 4- -1754
1-J
THE
WO R KS
PROGRAM
***
...
- -Wor ks Progress Administration--
For Release on Deliv8ry,
Tu,➔ s day , AU,f;ust 30 th, 1 938
"Th e Essence of Democracy"
The foll owing address was delivered by Harry L . Ho_pkins, Ad.ministra to r of the Works Progr es s .Administration at the banquet of t he 1;ortheastern Confe rence of Deno cratic
Wonen
at Bos t on , Eass .
The addr es s
was broadca1t f r om the Sta tl e r Hotel , from 8 to 8 : 30 P .M., Ee.st e rn Sta ndar d
Time , ov3r the Blue n etwork of the Nat i onal Broadcastin::; Comriany .
I want t o say at t he out trn t tha t I am imY.' r ~rnsec. at t he :,1 rray of
Demo c r a tic women '}f this r egio n who i.1av e assemble0. hrne f or t h is tw8-day
Institute of Gov e rnment .
The i n t ere st y ou are showing i n t he affairs of yol:r party
and your go v e rnmen t is not s1.:r pr is ing to-lay , b,1t i t is impressive. .
Six o r seven y ears ago i t w0uld have ·oeen surp:dsing .
democ r acy is working .
3ut to ,i ay Ollr
Today t he r e i s wider int e r es t end partici p:=>-t i on
in the d.emocrE:tic proce ss ·of go"Te r::'!t1e:'lt, by -mo:::-e '!_) eo_ple, t ha n at any
tim8 in our r e c ol lections, i f no t in the ent ir e his t or y .of the nation .
Why i s t:1is t rue ?
It i s t rue because t he people of t hiB
country have found out, virt1:i.ally for the first time, that they c;:i.n employ
their go ve rnment for t l1e purpose of solvirg vital , pra,c ti cal d emo cratic
problems.
I t is true be .:::aus•"l the a.c tual practice of demo cracy has b een
revived and spurr <: d to n ew heigl1ts by the most insp i ring l eadership of
our time .
It is e ntirely rig:i-it a nd •}"!roper for us t o me et here , to app rais e
what has bee n dor,e during the fiv e and on e-half y ears our :,arty has been
at the nat ional helm , and to for e cast what it hopes to do dur i ng the
coming two and one-half y ears .
Officials of t he Administration have not only the right , but
the duty , to discuss ~ubli c measures f ul l y and frankly with the electorate .
That is the v ery essenc e of democ r at ic action, and I wish t o s ay tha_t it
has been advanced immeasurably both by the development of rad i o itself ,
and by the fai r po lici es of t ho s e who control thos e facilities .
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I bel i eve it is ent ir el y p r oper for De to p r esent the case in
b ehalf of t he Ad.mi nistration as pe r s,J.asivel y ;:i,s I know how .
It is fo r
you to r e j 9ct, if somebod~r else makes a different cas e which is more
to your liking .
That is democracy -- the freest, fullest possible
presei1tation of facts to every vot er , upon which he then can bRse his
independent decis i on .
But the ques ti on of administering any of the nation's affairs,
und t1 r the law, is q_ui t e another matt er .
In t his adi'1linistration t he r e
must be no discrimination and no co erc ion .
sinc e r ely and eF.trnestly in the WPA.
I h~ve stated our pos iti on so many
timi.::S that you must know it by heart.
work from the WPA .
No one need b e a Demo crat to ge t
No one is fir ed from the WPA for t he wa-;;r he votes
or does not vote.
its rF.tnks .
We have made tha t fight
The WPA will not t ol en1te political activity within
WPA wor ke rs are free men and women , however , who are just
as much entitled to t he ir ovm opinions as any other American citizen,
and they rlo not dwell in a vacuum; t hey a re just as subject t o influenc e
and solicitation outside the WPA as a nybody els e .
But within this
organization it is as cl ean as honest , earnest effort can make it, and.
I have not the slightest apology foy it.
The same impartiality ho Es for all Federal agencies .
Your
political beliefs or party affili a tions have nothL.6 what ever to do
wi tl1. whether or not you can insure ;your bank acc ount, or get a farm
or home loan, or old age benefj_ts or unempl oyment ins"Lirance, or any
of the other Fede ral services .
The present low i nt erest rates on
mort gages do no t va ry according to po litical fai t h .
The law against
the sale of bad stocks and bonds prot ec ts Republican and Democratic
inves t ors alike .
Perha:9 s, indeed it nrotects the Republicans more ;
they seem t o have more money .
All this is only eleme ntary obedience to the laws and the
Constitution of the United States.
Congre s s ena cts the laws for the
benef it of the who le peopl e , and the Pres ident swears to execute those
laws faithfully .
If they are not faithfully executed., the Pr esiden t
as well as subordinate executive officials may b e impeached by Cong r ess .
And if the people ar e not satisfied with the President or the Congr0ss,
they may change eithe r or both at the ballot box .
On the othe r hand, it is just as cl early an American tradi ti on
that ever y administra ti on bears the st3.Illp of a political party, enac ting
and adm i nist ering its pr ogram as a :party res:9onsibility.
7{ e
say a par ty
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is in power when th,3 Deopl e ~1ave entrusted it with a term of office .
And it is just as traditional that the par ty in po,.ver then had t he
r9sponsibility not onl7 of carrying through its program, but of
e~::ilaining its moves a.,.,d objectives to the soverei,~n pP-ople .
EverJ ad.ministration in this nation 1 s history has taken
its case to the people, listing its ach iev Aments and answe ring its
critics .
To fail to do so would not preserve our tradition, but
would vi olate it .
Yet rec ently t hsre has been an organiz ed attempt to misrepr crnent t h is trad.i tion , and to imJ ly that it is dishon,:)s t or unfair for
adLlinistra.ti v e officials t o r ep o t·t on the ·o enefits ar:.1 pur poses of the
program to the people .
It is cha rged that th ose r 2~)o rts ar e a way of
co e rcing the b eneficiaries of the p rogram int o votinf: for the ad.m i n istration.
If, for exwnple , I suppor t my :party end i ts ,irog:::c?Jn out loud,
I am co e rcing WPA worlrn rs .
If s ~crc tar;;r Wa ll2c o def. r.,,yj_s the ar ricul tural
program he is admin i s tering , he is in som8 occnl t wc1,y inte:rferL1:_".'. ·,vi t :1
the freedom of the ballot ciITlOnf, farmP-rs .
This claim is so absu.rri thc,,t, save ::or it ·; c ,, nsta.r~t r -3:pe ti tion
b:v the opposition , it would not •i es erv e an 2,ns~·er .
This is by no mea.rs the first a.d:ninist:ration that has carried
tllrouf3:h impo rtant ponular b ene : it c: .
~-'1:'.. e '.7:~igs ha d a v :,Lst :9 rograrn of
highways, canals, dams and. o thc, r i. :c.teL'lal im:prov8m'9nts .
The Re:91..1.b licans
under Lincoln and Grant r:,ave away vast numher,; of fre e homesteads .
1:ver~r one of these ad.ministrations dis.:!ussed its pro6ram ·oefore
tho voters , as it had every right to c.o .
Yet this ac.m i r..istrat i on is
chi.1.rged wi tl1 coerci on t he momen t it att<?mpts to 1Jo int out how well it
has lookf:id out · for t h e int erests .) f g r eo..t masses of the peop le -- of
business men, of the unemployed , of the f a rmers, of Am e rican labo r and
of all the people gene rally .
Well, we ref1J.se to be the first Adr.'linis-
tre.tion in American history to be muzzled c.nd gagged .
It is a strange servic e to democ racy, indeed, which se eks to
throttle fr ee discussion of public affairs by respons ible off icials .
The suppression of facts during a pol itical campaign may be proper
tactics for some countries, but it has no place in free Am e rica !
What is the New Deal program we are here to discuss?
has been it s guiding p l an and purpose ?
What
What, indeed, we re the conditions
it faced at t he outset?
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The economi s ts talk of the pro s tra te c ondition of t he country
in the spring of 1933 in terms of exces s ive ir1ventories, indices of
production and of unemployment, the volume of bankrup tcies and of bank
closings, the outflow of gold and the acti on of stock prices.
wha,t did all that mean to you and me?
But
What did we se e about usf
We saw mil~ions of people begging for a chance to work , even
begging for food .
We saw families breaking up as the various memb ers
who no longer wanted to be a burden to ea.ch other se t off t o forage
for themselves as best they could .
We saw children una'ble to continue their schooling -
many
because they had neither clothing n0r f ood , othors b e cause t he scho ols
themselves clos ed up, still others be cau se they could earn a f ew
dollars undercutting adult workers in the mil~s of uns crupulous
employers.
We saw an army of j ()blo s s y outh, t aking to . the r oads and the
freight trains and the hobo jungl e s , or drifting into crime.
We s aw
homes, acquired thr ough yenrs of sacr i fic o end hall owed by f amily
memori e s , invaded by t he s heriff,
Th os e homes hc',d b een planned as the
havens of old age , in t he instinctive human s truggle for se curity ,
We saw
an almost endless li s t of s avings account s swept av1ay as lit eral ly
thousands of banks collapsed~ and the whole banking sy s tem t hreatened to
go under.
We saw farmers, the backbone of American individualism, in armed
and open revolt against the auctioneers who came to off er to the highes t
bidder their lands and their l ivelihood.
Above all , everywhere, we s aw f ear .
Fear pervaded not only the
joble ss and the de stitute , but it reached out to touch those whQ_still
had jobs •.
Ther o wa s such fear , in so r:iany quart ers, tha t it s e emed a.s
t hough the whol e pe op le wr::, re willing to give up their liberti e s , the ir
traditions , their institutions -- anything -- for some sort of s ecur i ty .
Do you doubt it?
It has happrm ed repeatedly in Europe .
In such an atmosphere , Franklin D. Roosevelt became Pr es ident .
Business was pleading for goverrunental a ction.
Rich and p oor, wer e U.'1 i ted
by common bond of fear behind the new l eader.
They looked to him for t he
answer .
It looked a s if the v ery democra tic process wa s whi--iped , for t he
moment at least .
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What d id the P r es i dent do ?
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He set about , with the leade r s of
h i s party , to -pl an a way out that wou l d restore oppo r tuni t y M d a c er t a in
amoun t of securi ty without the loss of po r sonal li be r ty , without
the sac r ifice of n:iy of our che ri shed democr at i c i ns titu ti ons .
I b el i eve f ew r easonabl e pe r sons will ques t ion the stnteme:i t
tha t t he Ur..i t e d St/:1.,tes , in the fiv e ar.d a ha lf yer.-,r s s i n c e , has advanc ed
fur ther toward t hat di ff icul t dua,l obj e c t i ve - secur i ty in democracy t han i n t he ent ire p r evi ous h i s t or y of t he c ou n try .
The l ee,de r ship of your pL,.rty and mi ne f a c e d a p r act ica l
d emocra tic p r obl e m.
It r ealiz ed t hat mi l li ons of bitt e r and desper~t e
peopl e wan t ed ac ti on
no t c ommitt ees e,nd phil osophy a nd f i ne d i s ti n ct ions
as t o why t h i ngs c ou ld no t bo d one .
I t saved h omo s D,nd f a r ms fr om fo r e-
c l osur e .
It put i dl e y•,) u th t o wor k or
I t i nsur e d bank a cc ount s .
back i n s chool t hr ou gh t ho CCC a n d the NYA.
It ou t l awe d wo r thl ess se cu ri t i es .
It l oa110d money t o r eopen schoo l s .
It gave j ob s t o milli on s of willing JJE'O}) l e vrho C'.)u ld find no
p riva t e wo r k t o d o .
Through wo rk, was t ed hu.ma..'l r esour ces wo r e employed .
J obl ess women made c lothes f or r agge d c h i lcl ren , an d canned surpl us foo d
fo r t he hungry .
They se rv ed milli on s of n ouri shi ng sch ool lunches .
They opei1cd t hous and s of new libra,ri e s , and t2.ught a miJ.li rm illit e r a t e
adult s t o r ead c=tnd ,vr i t e .
J obl ess me n wo r e put t o wo r k build i ng f',nd
r epairi ng school s , i mpr ovi ng l ong-negl ec t ed r u r a l r oad_s , f i ght ing
ma l a ria and. t ypho i d , bui l di ng a ir1)ort s and bri d.ge s a nd par ks .
:But mor e v ita l t han Ftll t he wo r k t h ey did , i s t he s imp l e fa ct
t ha t peopl e had JOBS .
A.-rid t he whole vas t Fe d e r al p rog r a m knitt ed it s elf
mor e fir mly toge t he r , mon t h by month and y ear by y ear , int o wha t ?
Into
t he b eginning of a patt e r n of se curity an d. t h e reopening of opportunity fo r
a l l citi zen s .
The ri ght to a job .
Educati on .
Health .
De cen t h o~ s ing .
Aid for old p e ople and. the unemployed. a n d. the blind 1:1.nd for d epe nd ent
ch ildre n .
Purchas ing- p owe r fo r t he cus tomer s of our me r cha nt s a nd
manufa ctu rers .
Pr ofit s to bus ines s .
Pa rity for f a rm p ric e s .
from l oan- s harks a nd ba d se cur iti es a nd s haky b311ks .
A fl o or under · wage s r1.nd c e iling ov e r hour s .
O})p ortun i t y by a curb on mon opoly .
Prot e cti on
Col l e ctiv e b a r gaining .
Fr ee compe titi on a nd wider
Not all of these t h ings a r e c omp l e t e ,
but t hey a ll have be e n b egun .
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The effect of t h i s progr am was to se t the wheels of America
humming aiain.
The nn tional income moved upward from forty billion dolla rs
in 1932 to over seventy billions in 1937 -- a n increase of 75 per cent .
The fear was gone .
We know it is gone , because the s trength of our new mor ale
and machinery was t es ted by the bus iness decl ine which began l as t October ,
and out of which we a re now happ ily emer ging .
of the old panic .
There wer e no runs on the br>nks .
negligibl e , a.rid sma ll depo s itors wore in sured .
went to work .
That r ec ess ion r eveal od none
The WPA expanded a little .
Bank f a ilur es we re
Unemployment in surruic e
The vicious .spiral of dcflc1. ti on
did nnt kt,ep moving downward , with its progressive circl os of f ewer people
at wo r k , l ess money to spend, reduced proQuction, st i l l more people out
of vrnrk , sti ll l es s buying , and so on .
I ns tead, the su s t a ined purchas ing
power and confidence enabled business to cle<'- r its she lves of exces s go ods .
It w2.s inevita ble t ha t such a tr emendous pr ogr am v,ould r eveal
weak spo ts a t which our political o:9ponents could take aim .
I find no
fault with their a ttacking it at any po int they think it is vulnerab l e .
That , too, is the way the great American game of pol itic s i s ple,yed.•
But I think we have a ri ght to call t hem out, with the .Amer ican
people s itting as a jury , and s ay to them, 11 This sniping at the New Deal
is al l ri ght.
We have our faults .
But if you were cal l ed upon t o
replace the Admi n istrat ion t omorrow , what would your p rogram be? 11
You can hunt in vain for a n answer thr ough a whole library of
speeches , statements and int ervi ews that have come from t he oppos iti on
in the pas t five years or, for that matte r, the pP. '.' t e i ght years.
In a ll this myriad of pol i ti cal v erbi age , howeve r, ther e is
one constant r efrain :
"We mus t r estore confide nce" .
And wh,m you l ook
at sugges tions of how to do it, you find it has a diffe r ent meaning
each time it i s uttered .
To some it me~ns the r emoval of all gover nment
r estrictio:lS , whi ch we think of as the rul es of fair plny • . To mnny
it mo1:;.ns shifting the tax burden· fr om hi gh incomes t o the common man .
To stock m0.rkot spe culator s it mee.ns tho r open.l of the saf eguards thr own
around the inves tor I s money , and t o a hundr ed other cat egor i es of peo·pl e
it mo2.ns a. hundr ed other things .
My own opini 0n is the. t c0nf idonce - by which they moan busi"10ss
confid enc e - is a pr oduct of pr of it s ,
Business has lots of it when
pr ofits a r c high , a nd hl'.S a l a ck of it when ·Jr of i ts a re l on .
Fr om my own
observation I would further say that the ',7heel of business turns not only on
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confidence , but also on money in the pockets of the general public .
W'nen
the great mass of our people ha ve money to spend , business i s good ; when
they don 't have any money , busine s s is bad .
The p olici e s of government
wh ich make for good bus i ness are therefore found no t only in those that
r elat e t o the restorati on of c onfidence , i mpor t ant as that may b e , but i n
t hose which act t o aid t o the purchasing power of peopl e .
Arid I want to
make it pe rf ectly cl ear .that I do not beli eve t ha t purchasing power can be
adequately increased merely by government expenditur es .
It is only by the
combined effort of business , l ab or , and government to incr ease pr oduction
that an eff ective ri so in the national inc ome can be attained .
We must not f or get that f or thr ee years prior to 1933 our friends
gave us the confidence treatmen t.
They even J.eft orders tha t unemployment
figur es should be hushed up in order not t o di s turb the trea t men t .
They
reduc ed surtax ra tes , t hey r e'1uced wages , they tre.mpl eci unon the ri 5 h t s of
col 7..ecti ve bargaining .
They clidn I t give any :!i'edr.,ral r Plief , but t 110y
i ssued statements about rugged inclivid.ua lbm .
They wooed prospori ty by
all the magic spells of the economic sooths~rers .
One mi ght paraphras e a famous quot at i on from Shakespeare and
say :
We , too , can u se all the se magi c inc;:;,nta ti ons .
the spirits from the vas ty deep .
We , to,) , can invoke
But will the spirits answer us any
more than t hey answered Mr . Boover and hi s fri ends ?
The opposit i on final ly realiz ed , in 1936 , that it needed a
positive and c oncrete program, so it hired a brai n trus t .
One memb or
of t his brain trus t -- Pr of essor Thomas Nixon Carv er , who spent mrwy
year s ri ght across the river fr om here
di,i bring fo r ward a plo.n .
It was not exactly an Awc rican pl a n -- it was base d on the philos ophy
of certain f oreign gov ern:,rnn t s , wh oso lea ders , he said
11 ar e
nore far s eeing than t he rest of usn .
points to his plan .
a nd I qu•'.) te
Ther o were two e ssential
He said the way to cut down t he c os t of relief was
t o f orc e the unemployed off the relief roll s by what he call ed
r egulations" .
11
sever e
And then he said t h e r eas on we have un employme nt is be-
cause too many unintelligent peopl e ar e being b orn , s o we s1wuld sterilize
those who arc unfit , a nd r efuse to l e t an;v coun.l e ge t marri ed who ca.n 1 t
aff ord to own and operate an automobile .
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'.;;:ie publ i c r eaction to tr.a Carv0r 'J l. nn was so strons:; t~at
it r ut an end. to iie:publican brain trust activitie s for quite a wriile .
But r ecently a new brain tr c:.s t was c:..· eated unier t l-. e l ea.d.e rs h i :9 of
Dr. Glenn irant-c ,
He a l so got a lot o f 11is conc.iti oning i n Boston .
Afte r the experience of Profer~sor Ca rv e r , Dr . Frank was
t oo cauti ous t o
COL1Jni.. t
himself to a concret e p lan.
But he did d.8li v er
h i~se lf of a p i eca of rhe t oric which I would like you t o consider .
Ee e,sked ev e rybody who was d. isc ontented to join him in ·ouilding a
nation i n which
I quote
11
t he government wo uld. be afraid of the
people , no t th0 people afraid of tte govo rnrnent . 11
:B'ancy tha t .
On tho l a st o ~casion v::1,m we hacl a no.tional
test, which was less than two yPars c,go , t i:w o nly peop l e who s oemoa.
v e ry afraid wer e thos o of 1'.fainc a nd. Ve rmont .
Ind,:,o d , t:1c .:'l.me ric ::m
?Ooplc sot something like an a ll-timo r eco rd for b e ing unafra id .
Dr . Frank has a ou ee r slant on t he peoD l e and th8 government .
Ee seems to t hink that somehow theJ are r iva ls or op:9o sing forces ,
with one a lways va6"U.ely afraid of the other .
'i'o me it
eouEds like
po-~Jpycock , unl ()ss the gowcrnment is b e ing f a ls e t o the maj0ri ty and
serving t he int Are s ts of only a f ew.
If a go v e rnme nt wl1 ich has come
honustly int o pov,er w.'J rks hones tly for the -popula r 6 ood , th e r e should
be no g r ound for f ,-:,ar o n e i th c r s i de .
The 01ypo si tion r eally spGnds v ory littl e time offr ring
sugge stions 0ve n as constructive as thes e .
Eost of t:he time it is
raisi ne frightful bugab oo s - ·- of r evolution, o f dict a torshi p , of the
collaps e of our so cial insti tutions .
You hav e h eard many tim e s how
t h is Ad.m i :nistrat ion has s o t class against cl a ss, hns und e rmined
workers ' d iscip line , has e ncoura ged icU e11ess , has brought about
d.isr e s -oe ct for aut ho rity, jo-o and p roperty .
how old such charges are .
I wonder if you lmow
They were lev e led against Lincoln .
were lev'3led aga:Lns t Jackson .
They
They wer e the ground on which the
Am e rican Revolution itself was condemned .
Le t me quo te from a sermon
delivered in revoluti onary times by a Tory cl e r gyman named J onathan
Boucher :
~The r e nev er was a t i me when a whol e peo~l e wer e so littl e
gov Grnea. by settled 6 ood p rinci p l e s , •• Both empl oyo rs and t~1e Gm~ loy ed , t o their mutua l shame , no longe r live togethe r with attachmen t
and cordiQlity .
The l Qboring class e s, inst ead of reg~rding the rich
as the ir guardians, -patrons and b s nefo.ctors , now l ook on them ns those
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wh o1, it is no den e ri t to 11\/ r ong .
The l owe r classe s, instead of being
industri ous, f rugal and o rde rl:>-· ( virtues so
peculiarly "becoming to
t h e ir stat i on in life ) a.re b 8c om0 i d l e , improvi dent , and d i ssolut e . 11
Excep t for a c e rtain stiffnes s of language, doesn 1 t t h is
sound f am ili ar ?
When P r e sident Roose v elt call ed the backbon e of the
oppo s ition Tori e s and e c onomic r oyal ists , h is t erms were more a::it,
p e r :1aps, t han man;r pcoi;,le rea liz ed .
Twic e before in Ameri can
histo r y , as New England knows bett e r· than any other s e cti on, t::1e
-oeo:9l e we re cal l ed upon t o brea'.t with outwo r n i ns ti tut ions i n the
interest of t he national we lfare .
In 1776 they had. t o br eak wi t ;:i :O ri t is n dominat i on .
But
in t ~1e years of c ol onizati on c e rtain men g rew rich a nd povl8rful
through allianc e nitl1 the :Sritis:1 exp l o it e rs ~- men who i n t he ir
emi n e nc e f or go t the ir early stri.1g 6 l es and looked more to their own
s e lfish int e rests thEm t o the gene r a l n eed f or lib e rt y and justic e .
Ths se men , who scoff e d a t popular fr eedom a nd h~ ld ti ghtly t o t h e
fancied s e curi t ~r o f t h•3 r oyal ap r on s trings , 1.ve r e c a ll ed Tori e s .
Th ,?y c ou ld n o t s t and the New D,::,al of 1776, a n d many of them p ick e d
u-u and mo v ed t o Canada .
In 1861 there ,ms a s imilar grou p i n t he North which was
n o t o!lly wi l ling , but eager, t o s e e the natio21 spli t in half -- in to
two s eparat e coun tries -- on t he i s sue of s l a v e ry .
Tho se ue r e t he
Co:9pe r heal'i.s .
The s tr eamlined To ry of 1 938 bear s many r esembl a nc es to
the To ri e s your forebears kne w here i n Ner! Eng land .
He t oo ha s lost
t ouc h r;i th the 6 r eat J)h il osophy 011 which t :1i s country was f ound.ed ,
has f o r g-Jt t e n the early sacrifice s he r e in thi s r egi on i.vhich ma de his
p r esen t pos i t i on pos sible .
It occur s t o me that perha9s I am b e ing u nfcir in demanding
tho.t the op::-,-io si t i o n 9r opose a substitute :9 r ogram .
it to be false t o
:i_t
s mos t fundame nt a l b e li e f .
I may b0 ask i ng
Basically it beli e ves
tho:c the g ove rn:nen t should do virtually no thing but d e liver the m:1il.
But doing nothing i s not a v e ry e xc iting pol icy i n tim e s li ke these ,
and the refo r e it must spend a g r eat deal of its tim e sniping a t the
acti vi t i es of the party t ha t does s omFJt h i ng .
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I am s ure that none of us he r e has any objection t o t he
old line Republicans -- t hat i s , not much .
them arouncL
It is convenient t o hav e
When ther are b usily runniYig around the count ry ext olling
the ho rs e and. buggy , or hangi ng the ir figurative witches , t hey serve
t o clea r the atmosphe r e .
They are living remind.e ra of ho w we should
avo id a r ecur renc e of 1930 , 31 a nd 32 .
·I believe i n the party syst em.
I do not believe in the
t o talitarian s tat e , with i ts single party and. t otal a'bs e nce of
criticism.
I don I t wa n t t o vot e in t~e same party ~) rimar.1 , or for
the same candidat e s , as any man whose :unctam=m tal uo li ti cal vi e,;s are
o ppo sed t o mine .
Sven ts in the last decade have int e rfered. ter:1porarily with
the party system.
The Eoover d eT, r e ssi on was so te:-ri ble , and tile
people got such a bitter t as t e of do-nothing 0 ov e rnm en t dur ing J.930 ,
1931 , and 1932, t hat the oyr9osition was vi r tuu.1 1:-i- annit.il2.,tec..•
Because the R8publicans had no r ,:m,~ona1,1e ho•, p of succe:::.s thrm1gh
the ir own )arty ; they have attemptetl t o tr::rnsf e r t h eir atten ti ons t o
t he Democra tic par ty .
Just as thf.; To ri e s in 1776 stirred up i nt rigues
and factions and S:!Jlits among thG r ev oluti onary co l oni sts , s o do tne
To ri e s of today stir uu d.ivi sio ns in the Democrat ic party.
The object of ::_:io li ti cal campai gns is to win elections .
It
was the ref ore inevitabl e t :1at t he conflict betwee n the Administra tion
a nd the Tori e s would ~hift at least partially from the general ele cti o ns
to a few of the primari e s within the Democratic party .
a piece of lo g ic .
It is an accomolished f a ct .
This is not just
The l eade rshi p of the
oppo sition is r i ght now putt i ng i ts full strength i n men a nd money
behind candida tes in half a doz en sta t es who ho..ve b een most hostile t o
the thing s for which this administration stands .
And the leade r s hi p of
t :1e 09pos i tion is tode,y urging thousands u po n thouscmds of people who
never had any desir e to enter a d emoc r at ic rrima1y b e fore, and have no
desire to do s o now, to register a nd h e l p d e feat th e aims of Pre s ident
Ro o sevelt
not in a cl ean-cut ge ne ral e l e ction wh e r e t he c:Uvc rg ent
views of partif:Js a re cl early understood by the v ote rs, but stealthily ,
within the councils of our own p arty .
The effect o f t his is that t h e re is in gene r a l no opposition
party whic h st ands on its own feet un<le r its ovm banne r and advocates
its own :pri nciples .
The op;)os iti on has given up its ide ntity, and
even its in~ijW!~b,y for a b e tt e r chance t o win .
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All political parti e s, hi s t o ric a lly , have had facti onal fi ghts
within the ir own c ouncils and in the ir own p rimari es .
The De mo crat s have
h ad p e rhaps mo r e t h an the ir s hare o f such :fi ght s , but t hey have been p riva t e
fi ghts, which we have b een abl e to iron out be for e the e l e cti on came ar ound.
And th e Democra tic p arty can still handl e it s
O'\'m
p riva t e f am il y s quaobl e s
without t he int e rfe r enc e of a ny Repu o lican in-l aws.
Our p ar t y ha s a big joo t o do -- p e rh a ps the bi g f:; es t go v e rnm <:m t a.l
j ob in mod e rn ti me s .
Th e Pr e sident su'TUTle d it up -- summed u p th e p latform
and th e phil0s ophy of th e Democrati c p arty
littl e l e ss t l1an two y ears a g o .
11
in Mad ison Squar e Gard en a
This i s wh at h e s a id :
0f cours e we will continue t o s e e k to imp rove working c onditi ons
for the worke rs of Ai:1G rica - - to r educ e h our s ove r l on g , t o incr eas e wa ges
that s pell starvati on, to e nd the labor of children, t o wi pe out swea tsh op s
• . •• Of course we will c ontinuA our efforts in b ehalf of th e farm e rs of Ame rica
..•• Of c ourse we will provide us e ful work f o r the n eedy un employ ed; we p r e f e r
us e ful work to th e p au:pe rism of a dole •••. Of c ours e we 11ill c ontinue our
1
e ff o rts for young men and wome n s o th a t t '.1e y may obt a in an ec1ucati on and an
opportunity t o put it t o u se .
Of c our se
Wt
will c on tinue our h e l p for th e
cri pvl e d , the blind_, for th e mothe r s-- our insu ranc e for t h e un emp l oy ed
our s .:: curity for the age d . 11
The last line of t ha t Mad i s on Squ a r e Ga rden speech se t th e stage
for the l andslid e which ,'.'as t o follow .
read :
"Fo r all t he s e t h ing s
"'18
And th e last line of tha t speech
havo only j u s t b e gun t o fi ght 11
•
To "all the se thin g sn not only th e Pre sident, but all of us v1ho
call ours e lves Demo crats stand c ommi tt erl .
Th e course in 1936 wa s cry stal
cl e ar .
It was n o lon g er expe rim ent a l .
Eve rybo dy knew which way we were
going .
Ev e ryb ody had ha d f our y eE!.rs in whi ch t o make u p his mind .
Yet the re
we re men who did not b e lieve in the s e t h ing s w!:10 tri c k E,d the vot e rs by we aring our insi gnia, only to turn against us as so on as they g o t in offic e .
They f ought wage s and h ours ,
fought s ocial s ecurity .
Th ey f ou ght r e li e f f or the un emp l oy ed .
They foug·ht a.g ricul tural l egisl a tion .
They
Th ey fought
the very h eart of the prog ram v.·hich the Democra tic pc1,rty has pledgP d to th e
Ame ric a n peopl e that it will carry out .
But tha t is not all th ey did .
Ev en 1yhil e the y h a cked a.way at th e
f oundation o f th e p ro grnm with one han d th ey n e r e pa tting th e Pr 6 sident on
th e back with the o th e r, prot e s tin g to the vot e r s that th ey ne r e r eally guo d
Democrats .
Prot e sting that t hey ,11:- r e r eall y r:i th us in a bra n d e r s ens e ,
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pl eading that they were me rely e x e rci s ing inde p <:: Ldor,.t j uti.{..:me nt .
T': j_at is a
g ood deal like th e you..T1 6 man who a band on e d h is ='e.th er ani mothe r and th en
asked fo r publ ic syf'lpathy on the g::::-ound. t i w t h e \':as
a!'l
orp han .
Und e r those circumstances wlw.t would you expe c t t'.l.E· Pre s i den t, as
th e leader and. sp okesman of h is party , t o do ?
of the voters t o t h e r e cord s of ths se men .
He i s callin 6 the attenti on
He is me rdy sa;\' ing
11
the s t:- me n
who came int o off ic e w::. th the administration no l onge r suppo rt t he a clrn inist rati on .
If you believe i n the Admi ni st r a ti on r:.nd. want to hel p it, do not s s nd
t hese me n back .
If you orlpose the Adm inistra ti on these a r e your men".
After that, the voters will vote 8 "."."'l.ctly as they want to .
To say
that thi s i s not d emocracy is an in cult t c t~1e voters , n o t t o the Pr es i d e nt .
Th e course he has taken i s r eally a st e p in th e d ir octi 0n of r esponsib l e
g ove rnment .
He i s clea ring away the cooweb s anrl the confusion
and making the
issue plain "befo r e the vot e rs wl1.o nn.-...st ria.ss 111)on it .
One hundr e d a nd forty-thre e y eo.rs ago Geo r ge Washington, th e first
P r es id ent , wrote e. lett e r to a. ivlP.mb c· r o f his Caoin e t in ,,,i1ich he said , I quote :
"I shall not, whils t I have the hono r to ad.mi ni ste r t h e go v e rnm e nt,
"brin g a man into a.n;y off i c e o f con s eq,1en ce ~m owingly whos e po l i tical tenets
ar e adverse t o t h r.- measures ic,h i ch the c en r: ral government are pursuing , for
thi s in my op i·nirm would. "b e
sort of pol itical suici de . "
/'l.
I don I t SU:)pose ve ry i:1any re o:;,l e t oda~r wou.l ct call George '?:ashing ton
a d ic tat or or say that he v-:as un-American .
I don ' t objec t t o a man oeins a T-:; ry .
That i s h i s "busine ss .
But I
do object . to a Tor y who says he is a. liberal , and who accep t s t he help of
o th e r Tories at the very t ime he shou ts }1i s ,~ la i m to t h e lib e ral l abel.
us me n who are r eac.y t o stan d up straight and be count ed .
Give
i-: e car.. r e spEct men
who d if fe r with us and who say so , but \':e can n e i t he r r e sr ect nor t rust rn en
who say they a r e Y1i th us and. at the sarne tim e joi n wi th ::nir pol itic a l fo e s to
fight us .
I k.,,ow the President .
Neithe r atu se nor flattery, ne ith er p r essur e
nor ridicul e , will s1':ay him fr om the pac t he and h is pa rt y have mad. e ,·_r i th th e
American people .
Adulati on has not ~ade him a rr ogant , defea t has not Dade him
timid .
Wbat we have t o deGide is whether t o go "back or g,J ahee d -- whe th ,=:- r
t o wink at social a nd economic in j u st ic e or t o corn, ct it
p r ospe rity and p r ofits fe r
P.
few or r r o spe ri ty for all
whe ther we "n~nt
whe t he r rr E- wa nt
weasel words or r 8al l ead e r shi p -- n h ethe r, in s!:lort, i'l e ·-': P.nt t o a'o 0. ica t e th e
stronghold of democ racy or to fight fo r it .
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And I t h ink we , t oo , have
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Oi1ly
@FedFRASER