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Show THE SEARCHLIGHT On the Political Front Three events on the political front remind us that politics will warm up presently. First in importance is the rapid formation of the CIO’s political action organization and the clearcut desire of all labor organizations in Utah to work together harmoniously in politics. Throughout the ranks of working people and friendly groups there is an awareness that 1944 is a decisive year—that to preserve the gains for the commoners made during the last decade, they must work and plan together as never before. That spirit is the most encouraging aspect of the . Utah and his conference with labor leaders and others. Orval W. Adams crashed the conterence to introduce himself to Mr. Willkie, who acknowledged the Utah “Eagle” with an non political picture. chagrined when Mr. Willkie hurried—hurried is the word—from the conference with them to take lunch with Rube Clark. They remembered Second in importance is the decision of the Governor to call a special session of the Legislature to give men and women in the armed forces an opportunity to vote, and to correct glaring faults in Utah’s registration and election laws. Third, was the visit of Wendell Willkie to Opposition to Clark~ (Continued from preceding Under Clark’s inspiration his subordinates in sugar have been clever enough to convince many honest farmers that the Utah-Idaho and Amalgamted Sugar companies are unable to pay a legitimate price for sugar beets, and that growers must for further subsidies or Through exploiting that device the disclosed and undisclosed profits of the sugar corporations are not threatened, and Mr. Clark succeeds in building up the false idea in agricultural circles that it is the Government—not the Utah-Idaho Suzar Company—that tries to hold down the income of sugar beet growers. step of J. Reuben timent by surreptitiously dumping farmer against sugar processors on the door- the in Roosevelt has created rural administration, self on a question as to his reaction to the current propaganda the smart much anti-Roosevelt sensucceeds in while he sections drive against collective bargain- ing, he was forthright and fair in other respects. Altogether, he was considered candidate for the Presidency. an above-average However, labor leaders were disillusioned and that another candidate, in another campaign was reported to have promised Rube a cabinet job— Secretary of the Interior—in return for his sup- port. When blessing perhaps to make for the ves: Willkie avoided committing him the ever-increasing United States Senate this year. Thus, grievances While Mr. maneuvering page) there are reports that Clark has given his to “spontaneous” demands welling (and Welling) up within the Farm Bureau, Mr. Howell the Republican nominee look to the Government other relief. committal (9h an farmers accusing tion—and Government part of demand the into paying cost of growing better prices, Rube for an beets. points finger at the Roosevelt administra- gets away To accomplish with it. his purpose Clark has caused the entire line of sugar propaganda in newspapers and otherwise to be revamped so that every farmer complaint, every disappointment, and all the ire of farmers may be directed away from sugar profits and toward the political leader whom Rube Clark hates most in the world—Franklin D. Roosevelt. The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Grange, with their state units, are willing accomplices of Mr. Clark in that enterprise. It is slick, unscrupulous work. To the Government the expense; to the President the odium: and the political opposition; to the sugar corporations the profits; and to the farmers the hard work and the questionable privilege of serving as Rube Clark’s pawns. Believers in dog-eat-dog economics and_ poli tics—alias “rugged individualism”—may applaud the seeming cleverness of Mr. Clark. But the plain people who comprehend it must see it as an evil visitation, the baleful effects of which may endure for a generation. |