Show 0 shingi h g 49 topics cl on ct ion U 0 D L i BR R 0 gab X washington several years ago I 1 expressed in these columns the conviction that one one thing thing america needed needed was a congress which would cease attempting to amend the law of supply and demand the observation was made in the midst of the most depressed economic conditions that modern times had known and it brought down upon my head a vast amount of criticism readers wrote me at length about the stupidity that I 1 had displayed by making such a statement reference totham circumstance is made here at this time because it is apropos again it is apropos because we are in a political campaign out of which will come either the reelection election re of franklin D roosevelt or the election of governor landon of kansas the results of this political campaign are going to hinge to a considerable extent on an the attitude of the farmers of this country and if there is one segment of the american economic structure to whom the law of supply and do demand means more than to another it is to the farmers now democratic spokesmen are going about the country talking about soil conservation about relief for the farmers about anything and everything that will give the farmers money republican spokesmen iare are shouting and waving their arms with other propositions to aid the farmer some of them probably are workable and if they are workable they must be considered constructive but the point I 1 am trying to make is that in the case of either candidate there is still too much of the idea of the superficial of surface help for agriculture in other words the programs still take into account corrid some circumvention of the law of supply and demand that statement is not wholly true of governor landoas Lan dons farm program but unless the new dealers come forward with more than they have thus far advanced I 1 think it can be said their program offers nothing more than a continued raid on the treasury of the united states with no plans at all for correcting underlying conditions there was one phase of governor landoas Lan dons program as advanced in in speeches at des moines iowa and minneapolis minn that appealed to me brushing aside verbiage and detail governor landon b basically has in mind apparently a desire to get the government out of the farmers hair he seems convinced that there are many things which the farmers would like to do for themselves and will do for themselves selves if the machinery upon which they can operate is made available he proposes for example to seek legislation that will enable the farmers to finance themselves through borrowing from commercial agencies banks and trust companies in instead of from the government with that I 1 agree to the fullest it means simply that farmers again dan can be masters of their own souls as well as the crops which they grow for it puts them in a position to sell when they want to sell without the necessity for asking permission from a bureaucrat in i washington it means further that no bureaucrat in washington can issue an order to that farmer that he must dispose of his stored crop it seems to me as well that anyone who analyzes the present regimentation of the farmers from washington must recognize that which has always been true every time the government which means politicians attempts to mess into private business that private business goes from bad to worse and it does not matter how bad it was when bureaucrats took hold it will be worse thereafter I 1 have been wondering however how far mr landon will go in en coura gement of 0 t hits root of the family t type y p e farm problem farms you will remember that he spoke at length of family type farms in his des moines address personally I 1 feel atiat he hit upon a very important point I 1 think it is important because it strikes at the root of the farm problem in discussing help for the man who owns or wants to own a small farm governor landon surely is proposing a program that will serve this n nation well because no nation whose farms are widely owned b by Y those who operate them can be headed toward fascism or communism I 1 do not know how the governor as president will be able to put the federal government behind such a program but it is to be assumed that he had definite ideas on the subject or lie he would not have boldly stated his position my hope is that it can be done not with government money but with money supplied from private institutions since there has been too much gov arment competition with business of the nation already further regret ful as it is the federal government has not and cannot have any function in that field for the reason that it inevitably leads further into politics further into waste wast e and the eventual destruction of the people whom the demagogues claim they are helping the reason I 1 have advocated this action so strongly is the fact that there are too many tenant farmers barme rs in the united states now far too many it is fundamental in my opinion that this nation can get on with the present trend it is sad but it is true that there are aboud about forty per cent of our farms now operated by byo tenants in other words one out of less than three farms in the united states is worked by a man who does not own it 0 0 0 some information was made public the other day to the effect that 85 per cent of the press for newspapers of the london landon country were supporting governor governo r landon as against president roosevelt in this campaign I 1 do not know the actual percentage and 1 I do not vouch for the figures I 1 have reported to you but of this I 1 am certain I 1 believe that governor landon does have more editorial support than any presidential nominee has had in the last six campaigns with the exception of president roosevelt as a can candidate diate in 1932 it has been interesting to watch the various important independent newspapers as they have studied the two candidates this year and have reached conclusions as to the nominee they will support I 1 am not now referring to hidebound hide bound republican papers nor to newspapers that could normally be expected to support the more conservative of the two candidates I 1 am thinking of independent or distinctly democratic newspapers that have announced their opposition to the roosevelt cause let me mention a few of them the st louis fost dispatch the omaha world herald the baltimore sun to mention only three 0 0 0 there was a great newspaper one of the greatest that took a stand for president new york roosevelt a few times days ago I 1 refer to the ne r york times no one can ever say that the new york times ever has failed to arrive at its conclusions without giving all factors concerned careful study I 1 am saying by this that the new york times is honest and sincere but I 1 must say at the same time that the new york times has a background as an institution ution and it has a clientele of readers for whom it speaks and its accession on to the roosevelt cause is a perfectly natural position for it to take for years the new york times has contended that america should participate to a greater extent in world affairs it has con tended without except exception i on for policies of an internationalism with which a great many thinking people disagree its view concretely appears to be that we cannot correct depression conditions unless t the h e united states as a nation wholeheartedly moves in the circle of governments that rule europe and asia especially in matters of an economic character I 1 do not know what governor L a n d 0 ns its pronouncements 0 on n foreign policy are going to be but I 1 have observed the policies that have had the backing of the new york times over a number of years and it seems to me that th they y result in greater benefits to a limited class than to the country s a whole I 1 am not a rabble rouser I 1 do not link the new york times with the money changers of wall street as the demagogues describe them it is just the perspective that I 1 have gained of the whole picture since I 1 have no axes to grind in the case of those newspapers that have turned against mr roosevelt there is to some extent a consideration of local interests circumstances of concern to the communities which they serve just as in the case of the new york times the point is however that in the case of newspapers turning aga against ast mr roosevelt their new positions are predicated on what appears appear a to me to be traditional american bases that is to say they a are re ach adhering ering to the principles which I 1 believe to have been the foundation stones of american history I 1 have no quarrel with the attitude of that school of thought that believes we should engage further in international affairs than we have done I 1 I 1 it is their conviction and they have a right to it yet it is not mine I 1 have said may times in these columns that I 1 will support t an any y proposition that is good for am america erica as a whole I 1 have contended consistently for am americanism and the things which that means and I 1 have argued always f for or sound gov arment a 0 western newspaper union |