Ke Alakai o Hawaii, Volume IX, Number 27, 15 October 1936 — Knox Approves--Then Denounces! [ARTICLE]

Knox Approves--Then Denounces!

. In opening the Republican national campaign at Connersville, Indiana, Col. Frank Knox discussed agriculture in that great farm belt but he spoke more soothing worda to those listening in at Union League clubs and along the Delaware. Four times he promised that the primary and paramount purpose of the G O P is to restore "freedom of enterprise." This being his thefne, the GOP vice presidential candidate evidently felt he could be magnanimous with what he c\early regarded as minor matters f such as his assurance to farmers thai "organic chemistry is going to give the farmer a market undreamed of in the past." He could even afford to drop a reference to the failure of his party to pro'vide a farm program from Harding to Hoover. "The Republican administration," he said, "did what it could with the resources it had. It attempted to keep farm prices above the world level and extended aid to farmers." That domestic farm prices dropped to their lowest price in history and that the loans undgr the original Farm Credit Adminstration were infinitesimal because of their onerous terms, the eolonel ignored. . , ■ . . But stepping for a moment out of the ehemieal laboratoiy, he promised farmers (1) soil conservation, (2) \vithdrawal of submarginal lands, (3) "special measur<fr to prevent soil erosion, and (4) benefits to e qua 1 i z « domestic prices with industral prices." All of these measures, of course, the Rosevelt admlnistration iā cariying out with marked success. Three times as many farmers are participating in the federal farm prpgram this year as last. More farmers, including tenants, have signed up in the colonel's own state of Illinoia than the total numjber of farms listedin the last farm eensus. ■ ■Still with refreshing candor, Col. Knox then procee«3ed to list varous other "proposals," all of whieh have been enacted under the New Deal. He assured his hearers that the G O P "will put extortionate and uneeonomie monopoly out of business." Strong adjectives 3 but apparently only such monopolies would be disturbed bv a Landon administration. "The sweatshop and exploiting employer/' he declar«£, "we intend to 4riv*e out." The New I>eal banking legis!ation, he averred, has "accomplished improvement" and he conceded that the Republican partj would continue to exercise surveillance over securitie>s. The Civilian Conservation Corps he called a M valuable institution," although he would apply to it the well-known "frugaiity," And he offered to "shift the weight pf taxei from the plain man." These being Roosevelt policies without exception, not only promised but performed whieh, together with the spending for work relief and the salvation of two million homes and farms, have definitely started the country on the road to prosperity, it looked as though the eolohel was forgetting Mr. Hearst and the Liberty League. But at that moment he roared: "What the governmeat hau beea doing aboūt r©coT«ry has been wrongī" Yet the expla.na.tion is no't difficult. The eolonel'a ap* proval had applied to details; his attack was general. What the President has been doing to restore nonnal business and living condittons are not too distasteful to his opponents when considered separately, but in the aggregate they are abhorrent