"Garner Issue"

Friendly Texans thronged the Dallas railroad station last week to greet their own John Nance ("Jack") Garner, homeward bound from Washington. The Democratic vice-presidential nominee bustled out of his through Pullman long enough to give them a first taste of his campaign oratory. Above locomotive whistles, escaping steam and lusty cheers he shouted:

"This is the first time in more than 20 years I've made an electioneering speech. Either the people of my district have a lot of confidence in me or I fooled 'em so well in my first campaign that they've sent me back every term since then. I want to convince every honest man and woman that the power of government should be taken away from those who administer it for the benefit of a privileged few. . . . Because I demanded that the Reconstruction Finance Corp. make public its use of the people's property, the President in effect said: 'No. That's for the benefit of my select clientele and the people mustn't know what's done with it.' "

"Pour it on, Jack!" shouted the crowd.

"We passed that measure anyway. I notice by the papers he says he'll study it a few days and 'probably will sign it.' He means he wants to have a few days to find out what Wall Street and J. P. Morgan think he should do about it."

"Whoopee! Pour it on!"

"When my friends decided I was fit timber to deal with Herbert Hoover, I assented. I think now I may be big enough for that job, considering his weakness and vacillation. I hold the most powerful position in this Government, excepting that of the President. I accepted the vice-presidential nomination with much hesitancy for already we've whipped Hoover three times in Congress."

Texas and the Southwest liked this style of campaigning. But next morning the Garner speech was plastered on the front page of the Republican Press in the North and East more as a political warning than as red-hot news. Republican editors shivered and shuddered fearfully in print. Speaker Garner was depicted as a wild, unbalanced fellow who was heading the Democratic campaign toward dangerous, rabble-rousing radicalism. Governor Roosevelt was editorially besought to muzzle him.

Declared the New York Herald Tribune: "One cause [of a Hoover trend] is, of course. Garner. Vice presidential meat proved too strong for this Texas Caesar. He made about as complete an ass of himself as an experienced statesman well could do."

Connecticut's Senator Bingham went to see President Hoover, told him: "I hope Garner talks a lot. The more campaign speeches he makes, the less work we Republicans are going to have to do."

Thus emerged in the campaign "the Garner issue"--an attempt by the G. O. P. to frighten the conservative electorate with the spectre of what would happen if a Texas "wild man" like Nebraska's William Jennings Bryan were placed within one step of the White House.

Oats in Gas Tank. Amid these partisan attempts to create a personality issue out of the Speaker, Pundit Walter Lippmann delivered his Olympian opinion in the New York Herald Tribune:

"Mr. Garner at this moment enjoys the reputation of being a great radical. Why? Because he proposed to build a billion dollars' worth of postoffices and what not. Then because he proposed to lend money to as many persons as possible. ... It would be a hideous waste of money to build Mr. Garner's postoffices. But radical it would not be. The pork barrel is one of our most ancient institutions. . . . Mr. Garner's money lending plan was a cruel deception; it was like offering everyone a drink out of a half-pint flask. His projects reflect upon his judgment but they do not challenge the foundations of the existing social order. . . . Mr. Garner's measures would simply make capitalism work somewhat more badly than it is now working. . . . He is the sort of man who, finding his car stalled on the road, would think not of repairing the damage or of obtaining a new car. He would pour oats into the gas tank, give the old car a kick and expect it to start running."

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