Private Campaign

Senator William Edgar Borah last week yielded to the primal urge of every public man and took to the stump in his own Idaho. His campaign was unlike any other in the land. Not up for reelection, he begged no votes for himself. At odds with President Hoover on Prohibition, he never mentioned his name nor advocated his retention in office. A Republican, he gave no support to Democrats. In effect the Borah campaign was a private affair between the ursine Senator and his constituents who learned much about issues, nothing about candidates.

"What I shall have to say in this campaign," Senator Borah explained in his opener at Burley, "will not be in harmony with either the Republican or Democratic platforms. . . . Both candidates for the Presidency have disregarded their platforms. . . . For this they are entitled to high commendation. It is the most encouraging event in the campaign. So let us in our poor way discuss the questions as we see them."

The questions that Senator Borah saw in this and later addresses were four: money, farm debts, economy, disarmament.

The Senator favored currency inflation to the sum of $3,500,000,000 (his estimate of hoardings), and remonetization of silver. Said he: "The potatoes which are to rot in yonder field are the result of the almost insane economic policies which have tortured the human family for twelve long years. . . . A great deal is said about an honest dollar. But I contend that a dollar which takes three times as much wheat, four times as much cotton, three times as much pork to buy as it would have taken three years ago is not an honest dollar. It is a dishonest dollar. It cheats the toiler between the time he eats his breakfast and the time he returns for supper. Nobody is proposing to abandon the gold standard but much can be added to the use of gold with perfect safety."

That farmers will never be able to pay their way out of debt is Senator Borah's firm conviction. He repeated his recommendation for all-round scaling down of farm mortgages (TIME, Oct. 3). Said he: "The system now being employed by the farm loan banks, where they demand a chattel mortgage on the last cow, makes Shylock look like a respectable gentleman."Public expenditures, according to Campaigner Borah, verge on "a national crime." Said he: "When it comes to spending public money, you can't tell Republicans from Democrats. The whole trouble is, whenever a campaign is over it becomes necessary to find places for a lot of politicians who have never been able to make a living for themselves elsewhere. I believe in political parties--sometimes."

He advocated a 50% cut in world armaments for which, with the remonetization of silver, he would gladly trade the War Debts.

With Disarmament a boiling issue, Senator Borah, powerful chairman of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee, fortnight ago gave North American Newspaper Alliance his views on Germany's demand for arms equality with the rest of Europe. Excerpts: "Germany's demand for equality is natural, essentially and fundamentally just. The plea for the sanctity of treaties is sound but it should and must include all parties. The Versailles Treaty has not been observed with reference to Disarmament by the governments which dictated its terms. . . . Technically to observe the terms of a treaty while violating it in spirit and moral purpose is in some respects more indefensible than open rejection. . . . "Germany has disarmed. Her demand is that the other powers give her a position of equality--not that she be permitted to arm. It is due to the other nations that Europe is an armed camp--that Europe has an army of 4,500,000 men--that the leading nations are extorting from their tax-ridden people $5,000,000,000 a year for armaments. . . . "In individuals we loathe intolerance, we despise narrowness of view and insufferable egotism. But those things . . . seem to be virtues with nations. . . .'

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