Three Issues

Just as Franklin Roosevelt began last week to take an interest in active campaigning (see p. 11). Alf Landon set out from Topeka on his third campaign trip. Before the trip was over it looked to several observers as if Governor Landon, too, had suddenly decided to enter the campaign. Instead of delivering temperate generalities such as he has in most previous appearances, he made three major speeches, each devoted to a single issue, each making a strong bid for support in the region where it was delivered.

Des Moines. No sounder token of his candidacy had he received when, on his arrival at Trenton, Mo., a woman held up an infant to the rear platform. Its name was Alfred Landon Claybrook, born June 30, 1936. Instead of kissing it the candidate patted its cheek, said: "He's a fine looking young man." After seven stops en route, the Landon Special pulled into Des Moines. The city's Democrats had apparently monopolized the streets near the railroad station to give the GOP Nominee the cold stare. Reception grew warmer as the procession reached the business section. Opposite the Nominee's hotel a small boy appeared carrying a Roosevelt placard. Several spectators grabbed for it. The urchin slipped behind a policeman, jeered: "It's a free country, ain't it?"

Two hours later 20,000 people seated in the stands of the State Fair Grounds heard Miss Agnes Samuelson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, introduce Alf Landon. The candidate however was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly great spotlights sought out the west gate of the race track. Riding down the beam came Alf Landon in the tonneau of his car, waving to the crowd. In a moment he was on the platform. When a five-minute demonstration had subsided he began:

"I know," said he, "the aspirations of farm folks."

"You tell 'em, Alf!", a hoarse voice shouted.

The Des Moines speech was strictly agricultural. Alf Landon told his listeners what he would bid for the farm vote against the bids hastily and simultaneously made last week by the New Deal. Applause was more frequent than in most Landon speeches. When he said of the New Deal farm program, "like the automobile manufacturers, the Administration believes in bringing out a new model every year," he got laughter as well as cheers. Next day he lunched with State GOP Chairman Carl Cook, 300 newspaper editors and 99 farmers, dined that evening with Cartoonist "Ding" Darling.

Minneapolis. After ten way-station stops Governor Landon arrived afternoon later in Minneapolis. No parade was waiting to meet him, for Minneapolis is in the grip of four mill strikes and a parade might have been seized on by radicals as occasion for a demonstration. When he left the Nicollet Hotel to go to the municipal auditorium, a small group of workmen was waiting for him. "Boo!" they shouted, "We're for Roosevelt! Boo! You're just another Hoover!"

The Minneapolis speech was devoted to reciprocal trade treaties. Representative Theodore Christiansen made the crowd laugh by introducing Nominee Landon as "no radio crooner."Nominee Landon thereupon rose and, while unwilling to condemn the Administration's trade treaties, tried to convince his audience that he could have done better. With alarm he viewed the 4,000,000 lb. of Canadian Cheddar cheese that crossed the border in the first six months of this year, a 700% increase. Under the eight foreign trade treaties arranged by Cordell Hull which have been in operation long enough to show results, Nominee Landon claimed there had been an 84% increase in imports of farm products, only a 26% increase of exports of farm products. Said he: "The way to trade is to trade, and let me tell you this--we Republicans are going to trade not against but in the interest of, American producers. In too many of the present agreements we are the fellow who got the blind horse."

Although applause was brief, this appeal to the self-interest of farmers along the Canadian border was generally rated one of the most effective vote-getting appeals yet made by Candidate Landon.

Milwaukee. Next day Alf Landon spent crossing Wisconsin with seven stops to Oshkosh where he spent the night, attended a night football game between Oshkosh and Milwaukee Tech High Schools. Next morning as he departed he paused at the station to speak to the crowd: "This is the first time that I have enjoyed the fine courtesy and kindly hospitality of the citizens of Oshkosh. I can say, however, that we Jayhawkers, whether on the farms or in the oil fields, are no strangers to one of your products." "Overalls?"asked a woman, and there was a titter from the crowd.

"Overalls is right. I don't think there are very many Kansans that have not worked in 'Oshkosh B'Gosh' products."

That afternoon after four more stops, Alf Landon arrived at Milwaukee in the rain, missed the parade that waited for him and drove off to the Plankinton Hotel. In a few minutes the parade, led by the Blatz Brewery Band, found him. "We want Landon! We want Alf!" chanted bass voices in the hotel lobby. Out to a balcony went Alf and thanked them.

That evening in Milwaukee's municipal auditorium Alf Landon raised the third issue of his trip, Social Security--peculiarly appropriate to Wisconsin, which was the first state to enact an unemployment insurance law. Scathing was his denunciation of that part of the Social Security Act which imposes 6% taxes on payrolls (half paid by employes, half by employers) to establish a fund for old-age insurance. Said he:

"The worker's cash comes into the treasury. What is done with it? The law requires the Treasury to buy Government bonds. What happens when the Treasury buys Government bonds? Well, at present, when there is a deficit, the Treasury gives some nice new bonds in exchange for the cash which the Treasury gives the Treasury. Now, what happens to the cash that the Treasury gives the Treasury? The answer is painfully simple. We have good spenders at Washington, and they spend the cash that the Treasury gives the Treasury. . . .

"From now until 1950 only 16-c- out of every dollar collected will be paid out as benefits. The workers asked for a pension and all they have received is just another tax."

The unemployment insurance plan of the Act, he declared, should be left to the states. For the Federal Government's share in the Social Security program he suggested enlargement of the present old-age pension system to "provide for every American citizen over 65 the supplementary payment necessary to give him a minimum income sufficient to protect him or her from want. . . . "

"My criticism of the present Act is not that its purpose is bad. It is that this Act will involve a cruel disappointment for those of our people least able to bear the shock of disappointment. . . . I will not promise the moon. I promise only what I know can be performed : Economy, a living pension, and such security as can be provided by a generous people."

Two days later Chairman John G. Winant of the Social Security Board, idealistic onetime Governor of New Hampshire, turned in his resignation to fight his fellow-Republican on the Social Security issue, at the same time telling President Roosevelt: "I have never assumed that the . . . Act was without fault."

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