Newspaper Article, "Colonel Knox's Plea for 'Free Enterprise'"

vel.4 LEGISLATINE PEF FRENCE SERVICE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Please return directly to August 3, 1936 The United States News JK517 9 inevitably to the extinction of the must choose between the regimen- small business man, to the end of tation of the economic life of a COLONEL KNOX'S PLEA FOR FREE ENTERPRISE free enterprise in America. hundred and thirty million people There is no half-way house in by politically appointed Federal bu- which American enterprise can take reaucrats and the continuance of shelter The coercive control of the American system of free enter- bank credit leads unavoidably to prise under a government of consti- Full text of address accepting the Republican nomination for Acceptance Speech of Vice Presidential Nominee For Republican the heart of American life. is the control of investment and that leads tutional powers. issue of the kind of economic system to the end of competitive industry It is not a question whether Fed- the American people will live by. and free enterprise. The country [Continued on Page 11.] Vice President, delivered in Chi- Party-Pledges to the Electorate For more than three years the cago, July 30. economic life of the country has TT becomes my privilege and 'my been at the mercy of a crew of ama- duty to accept this call to service. It condemns the abuse of Federal teur experimenters, hacking at the I am deeply conscious of the per- power to invade local rights. It does vitals of American industry, agricul- sonal honor that has been conferred not believe in putting a New Jersey ture, commerce and finance. Driven You SHOULDA REMEMBERED BUDDY- on me by the Republican Party. pants-presser in jall for charging by a fanatic impulse to shape our I am deeply conscious also of the less than the amount dictated by a economic structure to their fantastic responsibility that rests on me to board in Washington. It disapproves designs, they have usurped the pow- bear this honor worthily. But I am, a government of men instead of a ers of Congress, insulted the au- above all, conscious of the opportu- government of law. It prefers a thority of the courts, invaded the nity for service. Even above and be- government guided by constitutions powers of Congress, and undermined yond my profound appreciation of to a government guided only by the institutions of local self-govern- the honor and the responsibility caprice ment. that have been given me is my ap- THE PLATFORM OF THE PARTY As one experiment after another $765 preciation of the opportunity to has ended in ignominious failure or serve not only my party but my The Republican platform of 1936 repudiation by the courts, new ex- lays down in simple language the country. periments have been attempted, It is customary in acknowledg- program of Federal regulation and from laws to put producers of po- ments of this kind to avoid personal legislation to which it commits it- tatoes in jail, to proposals to cut reference. Tonight, I am going to self on many issues. Where the Florida in two. BUYS A depart briefly from that custom. I specific program is not definitely am a working man. I have always outlined the details will be presented COUNTRY'S ECONOMIC SYSTEM in the coming campaign. Driven to desperation by failure, worked. I began to work as a small boy in a small town in Michigan. On certain matters Governor Lan- the present Administration under- Throughout my life, I have followed don made the issues clear in his tel- took to gamble with fate. Realizing egram to the Cleveland Convention. that recovery was inevitable, in time, one guiding principle. That prin- In his acceptance speech one week it undertook to overcome the depres- ciple was to do as best I could the BUICK! ago he presented specific policies sing effects of its experiments by an job that lay before me. That prin- in reference to other important is- artificial prosperity to be created by ciple carried me into life and work in a fine New England town. It took sues, Whatever concrete measures the squandering of public funds. me into difficult and responsible the Republican Party has in mind It is now a race between the ex- work in the great city of New York. will be presented to the voters be- haustion of Federal credit and the fore election, not after. And what- coming of natural recovery. It is a It carried me into the service of my country in two wars. It brought me ever measures the Republican ad- race between inflation and the re- ministration may urge upon Con- vival of normal business activity. me to my work and my home in the gress, not one will flout the Consti- The race is not yet decided. great city of Chicago, the metropolis of a great State in a great Middle tution of the United States. Not The fundamental issue is now West empire. one will violate the obligation of clear. No one can define the New contracts. Not one will break a Deal or even describe it. But we PLEDGES HE GIVES promise, know what it means. It means And I am moved tonight by a Federal control over local business, -Underwood Underwood realization that in this crusade for OUTLINES MAJOR ISSUE over local bank credit, over local COLONEL FRANK KNOX the restoration of sound government I have already said that this is wages, over local conditions of work. in our land there is before me the no ordinary campaign. On the mere It leads to Federal regimentation of greatest oportunity for service that just one moral obligation to keep. that all the measures of the present issue of efficiency in administration the labor, the business, and the home has ever come to me. Long years That obligation was to fulfill the Administration have been failures. the present government stands con- of every American citizen. It leads ago, I learned as a buck private the solemn promises of economy and In the mad whirl of economic ex- victed of failure. But there is a to price-fixing and production con- lessons of duty and of loyalty. In moderation with which it lured the periments there have been a few larger issue, an issue that goes to trol by Federal authority. It leads the years that have passed I have people in the campaign of 1932. sound and desirable measures of learned the equally important lesson CRITICIZES NEW DEAL regulation. That must be freely that the greatest achievement of conceded. But in the major meas- , any man is service to his fellow citi- How did it meet that responsibil- ures of recovery and in the task of ity? How did it do that jeb? How Colonel Knox's Plea For 'Free Enterprise zens. administration it has failed com- In this spirit of service I accept did it keep that moral obligation? pletely. It has not kept faith with the call of my party. I pledge my From the day that it took office it the nation. It has not fulfilled the these savage enemies through his promise to solve all these problems loyalty to the principles of the Re- embarked on a series of hysterical duties of its stewardship. (Continued From Page 9.] unrelenting determination to work that you face. It has no patent publican Party. I pledge my loyalty experiments on the economic life of On this one issue, that it has not eral regimentation of the economic out his own economic salvation. nostrums to cure every economic to the policies laid down at the a burdened people. conducted the affairs of government life of a great nation can be success- Poverty and insecurity are not yet ill. There is no royal road to the Cleveland Convention. I pledge my- At a time when universal cooper- efficiently and economically, it ful or not. It is the verdict of his- exterminated in our land. Economic solution of all our economic prob- self to the principles of sound and ation was a necessity it initiated a should be condemned and rejected tory, from Diocletian in Rome to Mr. hardship and economic injustice are lems. honest government. I pledge my campaign of abuse and vilification by the people. Roosevelt in Washington, that no not yet eliminated. But in the personal loyalty to that great Gov- of business men. At a time when one man can successfully guide the United States, in the last hundred NO ROYAL ROAD EXISTS EVETEM oe 42. dess