Washington Post Newspaper Article, "Text of McNary's Address Accepting Nomination"

P.4 THE WASHINGTON POST: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28. 1940 JKSH Text of McNary's Address Accepting Nomination Vice Presidential Candidate Scores title to the old Oregon country settlement. We hold that the of our whole economy hinges to witnessed the growth of the lum- from Great Britain. theory of the last frontier is only some degrees upon removal of ber industry to its present huge New Deal Reciprocal Trade Pacts We can afford to smile at the figurative. Land. if you had to such obstacles to easy commerce proportions and the expansion of timidity of the obstructionists who work it, never was free. Men as adverse Government polícies, the social and recreational value of lived a century ago. In their day, paid for it in sweat and blood and restrictive laws, burdensome tax- our forests. It Is but natural, And Calls for Continued Federal they thought America finished. loneliness, if not in dollars. ation and the uncertainties arising therefore, that during my years in They belonged to the tribe. seem- As long as great rivers run idly from pyramiding debt. The over- the Senate I have made legisla- Development of Power Resources ingly numerous in each genera- to the sea; as long as vast reaches all solution may only await the in- tion affecting the forests my spe- tion, which holds that the limit of virgin soil await only life-giv- stallation of an Administration cial province. has been reached. Little Americans ing water; as long as well-being is which whole-heartedly wishes Everyone knows that American By the Associated Press West were I, however, to con- they were: the type that advocated inequitably distributed, then we again to see the United States a timber resources are being swiftly Salem, Oreg., Aug. 27.-The demn the New Deal in its en- impeaching Jefferson for his pur- say that America is not finished. going concern. depleted. We take assurance for text of Senator Charles L. chase and derided Seward for Our job is to work for an inte- I come to a problem that pro- the future. however, from the tirety. Candor requires me to foundly touches my emotions. We knowledge that they may, with McNary, of Oregon, accepting buying Alaska. grated self-confident the Republican Vice Presiden- credit this Administration with In like manner. the little ready to undergo the discipline of stand today in the heart of the care and wise governmental poli- tial nomination: certain social gains which have American of 1940 maintains that the pioneer to the end that we last considerable area of virgin cies, be restored. Hapoily a sub- made the lot of the average man our race is run. The throb he may not only survive in a threat- forest left in the United States; stantial portion of our forest lands accept the nomination for Vice hears is not the hum of America's ened world but distribute our the majestic remnants of nearly a are being managed and utilized in President so generously bestowed more secure-if not more fruitful dynamos, but the hardening of blessings more abundantly. The billion acres of timber that clothed ways that best safeguard social upon me by the Republican na- and satisfying. I, for one, do not America's arteries. It is his de- call is for a disciplined population. this country when the first Euro- values, provide maximum em- tional convention last June. I in- choose to relinquish these ad- spondent outlook that deflates the I prefer the self-discipline of the peans saw it. I was born within ployment, guarantee future sup- dorse the platform and renew my vances, where they are genuine; hopes of youth; insists that our pioneer to the imposed discipline sight of the great trees that plies, stabilize streams and soils nor to detract from the humani- industrial plant is overbuilt and of the European autocracies. The characteristically dominate the and conserve our rich endow- loyalty to the candidate for Presi- that we must look forward only western scene from the Rockies to ments of natural beauty and wild pioneer tradition is strong in our dent, the able, magnetic and force- tarian impulses actuating the the Pacific. In my lifetime, I have life. to a slippered senility. blood. All of us. whether our an- ful Wendell L. Willkle. President. In this campiagn I We, of the old Oregon country, cestors crossed the Atlantic in the This IS no ordinary campaign. shall not seek to indict the New Deal's motives. I shall, with all reject the hypothesis of the little seventeenth century or whether Improved Credit, Fairer Taxes The impact of the wars raging American. We are optimists. We we ourselves came in the twen- beyond both our oceans, together the force at my command. attack say that America is not yet half tieth, are pioneers, or the descend- with our urgent concern for the the New Deal's capacity to gov- built. The little American dates ants of pioneers. The virtues of ould Help Forest Interests peace of this hemisphere, sur- ern and the political and economic the decline of American enter- work, thrift, and self-denial for round the political decision we heresies which have deflected us prise from the time when the last the common good are part of our Yet, much more can be done. Power is the prime requisite of are about to 'make with a height- from our courses. free land was thrown open for tradition. We have the tools. The Government equitably could modern industrial existence. A ened gravity. Domestic issues, Every Administration since assume half the cost of abating linked as they are with prepared- loss from fire, insects and disease measure of America's industrial Washington has made progress to- ness and foreign relations. take ward fulfilling the American Full Use of Our Resources to the desirable point where magnitude may be found in the on enlarged significance in our dream. The New Deal is excep- forests might become insurable fact that one-half the installed present mood. tional in that it. alone, has sought Essential to Reconstruction risks. Credit facilities are rudi- horsepower in the world is de- For more than seven years we to substitute new states of mind mentary and inadequate Forest veloped within our borders. Steam have lingered in a backwater, for old, to inculcate reliance on axation too often tends, by lay- denying our destiny: neglecting What are some of the specifica- Moreover, his income during the power made England the indus- the Government in place of self- ing too heavy an immediate bur- our defenses, both spiritual and reliance and to supplant hope with tions for the reconstruction of seven New Deal, or lean, years trial colossus of the nineteenth fear of what lies ahead. has averaged only $7,000,000,000; den, to compel uneconomic ex- century; steam plus electrical material. The great energies of America have been hindered- America? Among the first is the ploitation and forced liquidation. whereas, during the preceding power has made the United States We may forgive the New Deal's incompetence in dealing with eco- preservation and fuller employ- seven years, under Republican ad- Unproductive areas increasingly the industrial giant of the twen- where not actually stifled. Some have lost faith in the future: faith ment of the natural resources of ministrations, it averaged $9,000,- should be acquired for public own- tieth. Yet America's water-power nomic forces; lits inability- un- 000,000. ership and the exploration and resources are still largely unde- in work, the source of well-being. willingness-te- further the em- soil, forest and water power. research arms of the Forest Serv- No party is solely responsible. We ployment of idle capital and idle Bear in mind, if you will, that veloped. In the mountainous parts Prudence dictates that we, at least, the New Deal totals include all ice should be expanded. Deserted of the Pacific West, where strong of the minority have, perhaps, hands. We might overlook the villages and abandoned cut-over failed in vigilance. But the over- confusion in theory and practice conserve those legacies for this the benefit payments from the rivers run unimpeded to the sea, a that have curbed initiative, stalled Treasury of the United States- lands are the price society pays for whelming responsibility rests major portion of the country's po- and future generations. wasteful nudations of our forest upon the party in power. They the engines of production and mul- and that the seven prosperous tential hydroelectric power still have the mandate The prosperity of agriculture Republican years include the areas. The remedy for this ruth- waits to be harnessed. Fortunately, This campaign is more than a tiplied debt We are still a rich should be the first charge on the country. What we cannot forgive black year 1932. which marked less policy is a Government-en- the principle on which this power mere cóntest between rival po- attention of any Administration. the depth of the depression. couraged program of perpetuating may be made available has long litical parties. This campaign is a is that the New Deal, finding itself unable to restore national vital- Throughout this New Deal cycle this natural resource by regulat- Not for sentimental reasons, al- been recognized. The Federal Gov- conflict between philosophies- though society owes a real debt we have been confronted with the ing the voiume of the crop that ernment accepts the obligation to philosophies of government and of ity, fashioned its plan upon the to those who, year in, year out, related phenomena of depressed annually can be harvested. This control floods and assure naviga- action. We must choose in No- thesis that America is finished, means balancing the budget be- tion. Out of these services flows supply it with its first essentials, farm prices and industrial unem- vember whether America shall that our economy is inevitably ployment. With the farmer pro- tween the growth and the cut. contracting, that opportunity has food and raw materials. No, the the by-product of power. advance again along the path, of her historic mission or retreat been extinguished and that, here- reason for our preoccupation with ducing without proft, the city still further into the nelds of fu- the farm problem is social and worker was idle, his consuming after. we must look increasingly to economic betterment. The farm power diminished. I have long Water Power Common Heritage, tility. the Government for jobs, for se- curity and for the oversight of stands somewhere near the center felt that these phenomena could I should be guilty of a narrow not be separated; that a sound Should Be Federally Controlled partisanship unsuited to the great our private lives. of our economy. For 75 years, the farms of America balanced our policy would work toward re- foreign trade and, through ex- lieving both of these disorders. Unfalteringly the Congress has treatment, which I expect to give Concept Has Its Foundations portable surpluses, provided the I shall discuss the farm situation granted to the public preferential it in a later speech. foreign exchange that assisted in in detail later in the campaign. rights to power generated from The resources we have been In Europe's Rampant Statism building our factories, mines and It is a subject near my heart. For 20 years I have sought means and navigable streams. Such power railroads. The first World War considering bear pertinently on a disrupted the profitable trade and, measures to better the lot of the should be a common heritage. The subject uppermost in our minds as That concept. old as human pes- soil, water power and forest. I for 20 years, we have struggled agrarian producer. For the mo- Government, having made this We look across the Atlantic. I stand on that record. Not one ut- power available. should have an simism, germinates now from a with recurring, unmarketable sur- ment, let me say that the Repub- refer to preparedness for defense. tered word can be expunged, not lican platform recommends a indisputable right to control its Europe which has been trans- one vote recalled; nor would I pluses. The last war disclosed deficits in The farm problem is by no hopeful and affirmative farm utilization and distribution. Maxi- power and farm and forest prod- formed-by poverty, political im- wish it otherwise, considering the means the exclusive worry of the program. It indorses the princi- mum benefits for domestic con- ucts. A shortage of power in cer- maturity and war-into a dismal light that then guided us. farmer. In a true and realistic ple of parity. It advocates-and sumers, farmers and small users tain Eastern industrial districts despotism That concept is stat- I should be lacking in senti- sense, the problem is as national this is a departure-incentiv pay- of power should be the yardstick deprived aomestic consumers of ment were I not gratified by the ism-the doctrine of the ascendan- as the problem of national de- ments to farmers willing' to ex- by which we measure the useful- service. Food deficiencies caused presence of the notification com- fense. Permit me to cite an periment with tillage of crops we ness and serviceability of every meatless, wheatless days and the cy'of the State over the individual. mittee. Many of them crossed the example: Statisticians find an now import. We stand pledged Federal development. Moreover, plowing up of the short grass I deny its validity in terms of a continent to be with us. I hope uncanny correspondence between to continue soil conservation pay- rates should be maintained at the prairies in what is now the dust youthful, vital America. I charge, they find compensation in the gross farm income and industrial moreover, that the diffusion of that grandeur of our mountains and ments, commodity surplus loans; lowest level consistent with sound bowl. pay rolls in a given year. When, to encourage acquisition of farms amortization. Where irreconcil- In common with what I believe forests and the enchantment of concept has impaired the national as in 1929, farm income rose to the Willamette Valley. I hope by tenants and for research able conflicts arise between public to be the overwhelming majority spirit and if persisted in might $12,000,000,000, factory pay rolls they may be recompensed also by aimed at developing industrial and private interests in the de- of my countrymen I oppose in- well rob us in time of the will to also were 12,000,000,000; and uses for products of the soil. We velopment and distribution of volvment in foreign military ad- the opportunity of mingling with free. when, in 1932, farm income this assemblage" of free citizens What we need. in times like dropped to $5,000,000,000, indus- favor continuing the food-stamp power, private holdings should ventures. América, as always, of the oid Oregon country-the trial pay rolls fell off similarly program, which serves the double not be confiscated; and we now- prefers peace. But America does have a working precedent for such these, is more democracy-not less. Northwestern empire, which once The New Deal has administered purpose of assisting the needy not prefer the peace of appease- embraced all' of Oregon, Washing- and helping the farmer by reduc- fair treatment in the recent ac- In(an earlier period of doubt and ment nor the surrender of our dismay, Walt Whitman, the good, the farm problem for more than ton and Idaho and parts of Mon- ing surplus crops. The platform quisition by purchase of private seven years. What is the present national dignity. our independence gray poet of a dynamic America, offers no magic formula. The companies by the Tennessee Val- tana and Wyoming. This is pioneer of action, our political freedom or state of the American farmer, thus admonished his country: country still. We here are pio- who, with his dependents, make problem is far too complexia ley Authority. the civilized values that we up a quarter of our population? anys all-embracing oure. It does From the standpoint of the cherish. "Sail, sail thy best, Ship of De- neers and the sons and daughters Treasury, the records of the great of pioneers; of the stock that car- In the year 1939, his share of the constitute a promise that the Re- The existence of aggressive des- mocracy, Of value is thy freight; 'tis not publican Party genuinely seeks public power projects at Boulder ried American sovereignty from national income was the lowest pots in Europe is not new to our Canyon on the Colorado and at the present only, the Mississippi across the magni- since statistics have been kept. solutions. experience. We administered a Bonneville on the Columbia are ficent Rocky Mountain region to lesson to George III. Napoleon The past is also stored in thee." the Pacific conquering and sub- Eccontially One reassuring. Both are liquidating inconvenienced our commerce.