New Dealer

Washington. Oregon and California stopped, looked and listened last week as Franklin Delano Roosevelt preached them his gospel of "a new deal." At Los Angeles, the two-thirds post of his campaign tour, the Democratic nominee turned the corner and headed east with his no-error record still standing. If September crowds and applause meant November votes (which no rule says they do) the Pacific Coast was in his bag.

Governor Roosevelt got his first red-hot reception at Seattle. From 75,000 throats roared forth a boisterous welcome as he rode through the streets with Mayor John Dore, nominal Republican, who declared: "President Hoover is a menace." Senator Clarence Cleveland Dill quickly squeezed himself close to the man whose nomination at Chicago he had helped engineer. Visiting a hospital for crippled children, lame Governor Roosevelt sympathized: "It's a little difficult for me to stand on my feet, too."

"Insull Monstrosity." Next stop was Portland. Governor Roosevelt's reception was noticeably cooler than in Seattle. His third full-length address was on the power issue. Even the Republican Press conceded that it was factually sound and rang true. He began with a slashing attack upon "certain great private utility corporations" for what he called their "systematic, subtle, deliberate and unprincipled campaign of misinformation, propaganda, lies and falsehood." He charged them, in addition, with overcapitalization, rigging State public service commissions, selfish nearsightedness. He specified:

"The crash of the Insull empire has given excellent point to the truth of what I have been arguing. The great Insull monstrosity' had distributed securities among hundreds of thousands of investors. ... It was an important factor in the lives of millions of people. The name was magic. . . . The investing public did not realize that there had been arbitrary write-ups of assets, inflation of vast capital accounts . . . that excessive prices had been paid for property acquired . . . that payments of dividends had been made out of capital . . . that some subsidiaries had been milked to keep alive weaker sisters in the chain . . . The Insull failure has opened our eyes. ... As always the public paid and paid dearly."

As remedies Governor Roosevelt proposed: 1) full publicity for all capital investments, all stock and bond ownership, all inter-company contracts; 2) regulation of holding companies by the Federal Power Commission; 3) rates based not, as now, on reproduction costs, but upon that portion of the original plant investment which could be called "prudent"; 4) a criminal statute against false and deceptive matter relating to public utilities.

"Undeniable Right." "I do not hold with those," went on New Dealer Roosevelt, "who advocate government ownership or operation of all utilities. . . . [But] where a community is not satisfied with a private utility, it has the undeniable right to set up, after a fair referendum, its own governmentally owned and operated service. . . . State-owned or Federal-owned power sites can and should be developed by government itself. ... I favor giving the people this right [to operate power plants] where and when it is essential to protect them against inefficient service or exorbitant charges. The natural hydroelectric power resources belonging to the people shall remain forever in their possession. . . ."

Johnson Bid. When the Roosevelt Special crossed the California line, long, lean William Gibbs McAdoo clambered aboard to take charge. Also aboard was Justus Wardell whom Mr. McAdoo defeated in the August primary for the Democratic Senatorial nomination. Governor Roosevelt spent hours patching up a peace between them.

At Sacramento Governor Roosevelt made a bold bid for the support of Insurgent Republican Senator Hiram Johnson. Senator Johnson, snubbed by Charles Evans Hughes in 1916. let California go Democratic in 1916. thus keeping Woodrow Wilson in the White House. This year Senator Johnson silently dreams of the defeat of his archfoe and fellow- Californian, Herbert Hoover. Well posted on this old animosity, Governor Roosevelt praised Senator Johnson as "long a warrior in the ranks of true American progress," subscribed "100%" to the Johnson doctrine that "a government that thinks only of a favored few and forgets farmers and toilers is unfit to govern."

Senator Johnson made a deep rhetorical bow of appreciation to Governor Roosevelt whose attitude, he declared, "is in sharp contrast with that of Mr. Hoover's." Said he: "For 22 years I've been making the Progressive fight here. For the remainder of my years I shall continue to make that fight." There was no overt promise of support but Californians expect to see many a Johnsonite voting the Roosevelt-Garner ticket in November.

Princes of Property. San Francisco gave Governor Roosevelt another royal welcome. Governor Rolph, though a Republican, paid a courtesy call on him at the Palace Hotel. In the same hall where he was nominated for the Vice Presidency in 1920, Governor Roosevelt delivered a speech to 16,000 noisy friends. It was largely a rehash of earlier remarks.

More significant, more scholarly, more profound was Governor Roosevelt's address to 2,000 businessmen of the Commonwealth Club. Nominally nonpartisan, it furnished a real insight into Governor Roosevelt's economic ideas. His thesis was that financial power, as massed today in the hands of a few, constitutes a public trust. Excerpts:

"Our economic life is dominated by some 600-odd corporations who control two-thirds of American industry. ... If the process of concentration goes on at the same rate at the end of another century we shall have all American industry controlled by a dozen corporations and run by perhaps 100 men. We are steering a steady course toward economic oligarchy, if we are not there already. . . .

"Every man has a right to his own property. ... In all thought of property this right is paramount. ... I am not prepared to say that the system which produces princes of property is wrong. I am very clear that they must assume the responsibility which goes with the power.

"Whenever the lone wolf, the unethical competitor, the reckless promoter, the Ishmael or Insull whose hand is against every man's, declines to join an end recognized as being for the public welfare and threatens to drag the industry back to a stage of anarchy, the government may properly be asked to apply restraint."

"Understanding Heart." At the Los Angeles station 30 ragged individuals appeared with a placard: "Welcome to Roosevelt from the Forgotten Men." The Governor was greeted by Charles H. Randall, Republican president of the City Council. Mayor John C. Porter, who last year declined to drink an alcoholic toast in France, at first refused to receive the Democratic nominee "because he's Wet and I'm Dry." When amid hurrahing thousands the Roosevelt automobile passed City Hall, Mayor Porter sprinted out, ran up to the machine, stuck out his hand, panted: "III want to welcome you to Los Angeles." All smiles, Governor Roosevelt shook his hand, said: "Thank you. I'm glad to be here. It's a great day and a great crowd."

At the Hollywood Bowl, Governor Roosevelt told 25,000 clapping, cheering citizens: "Prosperity can be restored only by definite action. That's the reason I ask for a new deal. I promise an understanding heart. I promise to give the best that's in me and nobody can do more than that."

Roosevelt visitors at the Biltmore Hotel included Publishers William Randolph Hearst, Robert Paine Scripps, Bernarr Macfadden. The Hearst and Macfadden press are already behind the Democratic nominee. The Scripps-Howard papers are expected to swing over momentarily.

After visiting an electrical pageant at the Olympic Stadium as the guest of Publisher Hearst's friend Marion Davies and other cinema celebrities, Governor Roosevelt rolled off to Williams, Ariz. where he joined his wife, spent a few restful hours at the Quarter Circle Double X ranch of Mrs. Isabella Greenway, one of Mrs. Roosevelt's bridesmaids.

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