Platform of 1934

The platform committee of the Demo-cratic party is composed of one member who sits regularly at the President's desk at the White House. Not for months has that committee addressed "my friends" by radio. Last week he penned a piece of political literature that will be quoted and requoted throughout the land for the next five months.

Month ago the Press reported that President Roosevelt intended to send Congress a message on "social legislation." At a subsequent conference with newshawks he wondered aloud how such erroneous information could have got abroad, for he had no such intention. Last week, after the Republican National Committee had met in Chicago and found the country "backward in social legislation" (see p. 15), the President suddenly changed his mind. His message demanded no action from the outgoing Congress. Avoiding most controversial issues it was couched in such general, promising and reassuring terms that politicians took it simply as the Dem-ocratic platform for the 1934 Congressional election.

The President had evidently decided that now was the time for him to come to the aid of his Party. The Literary Digest poll showed the public ''on the whole" approved of the New Deal about 3-to-2. In the East, Roosevelt popularity was pulling ahead of the 1932 vote but throughout the Midwest the President was apparently slipping. For the first time Democrats began to worry about their possible losses in a nation-wide election lacking a popular national candidate to help them through. Last week's message was the nearest practical approach to put- ting Franklin D. Roosevelt personally into the field. Its high spots:

Party Achievements: "On the side of relief we have extended material aid to millions of our fellow citizens. . . . On the side of recovery we have helped to lift agriculture and industry from a condition of utter prostration. . . . WTe have determined to safeguard these tasks by rebuilding many of the structures of our economic life and of reorganizing it in order to prevent a recurrence of collapse."

Objectives: "Among our objectives I place the security of the men, women and children of the nation first. . . . People want decent homes to live in; they want to locate them where they can engage in productive work; and they want some safeguard against misfortunes which cannot be wholly eliminated in this man-made world of ours." Legislative Proposals: i) "There is ample private money for sound housing projects; and the Congress, in a measure now before you, can stimulate the lending of money for the modernization of existing homes and the building of new homes. In pursuing this policy we are working toward the ultimate objective of making it possible for American families to live as Americans should. 2) "... We have so far failed to create a national policy for the development of our land and water resources and for their better use by those people who cannot make a living in their present positions. Only thus can we permanently elimjnate many millions of people from the relief rolls. [In] some sections of the North-west and Southwest . . . many million acres of land must be restored to grass or trees if we are to prevent a new and man-made Sahara. 3) "I am looking for a sound means which I can recommend to provide at once security against several of the great disturbing factors in life--especially those which relate to unemployment and old age. ... I believe that the funds necessary to provide this insurance should be raised by contribution rather than by an increase in general taxation. Above all, I am convinced that social insurance should be national in scope, although the several States should meet at least a large portion of the cost of management, leaving to the Federal Government the responsibility of investing, maintaining and safeguarding the funds constituting the necessary insurance reserves." Defenses: "This Congress has not only set an example of large vision for all time, but has almost consigned to oblivion our ancient habit of pork barrel legislation; to that we cannot and must not revert. ... It is childish to speak of recovery first and reconstruction afterward. "Ample scope is left for the exercise of private initiative. In fact, in the process of recovery, I am greatly hoping that repeated promises that private investment and private initiative to relieve the Government in the immediate future of much of the burden it has assumed will be fulfilled. We have not imposed undue restrictions upon business. We have not opposed the incentive of reasonable and legitimate private profit. . . . We have sought to put forward the rule of fair play in finance and industry." Opponents: ". . . There are a few among us who would still go back. These few offer no substitute for the gains already made, nor any hope for making future gains for human happiness. They loudly assert that individual liberty is being restricted by government, but when they are asked what individual liberties they have lost, they are put to it to answer."

What the President said about private initiative and private profit sounded good to many a harried businessman. What he said about old age and jobless insurance sounded good to many a stranded worker. What he said about the long-range objectives of the New Deal sounded good to many a radical visionary. But to none were his words more pleasing than to Democratic Senators and Representatives up for reelection.

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