The Milwaukee Journal (October 20, 1940)
GIVE AMERICA WISE MANAGER, WILLKIE PLEADS
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That and Hard Work Are Only Magic Keys to Recovery, He Asserts in Minneapolis Speech
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Minneapolis, Minn. (AP) –
Saying that he had not promised “to pull white rabbits out of tall silk hats,” Wendell L. Willkie declared Saturday night that “a safe strong and prosperous America” could be accomplished only by "hard work
Although devoted primarily to farm problems, the Republican presidential nominee’s speech to 12,000 persons who filled the municipal auditorium here also urged a strong national defense and contended that the New Deal has been leading the nation on the road to bankruptcy.
Solution of the farm problem, he said, does not lie “in sudden decisions and trick schemes designed to catch votes,” but must be evolved step by step from experience.
Attack on Business Insane
The insane attack that the New Deal has carried on against business and industry for the last eight years has hurt the farmers. The New Deal tactics have made it impossible for business to expand. More than 9,000,000 men have been unemployed for the last four years. Many unemployed return to the farms and have to be supported. If they stay in the cities they cannot buy as much food as they need. Putting them back to work will create new purchasing power for the farmer’s products and will greatly accelerate the effort to obtain for him a fair share of the national income.
There is neither magic nor trick in such a program. I have not promised to pull white rabbits out of tall silk hats. We can accomplish the miracle of a safe, strong and prosperous America, but we can accomplish it only by the magic that has always been within the power of the American people – hard work, faith in ourselves and sound leadership in government.
Administration Key Factor
The opportunity for productive work today depends upon the character of your nation al administration. An administration that fosters bitterness and intolerance, an administration that plays politics with the livelihood and hopes of the people, is not the kind of administration that can lead the way to safety, strength and prosperity.
You men and women of Minnesota know the results that can be achieved through effective government leadership.
Two years ago, in a people’s crusade, you cast out a corrupt political machine and placed in power an administration ledged to honest and efficient methods in the conduct of government. Within the brief space of two years your state has made remarkable strides in reorganizing and simplifying government procedure, installing sound methods, improving the relations between all of your citizens, and expanding a social welfare program with high standards of aid to needy men and women. At the same time tour budget has been balanced and your indebtedness reduced.
In terms of broad objectives the kind of a job that is being done in our national government – and it shall be done if you help send us to Washington.
No matter how noble a theory of government may be, it cannot work well and effectively unless it is pursued in high principle, executed in honesty and directed with competence.
That is another way of saying that the federal government must be well managed. We all know that if a business or a farm were managed the way our government has been managed during the last seven and a half years, it would be – as our federal government along the road to bankruptcy.
For instance, in accordance with the plan of the crop control program, farmers in the middle west are instructed to restrict the acreage of corn. They are told that this will reduce the corn surplus. But then we discover that farmers in the south, who have been instructed to restrict the acreage of cotton, are planting corn.
That is bad management. Instead of crop control it produces a crop merry-go-round. And what I’d like to know is: Who gets the brass ring?
Too Many on Pay Roll
A sure sign of bad management is an unnecessary increase in personnel. The New Deal has added to the government pay roll on a scale unprecedented in history. It now has more than a million employees on that pay roll which is more than Woodrow Wilson needed to fight the World War.
Another sign of bad management is undue centralization of authority. The good manager in charge of a big job find good men and delegates authority to them. The New Deal has concentrated authority in every branch of the government. It has not trusted the people. It has tried to run everything from Washington under the mistaken notion that it alone – the New Deal – is indispensable.
Now let me reassure you on this point. I do not think I am the only man in America who can manage competently the administrative affairs of this country. There are no indispensable men in America. There are literally many thousands who would make effective mangers of the great business of government.
National Debt Doubled
If I am elected to the position of chief executive, I will retain in Washington those men of competence who are already there working on the defense program. I will also go out into the country and bring
The floundering management of the New Deal has also failed to build us a defense system. The New Deal candidate started talking about defense nearly five years ago – in January 1936 to be precise. But still, after five years, we are deficient in all the essential items of defense – airplanes, guns, tanks and even the ability to make them.
On top of that record of mismanagement, the New Deal is asking you to violate one of the most necessary traditions of our democracy. It wants you to elect it for a third term.
And incidentally, when the third term candidate begins to make those political speeches after abandoning those nonmilitary inspection trips, I would like to know how he can claim to be a liberal reform leader while having the Frank Hagues, the Kelly-Nashes, and the Ed Flynns trying to steal elections in three of our major cities.
My fellow citizens, rally to this cause of ours. Don’t risk the future of this country by delivering it back again to a small and powerful group of men. Don’t give it back to men who have shown time after time their inability to manage the huge jib that has been their responsibility.
Don’t let them waste this country away with their extravagant schemes and their windy talk.
“New America Awaits”
Let us join together here in a deep resolve to save our country. Let us join together to make it strong. Let us start the wheels of industry going; let us open up new markets for the farmer; let us have the courage that we once had, that we have always had, to make our American dream come true.
Truly, truly a new America awaits us. It lies just ahead of us. It calls to us to have the courage to build it and to make it live.
While traveling across Wisconsin and Minnesota on the way here for the night address, Willkie said he was pleased that Senator Hiram John son (R-CA) had come out for him.
At La Crosse, Wis., Saturday morning, he said:
The argument of Senator Johnson centers largely on the third term. I think it is the most masterly presentation of that issue which I have ever said.
The nominee voiced a belief that “other outspoken citizens” would announce their support of him within a few days.