The Pittsburgh Press (September 17, 1944)
Editorial: Experience
A reader suggests that this is an appropriate time to reprint an editorial of four years ago, since it dealt with a theme that is likewise dominant in this political campaign. The editorial was published in The Pittsburgh Press Oct. 3, 1940 – more than a year before our country entered the war and the big spending began – under the title “Experience.” Here it is:
Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only living man who has had nearly eight years of experience as President of the United States, Therefore, we hear it argued, it is essential that he should have what no other President ever had – a third term.
This is, of course, an argument that will be even more forceful if Mr. Roosevelt, having had nearly 12 years of experience, decides to be drafted for a fourth term. But there’s no denying that, even now, Mr. Roosevelt has had vast experience, including:
The experience of spending more money than any other President.
The experience of incurring the biggest public debt in this country’s history.
The experience of keeping spending always ahead of income, although federal revenue has been almost trebled.
The experience of building the federal payroll to record size.
The experience of expanding bureaucracy to unprecedented proportions.
The experience of declaring more emergencies and exercising more power than any other peacetime President.
The experience of seeing new enterprise remain stagnant longer than ever before.
And the experience of seeing more Americans unemployed for more years than ever before.