Martin installed as GOP chairman
Says day of reckoning for New Dealers is at hand
Chicago, Illinois (AP) –
Rep. Joseph W. Martin (R-MA) took up the gavel as permanent chairman of the Republican National Convention today with a declaration that his party would “save constitutional government at home” and “build an enduring peace.”
Martin, House Minority Leader, told the delegates the “day of reckoning” was at hand for the New Deal because people are “tired of bungling and fumbling, waste and extravagance, arrogance and bureaucratic dictatorship.” Even some Democrats have rebelled, he said.
He went on:
We have seen the head of the Communist political party in this country, Earl Browder, merge his political party with Sidney Hillman’s CIO Political Action Committee in a drive for a fourth term for President Roosevelt, and the election of a Congress that will be subservient to the will of those organizations.
It presents a vital issue of this campaign. Do the people want these radical organizations, with their avowed purpose to remake America, to control the Presidency, to secure a “rubber stamp” Congress, and to nominate… our government? Of course they don’t.
Martin outlined the course he believed the Republican administration would pursue and concluded:
We will save constitutional government at home and, on the firm foundation of freedom and individual opportunity, we will build an enduring peace.
Martin said:
The first thing the Republican Party will do when it comes into power will be to restore to Congress its responsibility and functions…
He promised a “genuine economy in government,” and a tax system as simple as possible, equitable and designed to stimulate industry and create jobs.
Labor will retain “all the essential rights and just privileges it has gained,” Martin continued, while agriculture will be assured “a commensurate return on investment and labor.”