TWO CANDIDATES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 139, 13 June 1936, Page 11

TWO CANDIDATES.

U.S.A. ELECTIONS.

FIGHT FOR PRESIDENCY.

REPUBLICAN PARTY MEN.

Balanced budgets, economy, sound money and honest relief are the planks of the platform on which Mr. Alfred M. Landon, of Kansas, who has been selected Presidential nominee by the Republicans for the forthcoming contest in the United States. As Governor of Kansas, he recently made a speech in furtherance of his "middle of the road" policy, in which he quoted Mr. Theodore' Roosevelt, "The old pioneer days are gone; but the need for the old pioneer virtues remains."

The Republican Presidential candidate accused the New Deal of taking millidns and millions in taxes to build a partisan political machine out of want and misery, of "discrimination" in farm policies, and of "debauch" of the Civil Service.

"It was a good, sound, sensible address,"' said the "What Governor Landon is trying to do is to think the present problems through and arrive at what seems to be the best practical solution under existing conditions. He labours under no illusions concerning his own abilities. He knows that he is no miracle man gifted with omniscience or omnipotence. He clearly indicates that, if elected to the presidency, the betterment of agricultural conditions will be one of his chief concerns. Taken as a whole, the speech is the utterance of an honest, fairminded and practical man. If ever this country needed a man of that kind in the White House it needs him now." Strong Opposition. That was the view of one arm of the Press, but the opposition thought differently. "The poll leader for the Republican Presidential nomination accomplished one thing —he crossed the Rubicon," said a Democratic journal. "Habitually cautious in speech, he lashed out lustily against the New Deal,

which heretofore he has handled with the greatest timidity, and at times with faint-hearted approval of certain phases of it. There were no kind words to soothe the New Deal liberals of these prairie States. He sang high tenor in that chorus of critics who criticise without reservation. His song had as its theme wasteful, incompetent relief, administered, he said, with rank partisanship.

"His own State's record is the answer. Kansas, as a State, contributed 373,860 dollars, and received 51,500,000 dollars from Washington. Through Federal money, Kansas farmers were sheltered, fed and clothed. Governor Landon safd it should have been handled differently, but how, he did not say." Keynote Bluntnesa. Bluntness was the keynote of Colonel Frank Knox's bid for nomination for the vice-Presidency, which he withdrew in favour of Mr. Landon. A rough rider who charged up San Juan Hill with Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, a publisher who worked his way up from a newsboy, Colonel Knox never hesitates to speak his mind. In 1933 he said that the N.R.A. and the Agricultural Administration Act would not work. A year later he was mentioned as a Republican possibility. He toured political nervecentres from the Hoover stronghold in California to Republican New England. Political observers said it was cally inexpedient" for Colonel Knox to have his name linked with the White House so early in the game. Close friends answered that he was more concerned with being forthright than expedient. Hence, knowing that he would be attacked from both the Left and the Right, he boldly offered a farm programme to replace the A.A.A. He advocated paying the bonus from the billions appropriated for relief. Pressed for his platform, he answered "Why not carry out the provisions of the Democratic platform of 19.32?" Colonel Knox cannot be classed definitely as either "Liberal" or "Conservative." An admirer of the ideals of Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, he has social sympathies which cover a wide range. He proposed old-age pensions of 30 dollars a month. He' believes that pensions should be administered by the States, rather than by the Government. He is convinced that the Social Security Act is unconstitutional.