"WON'T KILL SANTA"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19135, 2 October 1936, Page 4

"WON'T KILL SANTA"

POLITICS IN U.S.A. DEMOCRATS CONFIDENT HUGE EXPENDITURE "Though T merely passed through a portion of the United States on my journey home to New Zealand, I was able to gather from conversations with many people that the return of the Roosevelt Democrat administration is confidently anticipated by American citizens. One man with whom I discussed their political situation summed up the position in these words: 'Nobody, wants to kill Santa Glaus',"' remarked Mr. James Hair, Gisborne, discussing his impressions of overseas conditions in an interview to-day. "The Democrat administration has spent so much money in the effort to restore industrial and social conditions throughout the United States that Roosevelt is regarded as Father Christmas by a large section of the people." Whatever one's own views may bo in regard to the wisdom of spending for recovery, on the lines adopted by the .New , Dealers in . the . United -States, __ it was impossible to. ignore the facts Of the American situation, Mr. Hair continued. From what he had heard in passing through the country, disorders and other political phenomena had been widespread during the early part of the depression there, and the difficulties of any Government must have been accentuated by the presence in the electorate of a large proportion of foreign-bom subjects, many of whom had not been fully assimilated into the American nation. The possibilities of.such a situation in times of world-wide depression had to be taken into consideration in judging the policy of the administration which swept into office in 1932. FLOW OF FEDERAL MONEY. The American people know what the position is to-day. They can only guess at what might have occurred had the Federal Government adopted any other course than that of spending liberally to promote business activity. Every State in the Union, and practically every corner of the hiige republic, had benefited in some degree from the outpouring of Federal money, and while criticism of many major works was heard, the electors were hardly likely, Mr. Hair thought, to voluntarily surrender the immediate benefits oil the Roosevelt, policy, in favour of the m,ore conservative programme offered by the opposing party.

Business people generally might favour the Republican Party's candidate, Mr. A. M. Landon, but they could not displace Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt without interfering with the main source of their present financial flow, while the electorate generally would hardly be expected to turn its back on the Government which had made many ,of them its debtors without individual responsibility.