The Wanganui Chronicle FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1936. ALFRED M. LANDON

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 144, 19 June 1936, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1936. ALFRED M. LANDON

QXUE again in the history of the United States a compromise personality has been chosen to represent a great political party, and is likely, in consequence, to lead the nation as its President. It is no bad sign because there is the tremendous precedent of Abraham Lincoln. When he was nominated for the leadership of the Republican Party he had not attained to a national reputation. Alfred M. Landon, while not in the front rank, is certainly a man who is on the move up. There is nothing particular about Mr. Landon. He seems to be more than an ordinary average sort of State politician. Had the United States of America to depend for its guidance upon that which has been offered by its Mr. Landon, then it would have lacked a lot. There is some irony in a situation which awards the front rank place to a man because he has refrained from exercising himself in the front rank. It would be a sorry day for public life if the way to high office were to be through an astute refraining from entering into controversies, which is another way of saying that a man has refused to accept the responsibilities of negotiating public business. If Mr. Landon belongs anywhere it is in the Left Wing of the Republican Party. Left Wings, of a Right Party tend to enfold men of progressive thought and policy, but the fact that they go into the Rightist camp at all is usually a sign that they have a sense of what might be termed the evolutionary movement in polities. They desire to build on the present structure, believing that it is better to accept the wisdom of the ages rather than shatter the world to bits to build it nearer to their heart’s desire. Governor Landon’s public activities in Kansas indicate that his is the former cast of mind. He has carried Ihe State of Kansas through the. slump with a balanced budget. “You cannot spend what you do not have,” is declared to be his creed. It was a principle of his administration of the State of Kansas that officials should not outrun the constable. They could spend what was in their possession to spend, but they could not anticipate revenue. During his regime the State of Kansas funded 11,000,000 dollars of floating debt. Ho also put limits to the taxes which could be assessed on property. These unimaginative financial provisions, which are by no means as spectacular as the programme of Mi-. Aberhart in Alberta, never received particular attention until it came to be noticed that the State of Kansas was one of the first States in the Union to emerge from the difficulties of the depression. In 1929 Kansas’ income was 133,600,000 dollars, and in 1934 it was reduced to 97,760.000 dollars. In 1929 the per capita cost of State and local Government in Kansas was 71 dollars, but in 1935 it was 62.56 dollars. It is not surprising that the people of Kansas, despite the popularity of President Roosevelt and the Democrat ticket, gave to Governor Landon a comfortable majority and awarded him the distinction of being the only Republican Governor to be reelected at the State general elections. Nor is it surprising that he should have been elected by the Republican Party to enter the Presidential fight on that party’s behalf, for he is the very opposite of President Roosevelt in policy. The latter is for anticipating the future, for priming the pump, for inducing prosperity by spending: the other is for meeting circumstances as they present themselves, for cutting one’s coat according to the doth in hand, by living to one’s income and refusing to mortgage the future. The Roosevelt policy emerges from the depression with a tremendous deadweight of debt, -while the Landon policy emerges with a lightened load even as compared with the burden carried in predepression days. President Roosevelt is a gambler, Governor Landon is a realist. The forthcoming contest between these two personalities will indeed be interesting.