AMERICAN POLITICS

Hokitika Guardian, 22 December 1930, Page 7

AMERICAN POLITICS

RESULTS OF RECENT ELECTIONS.

VANCOUVER, Nov. 12

Tho United States for both Houses of Congress have produced a crazy quilt that will furnish no pattern, l’or constructive adniini.qtratiion. until tho Presidential elections two years hence. Neither of the dominant parties in either House can give a lead to the country; they must mark time.

Four reasons may be assigned for the .defeat of the Republicans, for their lass of seats and prestige amounts to defeat. Firstly, they have been in power a dozen years, and the people seek change. Secondly, the depression has been laid at the door of the Hoover Administration. Thirdly, there is dissatisfaction at the manner of dealing with unemployment. Fourthly, the growing unpopularity of Prohibition, at whose door the present unprecedented crime wave is laid.

Taking the last first, there is no guarantee whatever that mime will decrease when the Bale of liquor is permitted. Respect for law in the United States, whether there be Prohibition or the open saloon, lias dwindled to vanishing point, chiefly because the people have no respect for judges magistrates and law officials whose appointments depend on popular vote, or as is proven in the recent revelations in New York State may be purchased, njow permeate every agency of public discipline; there will be no euro for present tills till the judge on the bench ceases to regard the offender in the dqclc as a possible political supporter. That time will never he in the present generation. The “dry law” lias been under attack, growing in intensity, from some of tlie most powerful newspapers and Press syndicates in the United States, which ascribe to it all or any of the aggregation of crimes of violence that 'make the American people the least law-abiding on earth. So Strong js this influence that "big brewing interests were preparing, a month before tine elections, to set up plants for the manufacture of beer. Tt is a significant fact that, immediately after the election, President Hoover’s law enforcement commission began a study of liquor control systems. The prevailing depression and unemployment are laid by the Democrats at the door of the Republicans. Holding the reins of office, they should have averted the stock market crash of October, 1929, in which the small investor was th© real sufferer. . The Administration, in close touch with Wall Street, the bankjs, financial organisations and i.big public ,(corporations, could, if they wished, in view of Democrats, have saved the nation from the huge losses suffered in the aggregate Iby individuals who could not afford to lose. The objection is not so much to the measures being taken to relieve the distress and unemployment that have resulted; they should not have been allowed to ocoilr, A country that could, by m.{\«s production and standardisation of manufacture, percolate through all the buying markets pf the world, should be qibjq to keep the ship of State tm an even, economic keel. That Is the charge the Democrats make.

What will be the effects of the change? The Smoot-Hawley tariff, \yhlch halted the purchase of American goods by foreign countries to the extent Of ft billion dollars in the first year of its operation, may or may not survive. Certainly thy ■ way is paved for revision, That tariff had the effect of reviving the sentiment of in-ter-imperial trade, British countries, momentarily distracted by the versatility and cheapness of American manufactures, are now regaining their confidence in the quality of their own. Canada’s, pvtv» ! b««ea of American goods declined nearly hv half. h«ot only was this falling-off observed in the concert of British nations, it extended to foreign countries. America is in fqr ft hard time, and with the Administration rocking precariously, the period of the depression will be extended,