A special Chesapeake & Ohio train late one night last week picked up President Hoover at Orange, Va., whither he had motored from his Rapidan camp, and carried him across the Appalachians and the Alleghenies on what was widely recognized as the opening of his campaign for re-election next year. His special whisked him through West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio, all States that had turned against him last year, and on to Indiana. At Indianapolis he detrained, was greeted by Governor Harry Guyer Leslie. His first address was delivered in the evening to 5,000 members and guests of the Indiana Republican Editorial Association dining at the State Fair Grounds.
As Prosperity was the Republican text in the 1928 campaign, so Depression is generally expected to be its theme in 1932. Therefore the President spoke on this subject as "dominant before the country today." Excerpts:
Causes. "The main causes of this Depression came from outside the U. S. . . . our wild speculation, our stock promotion, our loose and extravagant business methods, our unprecedented drought . . . the malign inheritances of the Great War . . . huge taxes . . . mounting armament . . . over-rapid expansion of production, collapse in price of many foreign raw materials ... the demonetization of silver. . . .
Doughnut's Hole. "Repeated shocks stimulate fear and hesitation among our businessmen. These fears and apprehensions are unnecessarily increased by that minority of people who would make political capital out of the Depression through magnifying our unemployment and losses. Other small groups make their contribution to distress by raids on our markets to profit from depreciation of securities and commodities. Both groups are within the law; they are equally condemned by public and business opinion.
. . . With no desire to minimize the realities we must appraise the other side of this picture. We must not look only at the empty hole in the middle of the doughnut. . . . Our people are working harder. . . . Savings are the largest in our history. . . . Consumption is proceeding at a higher rate. . . . Stability is on the ascendancy. The underlying forces of recovery are asserting themselves. . . ." Ship Steadying. "We have assured the country from panic. . . . We have steadily urged the maintenance of wages. . . . We have sustained the people in 21 [drought] States. . . . We are saving our farmers and workmen through the tariff. : . . We are holding down taxation. . . . We are rigidly excluding immigration. . . . We shall keep this ship steady in the storm. . . . We will prevent any unnecessary distress. . . . We will recover from the Depression."