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"Just let me quote something from the President's message to Congress: 'In thirty-four months we have set up new instruments of public power in the hands of the people's Government, which power is wholesome and appropriate, but in the hands of political puppets, of an economic autocracy, such power would provide shackles for the liberties of our people.' Now I interpret that to mean that 'if you are going to have an autocrat—take me! But be very careful about the other fellow.'
"There is a complete answer to that. . . . We don't want any autocrats, either in or out of office. We wouldn't even take a good one. . . . "No Administration in the history of the country came into power with a more simple, a more clear, or a more inescapable mandate than the party that was inaugurated on the 4th of March in 1933, and, listen, no candidate in the history of the country ever pledged himself more unequivocally to his party platform than did the President who was inaugurated on that day. Well, here we are.
"First plank: 'We advocate an immediate drastic reduction of governmental expenditures. . . .'
"Another plank: 'We favor maintenance of the National credit by a Federal budget annually balanced.' . . .
"When I was Governor of New York, they said I borrowed a lot of money. That wouldn't worry me. If it solved our problems and we were out of trouble, I would say, 'All right, let it go.' But the sin of it is that we have the indebtedness, and at the end of three years we are just where we started. . . .
"Here is another one: 'We promise the enactment of every constitutional measure that will aid the farmers to receive for their basic farm commodities prices in excess of cost.' Well, what's the use of talking about that? . . .
"Another one: 'We promise the removal of Government from all fields of private enterprise.' . . . "Did you read in the papers a short time ago where somebody said that business was going to get a breathing spell? What is the meaning of that? . . . When the aggressor is punching the head off the other fellow, he suddenly takes compassion on him and gives him a breathing spell before he delivers the knockout wallop. . . .
"I am going to let you in on something. . . . How do you suppose all this happened? This is the way it happened: The young brain-trusters caught the Socialists in swimming and they ran away with their clothes. Now, it is all right with me, if they want to disguise themselves as Karl Marx or Lenin or any of the rest of that bunch, but I won't stand for their allowing them to march under the banner of Jefferson or Jackson or Cleveland. . . .
"Now what is worrying me is: Where does that leave us millions of Democrats? My mind is all fixed upon the convention in June in Philadelphia. The committee on resolutions is about to report. The preamble to the platform is: 'We, the representatives of the Democratic party, in convention assembled, heartily endorse the Democratic Administration.'