150 State Papers and Addresses

dollars and cents, through the employment and advancement of the young
people of today, who as a result will be worthwhile citizens of tomorrow.

We are justified in feeling that the Party to which we owe allegiance has
been the instrumentality of good government, and that it has been versatile
and capable of meeting any situation with which the Country has been faced.
Discussion is frequently heard that some recent undertakings of government
were never intended to be projected when a central union was conceived. We
will hear more of this opposition as 1940 progresses—more talk of returning
to the "catch as catch can" methods of Big Business; more argument to the
effect that government has no responsibility toward such minorities as the sick
and needy, the luckless inhabitants of the Dust Bowl, the slum dwellers and the
sweat shop children. But we contend that democracy, as represented by the
Party bearing that name, believes that it has a duty beyond mere governmental
routine. As democracy has become more Americanized it has also become
humanized. Let us again turn back a page of history.

It was Jefferson who brought the idea of equality into politics. That was
a great shock to the conservatives of his day who had inherited our ideas from
abroad, and the very thought of allowing the working man to have a vote
sounded like anarchy. He was a dangerous radical, some thought, and he was
even called a much harsher name, "a Democrat, " which, in those days was
equivalent to an insult. Nevertheless, the Jeffersonian doctrine was endorsed
by the voters and, strangely enough, the Country survived. Not only did it sur-
vive, but it actually prospered.

What happened during the early 1800's was thai; democracy had taken out
another set of naturalization papers. During the twenty-eight years when the
Party of Jefferson remained in power, voting restrictions dropped away and
the Country witnessed the first great wave of popular government, culminating
in the election of Andrew Jackson. But by the time "Old Hickory" came into
office, the radical ideas of yesterday had gathered conservative moss. A few
die-hards still believed suffrage would eventually ruin the Country, but they
were willing to let someone else worry about that so long as government kept
hands off business. And as Jefferson felt that government belonged to the
people, so Andrew Jackson contended that it owed protection to the people.

His fight to subdue the monopolistic banking corporation, enthroned in the
government, revealed a new conception of social responsibility in a political
party. We can tonight trace the spirit of Andrew Jackson down through the
pioneering administration of other great Democratic presidents—of Grover
Cleveland, who electrified the country with his ringing slogan: "A public office
is a public trust; " of Woodrow Wilson, with Thomas R. Marshall, of Indiana,
at his side, whose philosophy of the new Freedom opened new frontiers of
humanized government, and finally down to the far-reaching, progressive and
socially-minded achievements of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

No more opportune time than the present for members of our Party to re-
peat the announced principles of Jackson and of Jefferson, and more especially
to re-dedicate themselves to those first principles, which their careers and
campaigns did so much to exemplify. This is particularly true at this very hour,
both because of extraordinary conditions at home and the revolutionary condi-
tions abroad. In domestic matters, we must be alert to preserve the results of
the progressive action of the Democratic Administration during the past seven
years. The people of this Country do not want to return to the day when social