National Affairs: Some Facts

At the Republican Convention last summer, ex-President Herbert Hoover, 77, and well aware of “the inexorable course of nature,” made what he believed to be his last major address and bade an emotional farewell to politics. Last week, at Dwight Eisenhower’s personal request, he stepped back into public life to speak out against “misrepresentations” about the G.O.P. with which “the American people have been deluged” in the last 20 years. Speaking over a national radio & television hookup, Elder Statesman Hoover aimed his speech at the “40 million voters who have come of age since there was a Republican administration in Washington.”

Because “new voters have known little of the Republican Party’s background of principles, of its forward-looking, constructive accomplishments,” Hoover gave some details about the party’s past. His speech differed from most political speeches in being crammed with facts, with a minimum of interpretation or opinion. Samples:

¶ By the Sherman Act of 1890, the Republicans prohibited “abuses by big business, monopolies and restraints of trade.”

¶ “A Republican administration was the first officially to establish collective bargaining when we established the Railway Mediation Board in 1926.”

¶ “Republicans originated practically the whole idea and all of the agencies of federal conservation of natural resources.”

¶ “Of the 62 reclamation projects today, 41 were created by Republicans. These included the first gigantic, multiple-purpose dam on the Colorado River [the Hoover Dam].”

¶ “We approved and engaged in engineering plans for the great Grand Coulee.”

¶ “During the last 52 years, Republicans and Democrats have equally divided the time in public office. The Republicans had just one bad episode of corruption [the Teapot Dam scandal]. There were nine men involved in [it]. The .other members of the Administration were aghast. Before we had finished with [the nine], two had committed suicide, one died while awaiting trial, four landed in prison, and one escaped by a twice-hung jury.”

¶ “The Republicans established the Open Door in China. [The Republicans engaged] in other great constructive international actions covering the World Court and World Naval Limitation.”