Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in West Virginia, Ohio, and Michigan

[1.] CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA (Laidley Stadium, 8:50 a.m.)

My fellow citizens:

I wish I had the ability to express the appreciation which I feel for so great a welcome to West Virginia. I realize that at this hour in the morning this is a demonstration such as has been shown to no public man over many years. We have but a few moments, and I wish to touch on one or two themes which are of importance to the people of West Virginia.

The Democratic candidate for President and his party propose to reduce the tariff. He states that the protective tariff is a ghastly jest. That becomes a curious description of the great industrial development of this State.

Right here the Kanawha Valley, once a wilderness, has become the great chemical center of our country. That industry would never have been created except by the protective tariff, and it cannot survive today and the people obtaining their daily bread from it could not continue their jobs if that tariff be reduced.

The protective tariff made possible all the plants in this valley and the employment of the people in them. That great American policy, adopted and fathered and defended by the Republican Party, has also made possible the steel, glass, and pottery industries in this State. All these plants are today the backbone of your employment and business. They give the market to your agriculture. They will continue to do so for generations unless they are destroyed by this promised action of the Democratic Party.

Due to depreciated currencies in foreign countries, the present tariffs have been seriously impaired lately in a number of commodities. The depreciation in currency has the effect of lowering wages and lowering standards of living in our competitive countries.

Four years ago I directed a survey to be made of the cost of living amongst workers in the lands competing within foreign countries, using as a common denominator the amount of bread and butter that could be purchased at retail with a workman's wages in each country. I found that in the highest wage countries outside of the United States they could purchase about one-half as much bread and butter with current wages as could be purchased by the workman of this country. I found that in the countries of lowest wages they could purchase with their wages only about one-third of the amount of bread and butter that could be purchased by the American workman in comparable occupation.

Recently I had this situation resurveyed in view of depreciated currencies. I found that in the highest paid countries, instead of being able to purchase one-half as much bread and butter as an American workman, they could today only purchase one-third as much. And in the countries of lowest standards of living, instead of purchasing one-third as much, they could only purchase one-eighth as much of the amount of bread and butter at present wages in the United States as they could 4 years ago.

In the face of this the Democratic Party proposes to reduce your tariffs. In the face of this I have asked the Tariff Commission to reinvestigate the whole rates on many commodities to see whether the tariff is giving the actual protection which is the spirit of the present law.

And now the Democratic Party promises to destroy the effectiveness of the Tariff Commission. That is a bipartisan body directed upon application of any substantial person to investigate and determine what is the difference in cost of production at home and abroad, and to report their recommendations to the President for any change in the tariff. The President makes these changes effective by Executive order.

The Democratic Party proposes to take away this power of recommendation to the President, reduce the Commission to a statistical body reporting to Congress. This effective authority of the Tariff Commission was secured by me with the help of the Senator from your State in the last tariff bill. To take that authority away means to take away the ability to change the tariff with changing tides of economic life. It means that no remedy may be had except by action of Congress which again means the old scenes of logrolling, greed, and compromise, with stagnation of business for years before final action is arrived at. I have said many times that no tariff bill is perfect but under the Commission its inequities can be removed and the rates of duty can be adjusted in the shifting economic situation, schedule by schedule, without disturbance of business and based solely on fact. The reason they wish to destroy this independent authority is obvious. So long as the Tariff Commission holds this position they do not dare to criticize schedules in the tariff because at once any valid criticism could be promptly answered by investigation and remedy through the Commission.

But of more importance from this purely political point, the Democratic Party would not wish to reduce the tariffs and have the Tariff Commission promptly restore them. In order to attack the tariff they have set up an ingenious hypothesis that it prevents imports into the United States and thereby decreases the ability of foreigners to buy our goods, and they say to the American workman that he would produce and sell more goods for export if there was a lower tariff. I call your attention to the fact that 93 percent of the market for the American workman is within the borders of the United States and 7 percent outside the borders. They propose to place our 93 percent at the disposal of all countries in the world with the fantastic idea that the American farmer and worker can reduce his standard of living so as to increase his part of the 7 percent, by reducing his standards to those of labor which can only buy one-third as much bread and butter.

They say that the decrease in our exports during this crisis has been due to retaliatory measures against our tariff. This can be disposed of in the easiest fashion in the world. Two-thirds of the goods imported into the United States are on the free list and the decrease in our imports has been just exactly in the same percentage on free goods as it has been on dutiable goods. It must be obvious that some force is working in the world which affects free goods just the same as protected goods. I could give you still a further answer in the fact that American trade has fallen in the worldwide depression from the same causes that have affected other countries and in about the same amount or even less than other countries. I would also call attention to the fact that since our great measures for recovery have been in free action during the past 4 months, imports and exports of the United States have increased 23 percent.

If the stories you are told are true, that our trade has been destroyed, this increase must come as a great disappointment to the Democratic Party. The fact is that foreign trade comprises but a small portion of our national activities. It is a valuable portion but when we consider the well-being of American homes and families the preponderant safeguard to those families lies in maintaining for them the domestic market of the United States.

There is no part of this Union where these matters so definitely apply as to this very State of West Virginia where the dangers to you and your employment and living are so great by change in our policies.

There is another question of vast interest to the people of West Virginia and one of ranking importance with your agricultural activities and second only to that of all States in the Union--that is your bituminous coal industry. That industry has gone through a long period of difficulty. The competition of oil, electricity, improved efficiency in use of coal--all tend to prevent the expansion of your industry, or even its maintenance on a fair level. These competitors have in my view about exhausted themselves and the natural growth of the country will give to you a greater future. But in the meantime the industry has been reduced to a bitter, destructive competition, the main burden of which falls upon the backs of those who labor. I know the hardships that have been piled upon this industry and the men engaged in it. A large part of my life was concerned with the mining industry. I have worked with a pick and shovel at the face; I have managed coal mines on a large scale. I am interested in the restoration of that industry as every man is interested in the welfare of an industry in which his own profession is involved.

The coal we use in steel, chemicals, and manufactured articles, is itself dependent on the tariff, for without the tariff on those goods there would be no demand from those manufacturers for coal. Therefore, the welfare of the coal industry is tied up with the maintenance of an adequate protective tariff on industry, for which we stand. That tariff has contributed to prevent further unemployment in the mines.

In order to protect the industry and the labor engaged therein from the competition of foreign oil, I cooperated with the Senator from your State and others in securing an excise tax on the importation of foreign oils produced by cheap labor and transported here as a substitute fuel.

Some years ago, being impressed with the absolute destruction of our national resources and the impoverishment of labor through destructive competition in the coal industry, I suggested there should be some measure of cooperation in the marketing of coal. Ultimately, leaders of the industry took the matter up, and we have recently had a test case before the courts as to whether limited cooperation of this character would be a violation of the antitrust laws. The first decision of the courts has been adverse to the industry, but in order that this matter might be placed on a sound and permanent basis, I recommended to the Congress 2 years ago that we should institute an inquiry as to the economic working of these laws as applied to the natural resource industries. I pointed out that destructive competition was creating wasteful and destructive use of the natural resources, impoverishing the operator and the worker. I pointed out the situation in the bituminous coal industry as an illustration.

No action having been taken by Congress a year ago I again returned to the subject and stated that it was necessary that some change should be made in the laws in this relation. I recommended that Congress give it immediate consideration. Neither you nor I wish to destroy the fundamental basis of competition in our country. But a limited cooperation to prevent this destructive action should be undertaken. We have already extended this privilege to your agriculture and labor. The coal industry could have such safeguards as would make it possible to pay a fair wage, earn a reasonable profit, and save hundreds of communities from their steady degeneration and impoverishment.

And I do not wish to be misinterpreted as favoring the repeal of the antitrust laws. I am opposed to monopolies. I am for the maintenance of the fundamentals of competitive system as the only basis on which progress can be stimulated and maintained. There can be a degeneration of competition of such destructive order that it becomes of first importance in the maintenance of proper homelife amongst our people. We have the statesmanship in the Republican Party to solve this question also.

Now, my friends, tonight I shall have opportunity to speak at length upon the measures which we have inaugurated for overcoming the present national emergency. I am in hopes that many of you may have opportunity to listen to that address. I am glad to inform you that these measures have proved so powerful and so potent that the country is beginning to right itself and shows improvement in every direction day by day. Our people are beginning to return to work. The signs of economic life show in every quarter. That is proof of the soundness, the ability, the character, and the willingness of the Republican Party to bring the full strength and power of the Federal Government to the Protection of our people in times of need.

I wish to thank you for this magnificent reception you have given me on this occasion. It is heartening, and it is evident that the country has an understanding of the problems before it. And it is proof of what the action of the country will be in support of the Republican Party on the 8th day of November.

[2.] HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA (Pavilion at the station, 10:40 a.m.)

I wish that every citizen in this country could have the privilege that I have had this morning of coming up the great Kanawha Valley, of seeing the huge industries that have been developed in this State, most of them within the last 10 years.

West Virginia has been transformed in a shorter space of time than any other State from the frontier of mining and lumbering to one of the greatest industrial centers of the Nation. Under the protection of a Republican tariff your conjunction here of lumber and coal, of oil and gas and waterpower has made for you the opportunity of enormous development. You are developing in West Virginia one of the greatest industrial areas in the United States. You can only go ahead with the development that has taken place under adequate tariff protection.

The tariff is easy to understand. It is the maintenance of duties on the imports. of goods from abroad which will prevent those countries from taking your markets at unfair prices. By unfair prices I mean prices based upon lower standards of living than we demand for the American family and the American home. We are first interested in building up the American people. We are interested in increasing the security and the comfort of their lives. We are not ungenerous. We know that with prosperity in the United States our people will purchase more goods of foreign nations than we could ever purchase if we are to impoverish our people to the extent of the impoverishment of foreign countries. We are endeavoring to build up a standard of living, a standard of comfort, and a basis of hope and opportunity such as the world has never seen before. And the first safeguard is that we shall maintain protection to our people both by the tariff and by the limitation of immigration which would by competing at your factory doors reduce your wages and standards of living.

Those are fundamental policies of the Republican Party. Our Democratic opponents state they will reduce these tariffs. They have made no declaration as to what they will do in the matter of immigration, alert surely they have the vocal capacity with which to express themselves upon this or any other subject of interest to the American people.

I regret that I am not able to speak to you at greater length. It is difficult in this time of great national crisis for me to leave Washington, where my first obligation lies in the duties of my office as President of the United States. I am devoting weekends to public addresses in order that the people may better understand the policies of this administration and of the Republican Party. But of necessity my time is preoccupied by the administration of those unprecedented and gigantic measures which have protected this country from the disaster which overhung it and to administer those measures in such a fashion today as to bring about recovery of employment and agriculture.

I am happy to tell you that during the last 3 or 4 months, since we were freed from the obstruction of the Democratic Party in the Congress, these measures have proved themselves so vital and so potent and so powerful that we have begun to see the evidence of recovery in every part of the country. That recovery will continue if there is no change in these policies and these measures.

I shall speak at greater length on these subjects tonight. For this occasion I wish to express to you my heartfelt appreciation of your coming here to welcome me and of this evidence of the support which you will give my policies and the policies of the Republican Party on November 8.

[3.] KENOVA, WEST VIRGINIA (Rear platform, 11:02 a.m.)

Fellow citizens:

It is a great pleasure to be here this morning, not only because it is always a pleasure to travel across the State of West Virginia with all of its wonderful scenery and because this is a most extraordinary welcome of its people, but it is a great pleasure to be here with your senior Senator. Senator Hatfield has been one of the stalwarts, one of the reliances of the Republican Party since you sent him to the United States Senate. Although he is not up for election this time, I hope you will keep in mind that the American people need his continued service and that you will not forget when the time comes to send him back to Washington.

There are many things one could discuss that are of interest to West Virginia--the tariff, immigration, development of your industries, especially the emergency measures which we have in motion to promote the recovery of the country from the great crisis which we have gone through. I may tell you that it is my confident belief that we have overcome the danger of great disaster to our country and that we are now on the road to recovery.

I shall be speaking to you more at length this evening from Detroit. I am hoping that many of you may have the opportunity to listen in. But for this occasion I wish to express my deep appreciation for the welcome which you and the others of West Virginia have shown to Mrs. Hoover and me this morning. It is evidence of the support which you will give to me and to the Republican Party on the 8th day of November.

Thank you.

[4.] IRONTON, OHIO (Rear platform, 11:33 a.m.)

Fellow citizens:

I am intensely sorry that we have stopped a hundred yards from the microphone because I fear you cannot hear me. But I should like to express my appreciation of your welcome to the State of Ohio. This is not the first time that I have visited Ironton because while I was Secretary of Commerce I had occasion to come down the Ohio River and to inspect those works and others of the great development on the river.

I should have liked to have had the opportunity of discussing with you some of the things in which you are interested. It seems impossible to reach so enormous a crowd in the open air without the assistance of the microphone. For that you will have to blame your local railroad officials on this occasion and forgive me.

But I do want to express to you our appreciation for your coming here this morning, for the welcome that you have given to Mrs. Hoover and to me. It is evidence of the support which you are giving to the policies of my administration and the support which you will give to the Republican Party on the 8th of November.

Thank you.

[5.] PORTSMOUTH, OHIO (Rear platform, 12:15 p.m.)

My dear friends:

I am sorry that the train did not stop so that we might bring the microphone to the back platform. I am glad to have this opportunity to express my appreciation for the greeting which you have given this morning to Mrs. Hoover and to me, and to give to you that thanks which is due for your attendance here on this occasion.

I had hoped to have an opportunity to say a word to you about those measures of the Republican Party which are of importance to you.

I congratulate you that your splendid shoe industry has been able to maintain itself so well during the world depression. That you are able to maintain it today is due solely to the protective tariff placed upon shoes 2 years ago by the Republican Party. Otherwise the importation of shoes manufactured under the lower standards of labor in Europe, due to their depreciated currencies, would not have enabled you to sell them, and the factory in your city would have been idle at this moment.

Now, there are many measures of our party which I would like to have expounded to you at great length. Tonight I shall speak at Detroit on those questions in which you are vitally interested. I am in hopes I shall be able to indicate to you that these measures have proved very effective, and that they are today turning our country on the road to recovery, with the resultant employment and the improvement of agriculture.

Again, I thank you for this cordial greeting, and I accept it as an evidence of the support which you propose to give to the Republican Party on the 8th day of November.

[6.] WAVERLY, OHIO (Rear platform, 12:53 p.m.)

Friends:

I deeply appreciate the welcome of Waverly. It is a fine greeting and gives encouragement and strength to the labors which rest upon the President of the United States.

Waverly is a farm town. You are interested in farm questions. Recently at Des Moines I had occasion to speak at great length on the problems that are involved in the agricultural industry in the United States and I made some suggestions as to the method of relief. It was based upon one primary fact, and that is that there are no panaceas or miracles in the world; that the whole of our country must pull out of this depression together. This depression came upon us from abroad. We have built measures and instrumentalities which have protected our people from disaster, and they are today moving our country forward toward recovery.

In Des Moines I stated some 12 points that I thought were of interest and of fundamental importance to the development of American agriculture. I do not propose to traverse those points at this moment, but to those amongst you who are farmers I express the wish that you will obtain a copy of that address, for it contains the most thoughtful consideration of the subject which I believe has been given to the agricultural problem. If you will obtain it, if you will read it, if you will consider it, if you will make up your minds upon it, I believe that you will vote the Republican ticket on the 8th day of November.

[7.] CHILLICOTHE, OHIO (Rear platform, 1:27 p.m.)

Recently at Des Moines I outlined a definite and constructive program for agriculture. It is designed upon the primary fact, from which no panaceas or miracles can escape, that farmers and businessmen and workers are all in the same boat. We must all come ashore together or we shall all sink together. I refused to present to the farmers any economic patent medicine or any proposals which I cannot fulfill. I refuse to offer generalities which offer easy exits from the responsibility of execution later on.

This program, so far as it directly affected agriculture, consisted of 12 points. Of these measures many are today in action--they are not promises, they are performances. They are beginning to have their effect on recovery from the greatest peacetime disaster that ever came to a nation--a disaster not of American making, but a disaster spread to us from the wars and troubles of the Old World. I greatly hope that the farmers among my audience here will obtain copies of that statement at Des Moines and form their own judgment upon it.

[8.] CIRCLEVILLE, OHIO (Rear platform, 2 p.m.) Friends in Circleville:

I wish to express the very great appreciation I have for this wonderful greeting from you. It is heartening. It is encouraging, and it is an indication of your attitude on the 8th day of November.

This is not an occasion on which to make a prolonged address on our national problems. I am speaking tonight in Detroit on them. 1 hope you will find an opportunity to listen in to that address. I shall endeavor there to set out the methods which we have adopted, by which we have saved the United States from a great disaster which threatened us from abroad, and by which we are bringing about now the recovery of the United States.

Many questions are of interest to you--many questions that go beyond the present emergency. I shall hope to have an opportunity to deal with them from time to time in the course of this campaign. The duties which are imposed upon the President of the United States and the loyalties to the American people are now such that I am not able to leave Washington except at the end of each week, and I am, therefore, not able to expound to you what we have tried to do and what we are now doing. I hope you will take it and accept it in earnest and serious loyalty to the interest of every fireside and home in our country.

I thank you again for your presence here and the greeting and encouragement that you have given to me.

Thank you.

[9.] COLUMBUS, OHIO (Rear platform, 2:55 p.m.)

My friends of Columbus:

I do appreciate this wonderful greeting. It is heartening. It is encouraging. It is stimulating. This is not an occasion for me to talk to you at length on national issues. I am speaking tonight from Detroit, and I am in hopes that through the radio, that most wonderful invention of our generation, you will be able to listen because I shall there discuss the problems of this depression and the measures which have saved the United States from imminent disaster and the measures by which we have turned the tide and have now directed this country towards recovery of unemployment and agriculture.

A day or two ago, I received a letter from a citizen of Columbus asking that I should further expound our policies in respect to immigration. I am glad to answer that inquiry here and now in Columbus. The Republican Party has not been inarticulate (?) 1 in its declaration on this subject. Our opponents have not as yet explained to the country where they stand.

¹ The question mark appears in the transcript.

The Republican Party has been, over these many years, the constant exponent and the constant guardian of the protective tariff for industry. Its major purpose has been to protect the American workman in his standard of living and in the increasing comfort of his home.

If we are to maintain within our borders our own industries, if we are to maintain our standard of living higher than the rest of the world, the handmaiden to that policy must be that there should not be a flow of immigration, fleeing from the lower standards of living abroad, flooding our country and offering to work for less wage than the American workman, at the gate of every factory in the United States. It is just as important to protect the American workman from the movement of people into the United States to take over his job as to protect him from a flow of goods from abroad which would take away his job.

The United States has received invaluable contributions in its upbuilding, in the growth of its culture from the migration of the various races of Europe. It has held its doors open to those who have fled from persecution, both religious and political. With the growth of democracy in foreign countries political persecution has largely ceased. There is no longer a necessity for the United States to provide an asylum for those persecuted because of conscience.

It is important that we should restrict immigration in order that those who are already resident in our country may not be driven into unemployment. We should be wise and humane in our restrictions. It must not separate families. It must not prevent the coming into our country of the relatives of residents already here. It must in ordinary times allow a flow of selective stream of peoples to refresh our population with the ideas and contributions of foreign countries to our civilization. It must recruit from them our share of their advancing skill and their advancing knowledge. It should be based upon our determination of who shall come. But in times of great crisis like the present where we have millions of unemployed, it is an injustice and inhumanity to our own residents that we should allow the entry of people fleeing from starvation abroad. The obligation remains upon those countries to take care of their own people.

Therefore, by Executive order 2 years ago I stopped the entry of all immigrants to the United States except the relatives of residents who are still he. re and a few other minor exceptions. Two years have now passed since that order was issued. If we had had the same immigration during these past 2 years that we had in the 2 years previous we should have nearly a half million more unemployed in our country than we have today. This would have added 500,000 new immigrants to be cared for by our public bodies and by our charitable associations. Or, alternatively, it would have taken 500,000 jobs from our residents and thrust them upon public charity.

I propose to continue this policy until the end of this depression, and after the end of the depression we propose to continue the policy of wise and selective immigration of a limited order. That is my answer to that question.

Now again I wish to express my appreciation for this greeting as it evidences encouragement that the State of Ohio will be carried under the Republican banner on the 8th day of November.

[10.] DELAWARE, OHIO (Rear platform, 3:43 p.m.)

My friends in Delaware:

You are giving to us a magnificent reception. This is indeed a great greeting. It is encouraging. It is helpful. It is stimulating, and I deeply appreciate it not only for the warmth of feeling which it contains but for the forecast it is as to the action which you in this city and its surroundings will take on the 8th of November next.

You will realize that in so short a moment as this it is impossible to discuss national issues. I am making an address at Detroit tonight. Due to that miracle of our generation, the radio, many of you will be able to listen in. I shall discuss the measures which we have taken and which have saved this country from a great disaster which might have come to us or would have come to us from the collapse of countries abroad--those countries which were subjected to the aftermath of the Great War--a disaster which is not of the making of our people, a disaster which has now been prevented. I shall be able to discuss with you the progress which we are making in the recovery of the country by these same measures, and to say to you that we are on the road out.

I wish to thank you again for the cordiality of your greeting and the kindliness of your coming here. We appreciate it enormously.

Thank you.

[11.] MARION, OHIO (Rear platform, 4:13 p.m.)

This is my fourth visit to Marion, Ohio. I visited it during the campaign of 1920 when your fellow citizen was the Republican candidate for President of the United States. I visited it again when we buried him, a man broken in the service of his country. I visited it again to dedicate the memorial which you erected to his memory.

There is no occasion for me to extol his great qualities of geniality of friendship and devotion to his country and to the citizens of Marion. There is no occasion for me to go into the sad disloyalties to him which crushed his spirit and brought humiliation to the American people. You and I know him as a man devoted to the people and devoted to his country, who gave his life in its service.

The greatest accomplishment of President Harding's administration was the limitation of armaments. I have followed in his footsteps in endeavor to secure further limitations on arms, in order that we may again reduce the dangers to peace and develop stability and goodwill in the world.

Your Congressman [Grant E. Mouser, Jr.] has just referred to one of the activities of our Government. Perhaps not all of you are aware of the tremendous battle which we have fought during the last months to save this country from a great disaster which came upon us from abroad. That disaster has been averted. Unprecedented measures which we have inaugurated are today bringing about recovery from this depression. The incident which he has given to you is but one of its reflexes. They are penetrating into every town and every village in the United States in the restoration of employment and the gradual march backwards towards prosperity.

I deeply appreciate your welcome. It is heartening. It is encouraging and stimulating, and it is an indication of what your action will be on the 8th day of November.

I thank you.

[12.] FOSTORIA, OHIO (Rear platform, 5:13 p.m.)

Fellow citizens:

I have difficulty in finding expressions of convincing appreciation to you for the fine, generous greeting which you are giving to Mrs. Hoover and to me. It is heartening. It is encouraging. It is stimulating.

These are not occasions on short stops where I could discuss problems of great national issues. But it gives me opportunity to see you and to see your enthusiasm for the Republican cause, and it gives you perhaps the opportunity to-look at me.

I shall speak tonight at Detroit. Through the radio, that great miracle of all times, many of you will be able to listen in. I shall then discuss with you the unprecedented measures and instrumentalities through which your Federal Government is endeavoring and is succeeding in placing this country again on the road to recovery. And it is on the road. I could not go along and discuss with you further of these problems without repeating what I will say tonight, but I do wish you to know how deeply I appreciate this evidence of your support, this backing that you are giving to the policies which we have inaugurated and the measures which we have in action on your behalf and to receive this evidence of your action on the 8th day of November next.

I thank you.

[13.] TOLEDO, OHIO (Rear platform, 6:05 p.m.)

I need not tell you how much Mrs. Hoover and I appreciate your cordial greeting, particularly at this hour when you would normally be in your own homes partaking of your evening meal.

The last 18 months have brought sorrows to us all. Perhaps no community in the country has suffered more deeply than Toledo. When your banks were failing, and your businesses and manufacturing came to a standstill, my heart went out in sympathy to you, for I understood very well the hardships you were facing and must endure.

I have been trying to be of service to you in this situation. You will recollect the measures which we established to protect the depositors in banks, the insurance policyholders, and the owners of mortgaged homes. I asked the Democratic House of Representatives to give us the authority to give relief to depositors in closed banks. They refused. But at my suggestion the Reconstruction Corporation has undertaken to grant loans to closed banks so that depositors would not have to wait until such banks were liquidated in order to get a substantial part of their distributive share of the banks' assets. I am advised informally that some of your closed banks will shortly take advantage of this governmental assistance.

You know about the authority which I secured that the Reconstruction Finance Corporation should grant loans to needy communities for the relief of citizens from cold and want because this very week a loan of $144,000 was made to your city for this purpose. We shall continue to assist you during the coming winter if necessary.

The creation of the Home Loan Banking System of which, according to the morning papers, even Governor Roosevelt approves, will also bring to a stop the foreclosing of mortgages and will give men and women a fighting chance to hold their homes. It should thaw out the frozen assets of your building and loan companies and provide funds to carry mortgages held by your closed banks. It will, I trust, be the means of saving for many a family the home for which they have toiled and saved.

Your banks which have failed were all State banks, whose operations, of course, are not subject to Federal regulation. However, in a broad view the home loan bank will add greatly to the security of such institutions.

One thing more, at my request your distinguished fellow townsman, John N. Willys, whom I had appointed our Ambassador to the Republic of Poland, agreed to lay aside his honors and once more assume the active management of your largest and most important industry which a few years ago prospered so notably under his leadership. I commend his fine public spirit, and I am sure that by next spring the Overland 2 will again be filled with busy workmen.

² Willys-Overland Co. of Toledo, Ohio.

Tonight I bring you a message of good cheer. The policies and measures which we have adopted, with which to fight the colossal world depression, are having their effect. Things are better even in your sorely stricken city of Toledo. If we make no major mistake, if we stick to our program for recovery and preserve the American policies which have stood the test of time, I am sure prosperity will again be won.

Toledo is a great industrial center. Many of its industries are absolutely dependent for their existence upon the protective tariff. But Toledo is also the center of a great agricultural region, and no one is more dependent today upon the protective tariff than is the farmer in this section.

Our opponents propose to reduce these tariffs. They propose to reduce them in the face of depreciated currencies abroad. You, the farmers of this section of Ohio, have only to inquire the price of dairy products, the price of cattle, the price of hogs across the border in Canada to know that the only thing that preserves to you the market for your products and retains to you the prices which you have today, distressingly low as they are, is the tariff wall which runs along that border.

Recently at Des Moines I outlined a definite and positive and constructive program for agriculture. I showed that a large part of that program was in action today and that it is proving itself helpful. I refuse to present to you any panaceas or miracles. I refuse to present to the farmers any economic patent medicine, because no mortal can fulfill such promises. I offered a constructive program, and I believe the farmers of Ohio would be well advised, in considering any action they should take in their own interest, to obtain copies of the speech I made at Des Moines and give it the most careful consideration.

The Republican Party has always been the party in defense of agriculture. The Democratic Party has always been the party which lowered its tariffs and its protections. Our farmers should consider solemnly where their interests lie.

[14.] MONROE, MICHIGAN (Rear platform, 6:40 p.m.)

My friends in Monroe:

I wish to express the appreciation that Mrs. Hoover and I have for this greeting. It is encouraging. It is heartening, and it is stimulating.

You will realize that within an hour I am to make a prolonged address in Detroit, and through the miracle of our generation, the radio, you may be able, many of you, to listen to it. You will forgive me for not taxing my voice at the present moment because I have to hold it in reserve for that event. Nevertheless, I can make one remark which I believe is of interest to the people of Michigan, and that is that your community is dependent to a very large degree upon the maintenance of the protective tariff, and our opponents propose to reduce that.

Thank you.