From 1935: Bradley Hits Corruption In New Deals

The following article is from exactly 75 years ago today, appearing in the Hartford Courant on December 19, 1935. Wilbur Cross, the Governor of Connecticut, served two full terms, from 1931 to 1939. The cartoon to the right was published in 1934, the one below is more recent.

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Young Republican National Director Says Governor Cross Must 'Recant' or Fall

Middletown. The Roosevelt Administration, "as operated by Farley and Roosevelt" was declared to be guilty of extravagance and corruption, "both crimes against good government." by J. Kenneth Bradley, director of the Young Republican Division of the Republican National Committee at a meeting of Middlesex County Young Republicans here tonight.

Governor Cross, Senator Bradley, Republican leader in the 1935 Legislature said, by his indorsement [sic] of the Roosevelt Administration, "is now tied up with the same corruption and extravagance. He must recant or fall with them."

William Hanna of Bethel, Speaker of the House in the 1933 and 1935 sessions, accused the Roosevelt Administration of attempting to bring about "an absolute dictatorship" in the country and said "the underlying philosophy is even more vicious than the waste of money."

Predicts State Victory
Raymond E. Baldwin of Stratford, Republican leader of the 1933 House, predicted Connecticut would go Republican in 1936 by "a tremendous majority" and "we'll trim Roosevelt and the New Deal plenty."

Prior to the Middlesex County meeting, the Young Republican Permanent Organization Committee met and discussed plans for the state convention of the organization to be held in Hartford January 18. It was voted to extend to the next meeting of the organization committee on January 13, the time for recognition of local clubs which will entitle them to delegate representation at the convention.

The permanent organization committee session was also a farewell party for Mrs. eorgetta Standen Adams of Milford, its vice-chair-man, who is leaving the first of the year to make her home in Omaha, Neb. Mrs. Adams was given an electric toaster set.

Cites Expenditures.
Senator Bradley said that in the first four and a half months of the present fiscal year, the expenditures of the Roosevelt Administration, entirely aside from relief and emergency expenditures, rose $329,000,000 over the same period of the preceeding fiscal year. All that money comes from the citizens of the country, he said, with the younger citizens having to pay it all the rest of their lives. "We have always talked economy in Connecticut, not to save money, but to save the people," he said. "On their backs is the burden thrown."

Money is being spent, not for the relief of the suffering and the poor, Senator Bradley said, but "for Farley to spread out a great patronage machine over the United States." He said he had first hand information of the activities of Pendergast in Missouri is using relief funds to build up a political machine. "To say Roosevelt is not to blame is to talk idly," he said, "it is notorious all over the country," and had been laid before Relief Administrator Harry Hopkins in an open letter from the Republican National Committeeman of Missouri. Senator Bradley also said the expenditures of "Radical Rex Tugwell's" Resettlement Administration, as of November 1, showed 48 cents of every dollar spent was going to administrative costs. "That can't mean any other thing than the building up of a patronage machine to keep the administration in office," he said.

Attacks Tax Levies.
Speaker Hanna attacked the administration practice of levying taxes as "an indirect means of directing the economic activities of the country" rather than for revenue to run the government. He also criticized the various curtailment programs and warned that "the destruction of any wealth is bound to react unfavorably on all the people of the country."

Speaker Hanna paid tribute to the leadership of Mr. Baldwin in the 1933 session and recalled the prediction of the leader that the liquor control bill, adopted over his opposition would not work out satisfactorily. The 1933 liquor bill, Speaker Hanna said, "was the one dismal failure of the session," and even the curative attempts of the 1935 session had not "fixed it up."