The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1922-05-26
PART OF CAPT. FITzKUGH'S
SPEECH AT JACKSON
PARAMOUNT DUTY OF PEOPLE.

/ dangerous drift toward Capitalization
of Federal power. The persistent alb
sorption by the national government
of these functions and powers which
properly belong to and can be more
efficient and economically exercised
by the State is slowly but surely un-
dermining the republic. Any depar-
ture from the plan of the dual sys-
tenn established by the constitution
endangers the whole structure. We
can not impair or destroy the State
without impairing or destroying the
foundation on which the Union rests.
No government will voluntarily cur
tail it's revenues or diminish its pow
ers. Congress is to blame; the rem
edy therefore is to awaken the peo-
pie to the consciousness of the peril
which conffonts them and to develop
a public sentiment the most potent
force in a democracy, to compel Con-
gress to pursue a policy of decentrali-
cation. Otherwise the States will be-
come mere revenue producing prov
inces.
"For ten years prior to 1910 the
annual taxes collected by the Fed
eral government averaged about
$600,00O,O00, and the government
expenditures about 81 per capita.
Realizing it's unlimited revenue rails
ing power, we find that in 1920, a
year after the war, the Federal gov
eminent collected seven billion dol
lars in taxes, or $33 per capita. The
billion dollar Congress which SO
shocked the country few years ago
has given place to nine billion-dol
lar Congress, and yet we now face a
deficit of about a half billion dollars.
"The Federal government is not
only absorbing the functions and
powers, but Occupying all the fields
of revenue of the States. The anti
lynching bill passed by the lower
house is fragrant illustration of a
drift toward unlimited usurpe ton of
the police powers of the State. If
enacted into law subdivisions of SOW
ereign States and State officers can
be punished in the Federal courts.
Against the ever-increasing ten
;e;r Of
the States l shall firmly stand, not
only because 1 believe, with Joffer-
son, that we should support the State
governments in all their rights as the
most competent administrators of our
domestic concerns, and the surest
bulwark against anti-rcpublican ten
denotes, but because in this way
alone lies the safety of the people.
AGAINST BUREAUCRACY
Congress seems to be constantly
seeking new means of increasing APP
preparations and expenditures in
stead of diminishing them, hence the
vast number of bureaus which have
been multiplying to an alarming ex-
tent, with multitude of inspectors,
to supervise and pry into every phase
of our lives and every character of
our business.
zone of the counts in the indict-
ment against George III in the Dec
laration of independence was: HE
has erected a multitude Of new Of
fees and sent hither a swarm of Off
GERS to harass our people and eat out
their substance What would George
III think of the situation here to-
day?
1--WE are informed that Congress
has appointed over one hundred COM
mi tees, commissions, boards and bu-
reaus, which during the last ten
years are estimated to have cost
about seven billion dollars, most of
which has been wasted in doing
things which the people could best
do for themselves, or through their
duplication and waste in the function
of these bureaus, many of which
could be consolidated and others dis
pensed with entirely. We are suffer-
ing from a sort of despOtism, of bu-
reaucracy, which we havep ermitted
Congress to create, and to delegate
to them powers, legislative and ad-
which are useL in a
manner that amounts to an intoler-
able interference with our legisla-
tive activities, and are exercised by
agents with whose appointment and
selection we Rave nothing to co and
who are strangers TO our customs and
needs. The appetite of Bureaucracy |
grows by what it feeds upon. In
1927 there were only 1877 special |
agents, deputies and inspectors on
tho. government payroll. In 1907 !
they had grown to 5000, and the
is now placed at 10000.
VAST ARMY OF EMPLOYEES.
at is difficult to get accurate in
formation as to the number of civil .
in tho Federal service. The
save out the total in (