Cheraw chronicle. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1896-2005, 1922-02-16


political subdivisions having immediate jurisdic-
tion, and then only by the plain terms OF statutes
enacted by the representatives Of the people. Ihe
rapidly growing and alarming tendency today IS
toward Capitalization Of all authority ana power
incident to government in Washington.
We have already ignored the admonition Of the
fathers; We have defied the laws Hr GIman nature.
which have never changed; we have overlooked
the lessons of history. All these have admonished
us that only governments of simple laws can prop
erly serve long endure In country OF free peo-
|ple We have already been led by the delusion
that government bureaus, exercising bureaucratic
authority and police power, not authorized by the
terms or implied by the provisions Of the Con-
stitution are better for the people than govern
ment Of plain statutes. We have been lured by
the promise that government agents would lead
the citizen by the hand into green pastures be-
side still waters into elysian fields, then on into
the millennium. Already the citizen looks about
him and finds himself in the midst Of a FOOLS
paradise, entirely surrounded by government bu-
reaus. SO many Of the numerous bureaus OF
the government are exercising bureaucratic au-
thority and police power that they meet the
citizen everywhere he turns-in his fields, In his
mills in his mines, in his shops, in his factories,
In his places of business great and snall-every-
where substituting the will and judgment of
government agent for the will and judgment Of the
individual citizen. No matter in what direction
the citizen may turn, 10, the agent of the govern
ment is there to forbid or to command. Instead
Of remaining his protector, the government has
become his guardian.
There are many matters that require more than
individual attention, matters in which cooperation
is not only desirable but necessary. In all such
matters the smaller political subdivisions and the
states should be resorted to. In that way the
portion Of the public directly concerned are able
to observe and intelligenty determine whether
those they have employed to do the particular
things they require are rendering service that
justifes the continuance of the activity and the
expense involved in carrying 1t on. 1t Is pro-
found truth that that government Is best that
governs least.
The government of the United States Is of so
great national and internatonl Importance to our
people even unto the remotest township and ham
let Of the republic that its place In their affections
should not be imperiled, nor should it be made
the object Of common criticism for failure to do for
the citizen what the citizen alone can do for him.
self. solemn responsibility and a great duty
Immediately confront us here. We are the chosen
representatives Of the American people, sworn to
protect and defend the Constitution against all en-
emies foreign and domestic 1t is time to begin
the process of reestablishing government of laws
under the Constitution. 1t Is time to limit the
activities and reduce the expenses Of government
at Washington. (Applause.) The process Of elm
mating every element of weakness with which the
government has been burdened and which now
make it the object Of criticism should be gradual
but persistent, until we can again look upon 1t
as the simple government Of laws, given US by the
fathers for the purpose of guaranteeing life, lib
erty, property and the pursuit Of happiness Of the
neople with the hope that our children and their
children from generation to generation may have
in the centuries as they come and go the same
guarantees and the same opportunities that we
and our ancestors have enjoyed under the Con-
stitution of the United States. (Appause.)