Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-13


livered at the White House last night
over a Nationwide radio hook-up:
BY the magic Of the radio am
gatherings called this evening through
out our country in celebration of the
birth Of Abraham Lincoln.
It is appropriate that should speak
from this room in the White House
where Lincoln strived and accomplished
his great service to our country.
His invisible presence dominates these
halls, ever recalling that infinite pa
thence and that indomitable will which
fought and won the fight for those
firmer foundations and greater strength
to Government by the people. From
these windows he looked out upon that
great granite shaft which was then in
construction to mark the country
eternal tribute to the courage and I'M
compromising strength Of the founder
of this Union of States.
Here are the very chairs In which he
meditated upon his problems. Above
the mantelpiece hangs his portrait with
his cabinet, and upon this fireplace is
written:
I'm this room Abraham Lincoln
signed the Emancipation Proclamation
of January /, 1858, whereby 1000, 900
slaves were given their freedom and
slavery forever prohibited in these
United States"
It was here that he toiled by day and
by night that the Union created by the
fathers might be preserved and that
slavery might be ended.
Heard Sound Of Cannon.
Most CT the business of this room in
Lincoin's time was concerned with the
conduct of war against destructive
forces. From here he could oft hear
the sound of approaching cannon, and
yet the thought that he should desert
his place, this city and this house, never
entered into his considerations. Lincoln
was builder in an epoch of destruction.
1t was his assignment by Providence to
restore the national edifice, so badly
shattered in its social and economic
structure that it had well-nigh failed.
His undying idealism and inflexible
resolve builded q new temple Of the
national soul in which our succeeding
generations have since dwelt secure and
free and of a richer life.
And If Lincoln could today resurvey
the scene of his country ne would find
a Union more solidly knit and more
resolute in its common purpose than
ever in its history. He would find the
States of the South recovered from the
wounds Of war, inspired by the splendid
leadership of a new generation to
brilliant renaissance of industry and
culture.
He would indeed find the consum-
nation of that great moving appeal OF
his inaugural In which he said: THE
mystic chords Of memory stretching
from every battlefield and patriot grave
to every living heart and heaFthStone
all over this broad land will yet swell
the chorus Of the Union when again
touched, as surely they will be, by the
better angels of our nature" It was
indeed great prophecy.
If Lincoln were living, he would find
that this race of liberated slaves, start
ing a new life without a shred but
the clothes In which they stood, without
education, without organization, has
today by its own endeavors progressed
to an amazingly high level Of self-re-
lance and well-being. To Lincoln 1t
would have been incredible that within
a lifetime the millions of children Of
these slaves would be graduating from
the public schools and colleges, that the
race could have builded itself homes
and accumulated itself a wealth in lands
and savings; that 1t should have carried
on with success every calling and pro-
feSsion in our country.
Man OF Many Interests.
While the dramatic period of Lincoln's
life was engroSsed with these tremen-
dous problems, yet he was q man OF
many interests. He was believer IN
party government. He realized, as We
also must realize, that fundamentally
our whole self-government is conceived
and born of majority rule, and to enable
the majority to express itself we must
have party organization. Lincoln led
in founding the Republican party and
he gloried in his party. His tradition
has dominated it to this day. It was
and is a party of responsibility; 1t was
and is party of the Constitution.
While many of the issues Of that
time are dead and gone, some OF our
present problems were equally vivid in
his day. You viii find Lincoln address
ing the country in strong and urgent
support of the protective tariff with
vivid defamation against the party OPP
posing that policy. You will ind him
advocating Federal Government aid in
internal development of waterways,
rivers and harborS, and transportation.
You will find him pounding at the
public mind against notification and
for adherence to constitutional proc
esses of self-government. No stronger
statement has ever been made than that
very foundation of our Republic.
In Lincoln'S day the dominant prob
lem in our form of government turned
upon the issue of State rights. Though
less pregnant with disaster, the domi-
nant problem today in our form of
government turns in large degree upon
the issue of the relationship Of Federal,
State and local government responsible
tiles. We are faced with unceasing
agitation that the Federal Government
shall assume new financial burdens,
that it shall undertake increased
burdens in regulation of abuses and In
the prosecution Of crime.
1t is true that since Lincoln's time
many forces have swept across State
borders and have become more potent
than the State or local community can
deal with alone either financially or by
jurisdiction. Our concept Of Federal
State and local responsibilities is pos
sible of no Interchangeable definitions and
it must shift with the moving forces In
the Nation, but the time has come when
we must have more national consider
alton and decision Of the part which
each shall assume in these re-
sponsibilities.
New Responsibilities Assumed.
The Federal Government has assumed
many new responsibilities since Lincolnis
time, and will probably assume more in
the future when the States and local
cannot alone cure abuse
or bear the entire cost of national pro-
grams, but there is an essential princi-
pie that should be maintained in these
matters. I am convinced that where
Federal action is essential, then in most
cases 1t should limit its responsibilities
to supplement the States and local COM
munities and that it should not assume
the major role or the entire responsible
ity, in repls cement Of the States or local
government. To do otherwise threatens
the whole foundations of local govern
ment, which is the very basis Of self