Evening star., 1932-05-07
"For the People. "

President Hoover has appealed d.
rectly to the people of the United
States to support his demand that leg
islation to balance the budget be
enacted without further delay. The
people, the interested parties in the
present crisis, affecting not only their
Government, but the whole financial
credit of the Nation, will back the
President. The Congress has listened
too long to the lobbyists Of special in
terests and groups, to the prorhptings
of supposedly political interest. 1t is
time it listened to the people. If the
Congress has become deaf to the muir
mm of the people, so much the worse
for the Congress.
In his appeal to the people the Chief
Executive insisted that the issue In
volyed-the balancing of the budget and
maintenance of financial stability-is
not partisan Nor should it be. Some
of the Democrats in Congress have
undertaken to interject politics, critl-
llG Al4hAA@@9 ~ N'~-N
that they felt the pinch of the shoe
which they have been forced to wear.
The plain truth of the matter IS, ana
there is no Disgusting it, that the legs-
lation to balance the budget has not
been put through, but that it has been
delayed until the country has lost still
further confidence, particularly IN its
National Legislature.
The President went further and said
that the present issue is not a contro-
versy between the President and the
Congress or its members. Nor should
1t be. The President and the Congress
should work together to bring about
the raising of needed revenue and the
reduction of governmental expendi-
lures. The law-making power, the
power to levy taxes and appropriate for
governmental expenditures, lies in the
hands of the Congress, however, and 1T
must make use of that power If the
country is to be protected in the pres
ent crisis.
And finally the President has said
that the issue is of the people against
delays and destructive legislation which
impair the credit of the United States;
that it is an issue between the people
and the locust swarm of lobbyists who
haunt the halls Of Congress seeking
selfish privilege for special groups"
The people today will ask again, as
they have for weeks and months, why
they must continue to wait for the
legislation needed to balance the gov
ernmental budget, to restore confidence
In the finances of the Government it
self. Why they must wait while the
LOG rollers" in committee and out OF
it make and unmake combinations to
force into the revenue bill and the
economy bill' items that will benefit
particular groups or sections OF the
country; why they must wait while
lobbyists for this or that special inter-
est hold jubilant gatherings in the cor
ridors of the Capitol as the reports OF
committee action are flashed to them.
Another President Of the United
States, the late Woodrow Wilson, de-
livered a scourging attack upon the
lobbyists who infested the Capitol. The
Senate appointed Lobby Committee,
which threw the fear of publicity into
the lobbyists and the light Of day on
their activities President Hoover has
called attention Of the country again
to the situation at the Capitol. The
special interest and the lobbyist are
successful only when the people are
ignorant of their activities and the
purposes for which they move. 1t Is
time that every one should realize again
that the Government of the United
States is "for the people" The voters
in November will have an opportunity
to demonstrate that the Government
is by the people"
-S%SS%-