Milford chronicle., 1933-02-17
TO OPPOSE ANY
DICTATORSHIP
[C0nfinued from Firsf Pagfl

tCOHtiHHed from First Page]
rendered to the executive, and for
his part he did not propose to sup
port such scheme.
The Hastings statement reads:
''The Democrats are comparing the
present conditions to those that ex-
list in the time of war, and say that
because this is true it becomes ne
cessary to give the Chief Executive
the powers of a Dictator. They urge
that this must be done even to the
extent of the Congress surrendering
its legislative duties and legislative
powers.
ut seems to me the success of the
Democratic Party depends entirely
upon war of some kind. 1t was
the existence of war in the Republi-
can Party that enabled the Demo-
Gratis to succeed in 1912. 1t was the
war in Europe in 1914 that saved
that administration from economic
disaster. II was the plea of the
Democrats that President Wilson
had kept MS out of war that enabled
that party to win in 1916. Peace
having been declared during that.
administration, the Democratic party
/ Immediately retired.
"Then comes the war of the de-
/ preston in 1880, which continued
through 1882, and the Democratic
party was overwhelmingly success
full because of that war. They won
ii upon two distinct and definite
promises; one that the Smoot-Haw-
ley Tariff Bill was Outrageously
high and the other that if returned
to power, they would by consolida-
tion and eliminating of departments,
and the elimination of extravaganza,
reduce the Federal appropriations
by at least rs per cent.
"They have already backed away
from their promise with respect to
the tariff, and they now urge that
the only way in which they can ac-
cOmplish the other is to make a
dictator out of their new President.
THE new President is Demo-
crat and both Houses of Congress
are overwhelmingly Democratic. The
Democrats have served notice that
they propose to receive that worn
out and repudiated practice of leg
islating by caucus and thus binding
the protesting Democrats to the
new deal" There is but one funda-
mental law remaining that prevents
them from doing whatever they
want to do, and that is the Federal
Constitution. 1 hope and pray that
that may be sufficient to save our
democratic form of government.
II am satisfied that the people of
the Nation when they voted the
Democratic ticket last November did
not intend that the legislative branch
of the government should be sur
rendered to the Executive branch,
and |, as one member of the Con-
gress( do not propose to support
such a scheme.
I'VE have with the past few days
given to the Chief Executive full and
complete authority to consolidate
and eliminate various bureaus and
commissions of the government. The
Republicans have sought to give a
Republican President this power for
more than a decade and it has al
ways been opposed by the Demo- /
Gratis in Congress. The last Con-
gress did give the President some
such authority, but the Congress
reserved the right to veto whatever |
he did. President Hoover did good |
job of il and the Democratic House !
promptly vetoed it.
'What have said does not mean
that | shall refuse to support any !
reasonable program which the new !
President shall recommend, but l
shall insist upon taking whatever
responsibility such a program inn
poses upon me. The new President
will have much support among the
Republicans in both Houses of Con-
gress for any such program. l
know of none of them, however, that
want TO hide behind the skirts of q
Democratic President, and we do not
propose that the Democratic mem
bers shall he able to find such a
place of refuge. either"