The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1933-05-05
Will a Free People Fight?
Chicago Tribune

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Senator Carter Glass, Virginia DEM
ocrat, found himself unable to COM
plete his argument against the fl
nance bills which will transfer the
constitutional power of congress to
control the currency to the president.
His feelings compelled him to say,
Il find that I must desist." Even
Senator Borah, radical Republican Of
Idaho, has an ingrained sense Of what
the constitution has meant in the
history of the American people and
he also recoils from the picture of
the future as it takes shape from the
acts Of the present. There is grow
ing among sober minded men in con-
gress, a minority 1t is true, but the
core OF the intelligence of that as
sembly, regardless Of party, an alarm
without bounds.
The briefest review of the legisla-
ton enacted or proposed with every
confidence that it will be enacted
shows how very real the dangers are
which cause this alarm. There will
be nothing left of the American con-
stitution and the system Of republican
government founded by it unless the
conservative men in congress, few as
they are, are strengthened by the ex-
pressed determination of the people
Of the United States, organized every
where for this purpose, not to have
their constitutional government COM
pletely suspended by acts of the ma
tional legislature violating every ele-
mental principle In the fundamental
law of the United States.
Unless this support comes at once,
with q spontaneity and a fervor
which compel respect, the days of the
American people under conStitu-
tional republic may be numbered.
This Is the wish Of radicals, both
collegiate and otherwise numskull
who are using a great national distress
to force q revolution by unconstitu-
tional and illegal acts of congress. Al
ready 1t has been declared crime for
citizen to possess property in the
form in which the United States guar
antees its national currency. That Is
gold. In spite of the protests of the
almost stupefied minority, the senate
has passed an act providing that the
currency shall be not what congress
determines but what the president
may decide at any time.
The United States Is preparing to
fix prices on agricultural products
not even by specific acts Of congress
but by the order Of the secretary Of
agriculture. It is proposed, and al
present there IS no guaranty that II
will not be done, that the secretary
of labor shall stipulate wage scales
hours Of labor, and conditions Of con.
tracts. These are only various higt
spots in the program which threatens
to destroy the whole American system
Of property rights, individual liberty
the whole conception Of law, the limi.
tations of government, the constitu
ton, and the nation itself. This viii
be done unless the bulk of the Amer.
lean people, who have never given thu
slightest countenance to such q revo
luton, interpose their determine,
will between q flabbergasted congress
now rapidly approaching an insanit.
Of hysteria and the revolutionar,
groups. whether Of college professors
of communist cells, or Of hill bill.
demagogues who are tearing the law
Of the land to pieces and destroying
the liberties Of the country.
It may be that President Roosevelt
well recognizes. or soon will, that un
less washington hears from the res
Of the country there viii be nothin
remaining Of American government
as q government Of q free people
guaranteeing liberties and rights an
proceeding by ordered legal process
Quite evidently the majority Of Amer
leans must be organized quickly fros
coast to coast. They have bee
stunned by the rapidity Of the revolu
tionary movement and they hav
been almost inarticulate to the pre-
sent moment. They are bewildere
and confused and the voices of pre-
test and alarm which arise from thel
have not reached Capitol Hill. Their
are men In that body Of legislato,
who would stand up and fight If the
received any encouragement. Al
though they also have been stunne
and virtually swept off their feet, the
have endeavored, as yet lamely, {
stop the destruction Of the America
form Of government before the revc
lutionaries have accomplished the!
full purpose. It will be Thermopyla
for them If the country does not rus
to their support.