The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-03-14

preston would be drastic retrenchment now by the
new congress.
at is this positive evidence of the ability of the
new government to govern In the national interest
which President Roosevelt has asked of congress.
Too often in recent history liberal governments
have been wrecked on rocks of loose fiscal policy.
We must avoid this danger There IS only one
way of doing so. Where every other expenditure
has already been cut far, the only remaining
possibility of major economy lies in the politically
fostered and atrociously unjust system of the pen
sion laws. Facing it. the president has retralned
from asking as q good many hasty people would
have him do, for unconstitutional or dlctatoral
powers With a clearer grasp than they OF the
necessities of the situation, he has accepted full
responsibility for himself without seeking to re-
lieve the legislative of the responsibility prop
erly belonging to it. He has asked it to lay down,
as cOnsttutionally it should do, the broad prncl-
Piles under which pension and salary expenditures
are to be controlled He has asked for himself only
the executive authority to apply those principles
so as to make them effective.
"The distinction is particularly sound and par
ticuary appropriate in respect to veteran legisa-
ton. The worst abuses of the present system flow
from the practice of concentrating administrative
discretion in the hands of congress. Again and
again some particular class of hard cases has been
met not by granting the discretion necessary to
permit of their relief but by passing new laws
which, while relieving the few deserving special
cases, also opened the gates to hundreds or thou
sands of others who had no just claim to relief a:
ALL 1t is a question whether congress could devise
legislation so flexible and exact automatically
to separate the undeserving from the deserving.
In any just pension system that duty would have
to be left to intelligent administration; and it IS
because he has understood this fact that President
Roosevelt has been able to ask for power at once
entirely constitutional and entirely adequate to
the actual necessities of the moment.
''The president has understood both the true ma
ture of the national problem and the soundest
method of attack upon it. His request to congress
is admittedly difficult for that body to accede
to. The banking act trod on the toes of no power
full minority and broke down no legislative fences;
the speed with which it was passed was admirable
but involved no immediate sacrifice. Now the presi-
dent is asking the congressman for somewhat
sterner brand of courage, but that very fact only
makes it the more essential that they respond.
Indeed unless they do respond it IS unlikely that
any real advance is possible the other hand, IN
rising to this occasion they will not only have an
overwhelming present opinion behind them but
they will establish confidence in their intel
lgence and patriotism which will provide the firm
est of all bases upon which to found recovery. The
message itself reached high level of straight
thinking and forceful expression; it was model
of what state paper in a time of crisis ought to
be- 1t goes to the heart of the problem and makes
the whole outcome depend upon the answer of con-
gress."
The last election showed that the people of the
United States were not thinking in terms of party.
They want relief. They want leadership. The
events of the past week have further demonstrated
that the people of the United States not think
ing in terms of party. They want the right thing
done and they are ready to back President Roose-
Welt because they believe that he is seeking hon.
estly inteligenty and courageously to act for the
nation. We are sure that the president understands
and appreciates this response to his efforts. The
professional pie-dspensers, who think of change
in political administration only in terms of jobs,
would do well to understand it also.-The Ashe-
Vile Citizen.