Evening star., 1934-04-17

constantly, government could never
find its way three inches from the
status quo, and the people would ulti-
mately find themselves constrained in
SO immovable strait-jacket that
they would have to destroy the old
order by forceful revolution in order
to establish an order and a govern
ment that could serve them by peace
full evolution.
In view Of all these things, and
in view of the stable quality Of the
American people which has been
established in the century and half
of our history, it is nothing short Of
the silliest folly for men or women to
conjure up in their frightened minds
the specter of unconstitutional rev.
olution,' the destruction of our
ancient landmarks the surrender to
communism, or 'bolSheviSm, or
'fascism' or the arrival of dictator
marching under the banner Of
goblinism.'
If Thomas jefferson, without
specific constitutional authority, could
purchase the whole of Louisiana, what
is to prevent Franklin D. Roosevelt,
under the same Constitution and
without specific constitutional au-
thority, from purchasing a few mil
lion acres of waste or unproductive
lands in the public interest and for
the public welfare?
If Theodore Roosevelt, without
specific constitutional authority.
could buy from Panama a l0-mile
strip across the Isthmus of Panama
and dig a canal through it for the
benefit of American commerce and
as an instrument of national defense,
what Is to prevent Congress from
giving Franklin D. Roosevelt the
power to make a few agreements by
which some Of that commerce may
flow to other nations through that
same canal?
Exchange Regulation.
If Congress has the power to
regulate the freight rate on every
pound of commerce that finds its
way across State lines and across the
Continent by rail, water, motor or
airplane; if Congress can regulate
the size of cars, the length of trains,
the issue of securities, the hours of
service, the wages of laborers and the
income OF those who own these in
struments of commerce, who can say
that it has not the power to regulate
a stock exchange where the securi-
ties of all who have invested in these
transportation agencies and all who
use them are bought and sold in
every city and hamlet OF this Re-
public?
If Congress had the power to
revolutionize our banking system by
the passage of the Federal Reserve
act. who can deny to it the power to
guarantee a modicum of safety to
those who entrust these banking in
stitutions with their lifetime accumu-
Iations?
If the Federal Government has the
right and the power to inspect and to
pass judgment on every article of
food and every drug which is con-
sumed by the people of the United
States-a power and a right which
has been upheld by the only au-
thority that can finally adjudicate it,
the Supreme Court-Who shall DENY
to that same Congress the power and
the right to set up boards or commits
slons to enforce codes of fair practice
among the manufacturers of these ar
ticleS or other articles over which
Congress may have regulatory power?
If the National Government can
fix the hours and the compensations
and the conditions of employment of
those who minister to the necessities
OF interstate commerce through trans
portation, who shall say that Con-
gress has not the power to set up the
machinery or provide by legislation
the conditions under which more men
may work and fewer men will be
without work?
Public Works Program.
IF the National Government has
the power to clean out a harbor or
deepen a river or build a road, so
that the people may go or carry what
they have from. place to place
throughout the Nation with greater
comfort, speed and efficiency, shall
We deny that this same Government
has the power to provide a public
works program through which more
commodities may be consumed and
more of the facilities of life and of
comfort may be obtained?
If the National Government may
under the Constitution create bank
ing system to loan money to the peo-
pie and their institutions, why may
it not set up an agency of it's own in
an emergency to do what the banks,
due to the emergency, cannot do?
If Aaron Burr could be tried and
acquitted for conspiracy to destroy
the Government because of a little
conference on Blennerhassetts Island
in the Ohio River, cannot a few pro-
feSSors meet around a beefSteak at a
restaurant in Washington and ex-
change views about things as they
are or ought to be- without sending
series of shivers of earthquake pro-
portions up and down the spines of
other professors remotely located, who
hear of it around other beefsteaks
also remotely located?
Denies "PIot."
lnoSe VINO are now Olrectlng the
deStinieS of this Government are not
seeking, directly or indirectly, to un-
dermine the foundations of constitu-
tional government in the United
States of America They are not
seeking to tasten upon the American
people any system that Is un-
American or that will take away. the
right of the American people to pass
upon the acts of their Government in
the same constitutional way which
has always been theirs.
But those who are directing the
Government of the United States at
present are trying to apply the pow
ers contained in the American Con-
stitution to the wise solution Of the
great problems which now beset the
Nation In a way that will justify the