Evening star., 1934-10-01


and cowed by the necessity for max
ing decisions"
They would have you believe" said
the President, that England has made
progress out of the depression by
do-nothing policy"
With sarcasm in his tone, the CHIEF
Executive then pointed out that Eng
land had not let nature take its
course" but had been very active. He
asked whether England had held to
the gold standard. and his answer was
an emphatic no" One Of the attacks
leveled against the President has been
that he took the United States of the
gold standard. He asked if 1t were not
true that England had progressed
much further along the lines of social
security than the United States and
whether the relations between capital
and labor on the basis of collective
bargaining had not been much further
advanced than in the United States.
Defends Course as Valid.
The President paid his compliments
to those critics of the New Deal who
have said that it was destructive of
the liberties of American citizens and
violative of the spirit and letter of the
Constitution. He said Nearly all
Americans are sensible and calm peo-
pie. We are not frightened
by reactionary or political editors. All
OF these cries have been heard before"
The President may have had in
mind former President Herbert
Hoover and the newly organized
American Liberty League when he
defended the constitutionality of the
New Deal measures. He quoted from
the late Chief Justice White. who
once said there was great danger
from the practice of persons opposed
to anything who referred to the Con-
stitution as a means of preventing
its accomplishment. The President
recalled Theodore Roosevelt and
Woodrow Wilson met with such cries
when they were attempting to cor
rect abuses in our national life" In
conclusion, the President said:
Il am not for a return to that
definition of liberty under which for
many years a free people were being
gradually regimented into the service
of the privileged few. I prefer and
am sure you prefer that broader
definition Of liberty under which we
are moving forward to greater free
dom. to greater security for the
average man than he has ever known
before in the history of America"
Green Lauds Speech.
President William Green of the
American Federation of Labor. who
Is now in California. was quick to
praise the Presidents speech, de-
claring it to be timely, appropriate
and impressive" He gave his ap-
parent approval to the Presidents plan
for an industrial truce, saying that
the appeal to industry and labor to
make use of the Government for CO.
operative purposes was pertinent.
Green added that he hoped the Ma
tional Association of Manufacturers
would take the Presidents request
to heart.
The President said, in making his
proposal for an industrial truce that
he would ask neither employers or en-
ployes permanently to lay aside tine
weapons common to industrial war"
But he did ask that both sides give
a fair trial to peaceful methods CT
adjusting conflicts through the agen-
cies already set up by the Govera-
ment and to experiment for a rea-
sonable time with measures suit-ble
to civiliZe our industrial civilization" p"
Praises Gen. Johnson.
The President discussed in some
detail the N R. AS new set-up and
added word of praise for Gen. Hugh
S. Johnson. who is retiring as ma
tional administrator. He spoke of the
P. w. A. and its essential place in
the recovery program.
To critics of the large expenditures
being made for public works and the
recovery program generally the Presi-
dent said that no nation could afford
to waste its human resources. De-
moralization caused by unemployed
he characterized as "our greatest ex-
travagance." He said that some peo-
pie try to tell him that there will
always be a permanent list of mil
lions Of unemployed in this country.
Il stand or fall" said the President,
''by my refusal to accept as a neces-
sary condition to our future a per-
manent army of unemployed.