Evening star., 1934-10-01

But as for this country, / stand or
fall by my refusal to accept as a
necessary condition of our future a
permanent army Of unemployed. On
the contrary, We must make 1t
national principle that we will not
tolerate q large army of unemployed
and that We will arrange our national
economy to end our present unem-
ployment as soon as we can and then
to take wise measures against its re-
turn. do not want to think that
1t Is the destiny of any American to
remain permanently on relief rolls.
The Frightened Few.
Those. fortunately few In number.
who are frightened by boldness and
coWed by the necessity for making
decisions, complain that all we have
done is unnecessary and subject to
great risks. Now that these people
are coming out OF their storm cellars,
they forget that there ever was a
storm. They poirt to England. They
would have you believe that England
has made progress out OF her depres-
sion by do-nothing policy, by letting
Nature take her course England has
her peculiarities and we have ours,
but I do not believe any intelligent
observer can accuse England Of undue
orthodoxy In In the present emergency.
Did England let Nature take her
course? No. Did England hold to the
gold standard when her reserves were
threatened? No. Has Englind gone
back to the gold standard today? No.
Did England hesitate to call in
$40 .000, ,000, 900 Of her war bonds bear
in per cent interest, to issue new
bonds therefor bearing only 3h per
cent interest, thereby saving the
British Treasury $l50,O00,OO0 a year
in interest alone? No. And let 1t be
recorded that the British bankers
helped. Is 1t not fact that ever
since the year 1909, Great Britain in
many ways has advanced further
along lines Of social security than the
United States? Is 1t not a fact that
relations between capital and labor
on the basis of collective bargaining
are much further advanced in Great
Britain than in the United States?
1t is perhaps not strange that the con-
servative British press has told us
with pardonable irony that much of
| our New Deal program is only an at
tempt to catch up with English re-
forms that go back 10 years or more
Nearly all Americans are sensible
and calm people. We do not get
greatly excited nor is our peace of
mind disturbed, whether we be busi-
ness men or workers or farmers, by
awesome pronouncements concerning
the unconstitutionality of some of our
measures of recovery and relief and
reform. We are not frightened by
| reactionary lawyers or political edi-
tors. All these cries have been heard
before. More than 20 years ago,
| when Theodore Roosevelt and Wood
row Wilson were attempting to cor
rect abuses in our national life, the
great Chief Justice White said:
There is great danger, it seems to
me. to arise from the constant habit
which prevails where anything is op-
posed or objected to. of referring with
! out rhyme or reason to the Constitu-
tion as means of preventing its ac-
complishment. thus creating the gen.
eral impression that the Constitution
is but barrier to progress instead of
being the broad highway through
which alone true progress may be
! enjoyed
The American Course.
I'm our efforts for recovery We have
| avoided on the one hand the theory
that business should and must be
taken over into an all-embracing Gov
, ernment. We have avoided on the
other hand the equally untenable
theory that it is an interference with
liberty to offer reasonable help when
! private enterprise is in need of help.
The course We have followed fits the
American practice of governmental
practice of taking action step by step,
of regulating only to meet concrete
needs-a practice Of courageous recog-