The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1935-09-17
.H00vERWARNS
OF THREAT TO
BASICLAW

SAN DIEGO. Cal, Sept. II Il.
N s).-Former President Herbert
Hoover, speaking today at a Con-
stitution Day observance at the
California Pacific International
Exposition, issued a fervent plea
for the rights of the individual as
against encroaching governments.
He talked particularly OF the
bill of rights and declared the fate
Of this nation is involved. He said:
81 shall refer to but one phase
Of the Constitution in its many
bearings upon national life.
That Is the Bill of Rights.
To-day the Constitution Is
indeed under more vivid discus
sion than at any time since the
years before the civil war. The
background Of that issue was
Negro slavery, but in the fore
ground was the Constitutional
question of States rights and
in the final determination was
the fate Of the Union.
FATE OF NATION
"The aroused interest Of to-
day is again the rights of men.
Today the issue is the rights Of
the individual in relation to the
Government; this too involves
the fate of the nation. If for no
other reason, this discussion has
been forced upon us because
new PHILOSOPHERS and new theO-
riesS of government have arisen
in the world which militantly
deny the validity Of our prin-
cipleS.
"Our Constitution is not alone
the working plan of a great
federation of States under rep
reSentative government. There
is embedded in it also the vital
principles of the American syS-
tenn of liberty. That system is
based upon certain inalienable
freedoms and projections which
not even the government may
infringe and which we call the
Bill of Rights.
ut does not require a lawyer
to interpret those provisions.
They are as clear as the Ten
Commandments. Among others
the freedom Of worship, free
dom Of speech and of the press,
the right of peaceable assem-
bly,, equality before the law, just
trial for crime, freedom from un-
reasonable search, and security
from being deprived Of life,
liberty, or property without due
process Of law are the principles
which distinguish our civiliZa-
ton.
"Our forefathers migrated to
America that they might attain
them more fully. When they
wrote the Declaration of indie
pendence they boldly extended
these rights.
SURRENDER FREEDOM
'Tn the hurricane of revolu-
tiOns which have swept the
world since the great war, men,
struggling with the wreckage
and poverty of that great catas-
trophe and the complications of
the machine age, are in despair,
surrendering their freedom for
false promises of economic Sc
curity.
Here is a form Of Servitude-
Of Slavery-slipping back toward
the Middle Ages. Whatever
these governments are, they
have one common denOmina-
tOr-the citizen has no assured
rights. He is submerged into the
state. Here is the most funda-
mental clash known to man.
kind-that is, free men and
women, cooperating under or
derby liberty, as contrasted with
human beings made pawns of
dictatOrial government; men
who are slaves Of despOtism, as
against free men who are mas
tiers Of the state.
"But it would be better that
we sacrifice something of eco
nomic efficiency than to Surren.
der these primary liberties.
"NOr do / admit that sacrifice
of these rights would add to eco
nomic efficiency or would gain
in economic security, or would
find a single job or would give
a single assurance in old age.
The initiative of men, their en-
terprise, the inspiration of
thought, flower in full only in
the security of these rights.
| NO DIRECT ATTACK
! Liberty is safe only by a divi-
sion Of powers and upon local
SelfgOvernment. We know full
well that power feeds upon it.
Self-partly from the greed of
powers and partly from the in
nOcent belief that Utopia can be
attained by dictation or cOer-
CiOn.
I'm our country, abdicatiOn of
its responsibilities and powers
by Congress to the Executive,
the reputation by the Govern
ment of its obligations, the CEN