Evening star., 1935-06-23
The Fork i'm the Road.

The Fork i'm the Road.
The seventeen State Governors re-
Gently convened at Biloxi, Miss, closed
their seventeenth annual conference
upon a note of almost complete har-
mony with current presidential efforts
toward national rehabilitation. Assur-
anceS Of patriotic non-partiSanship and
cooperation" were unanimously adopted,
and the President was given broad credit
for benefits to business and improved
working conditions throughout the
Nation. Yet despite the fact that there
were but two Republican Governors on
the scene, the outward closing concord
achieved was hard-won, and the earlier
sessions of the conference strongly evi-
denced gubernatorial restlessness under
two years Of Federal encroachment upon
State preserves. Administration policies
of taking work relief funds out of the
control of State Governors; the unbal-
anced budget; the invasion of the
sovereign rights" of Governors and their
States; disproportionate Federal relief
contributions to the several States, and
abandonment of Jeffersonian democracy,
each in turn, we're deplored by the con-
ferees in the earlier phases. of their
deliberations.
The conference thus became typical
of the viewpoint of great cross-section
of the Nation. 1t reflected the doubts
and miSgivings of many millions Of
Americans as to certain of the past and
current policies of the administration.
And it typified the disposition of those
same millions to recognize the tre-
mendous problems with which the
President has been faced and to wish
him we'll in his vigorous and courageous
willingness to assume full responsibility
for the solution of those problems.
There must be, however, to thoughtful
men and women throughout the Nation
a growing realization that We are
approaching a fork in the road upon
which we progress to our national
destiny. With the present trend of
events that fork may not lie far ahead.
And as we approach it every one of us
must make up his mind whether he
elects to turn to left or right. AS the
majority turn so turns America.
The old terminology will not Suf1ce
to define the choice involved. It is not
going to be question Of political party
of Republican or Democrat or Social
ist. Or of class, of capital or la Dor. Or
of special interest, of business or farmer
or consumer or producer. Or Of sec
tionalism, of East or West or North or
South. BY each Of these subdivisions
of national interest, by each of the indi-
viduals comprising them, q vital ques-
ton must be answered.
Unless present tendencies are checked
Americans will eventually, it is feared
and predicted, be confronted with such
questions as these:
Shall the present-day devoted fol-
lowers of the views and policies of
Thomas jefferson so completely reverse
themselves in reputation of the Jef1er-
sonian policies as to out-Marshall Chief
Justice Marshall in increasing the
strength of the national power at the
expense of that of the States? Shall
the present-day devoted followers of the
nf Thiaf TIlSTinp
Marshall assent to extension of national
power in encroachment upon the powers
constitutionally given or reserved to the
States far beyond the limits Of such
extension of national power advocated
and accomplished by John Marshall
himself? Shall we, If we find ourselves
in fact at the fork in the road, take
the road which leads to vital impairment
of the constitutional rights and powers
of the individual as well as of the States,
and ends in Executive dictatorship?
The question is not one of practical
and constitutional modification of the
old to meet the exigencies Of the new.
No reasonable man fails to recognize
the need for such notifications. The
choice with which the Nation may, as
thoughtful observers fear, be faced is
infinitely broader and more critical. 1t
involves the foundations upon which the
structure which is the Nation has been
erected. So it is well, as we approach
the fork in the road that we think
clearly and weigh carefully and pray
earnestly.