Evening star., 1935-08-04

Trained from trying to take over the
church. Probably the reason is that
Mussolini's seat in Rome is close by
the world capital Of the Catholic
Church in the same city. and Musso-
lini hesitates to attempt what Stain
does in Russia and Hitler in Germany.
State Seizes All Power.
The outstanding characteristic Of
the new order in Europe is seizure of
all power and all authority by the
state. To that we have always had in
America one great impeachment In our
conception of government we have
courts which among their other func-
tions protect the citizen against the
government.
In yet another way the courts In
America stand as an obstacle to CEN
tralization of authority and power in
the Government at Washington. Ours
is a Federal Government. made up
of 48 States, to which large areas
of power and authority are reserved.
OF these powers reserved to the States,
the Supreme Court Is the interpreter.
So long as the Supreme Court exists
and unless the Constitution is changed,
there cannot be that Capitalization
of authority at Washington which Mr..
Roosevelt frankly asks for.
So the issue next year will be re-
duction of the power Of the courts and
change Of the Constitution, or both.
The issue will not be brought forward
by the New Dealers directly. The cam
paign will probably consist of point
ing to the Supreme Court and the
Constitution as obstacles to bringing
about the new order. Then, if Mr.
Roosevelt is reelected, we may expect
him to proceed directly toward chang
ing the Constitution and curtailing
the powers of the courts.
Trend Toward AH-POwerful State.
One can observe from day to day
actions of the administration which
are faint and In some cases perhaps
unconscious steps toward the ideal of
the authoritarian state. Recently Mr.
Roosevelt declared that corporations
should be discouraged from making
gifts to charities, by denying to them
the right to deduct the amounts of
such gifts from the earnings on which
they must pay taxes. About the same
time he expressed opposition to per-
| mitting corporations to have their
own pension systems. He declared,
in effect, that the only pension sys-
tenn should be the one fathered by
the Government.
Both these actions reflect a cropping
toward the authoritarian state" to-
ward the State as the center of all
authority, as the only institution to-
ward which the citizen should feel
loyalty or obligation or difference. In
the ideal toward which Mr.. Roose-
velt's mind is cropping all charitable
institutions, and all beneficiaries of
charity, must look to the Government.
Wherever the authoritarian state"
arises it aims to exterminate every
other center Of authority, every other
object of Difference or loyalty from
the people. In Germany, even the
labor unions have been dissolved.
incidentally something like this will
happen In America If the New Deal
goes on; the labor unions may think
they have won something in the re-
cent labor disputes statute, but the
ultimate effect and the steady tend
ency is to cause labor to look for
leadership, not toward their present
unions and leaders, but toward the
Government)
The authoritarian ideal has been
put IN words by Mussolini: THE gov
ernment is to be the sole and supreme
arbiter of the needs of society,""
1t may seem a long way between
Nazi-ism showing jealousy Of the au-
thority of religion and the New Deal
showing jealousy of corporations hav-
ing the power and prestige that go
with making contributions to charity
and having their own pension systems
for the employees. But the former
Is only an extremely advanced stage
Of the same tendency as the latter.
Copyright. 1895, New York Tribune Inc.