The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1935-06-12
WEDNESDAY, JUNE II, 1885
as DEMOCRATIC DOCTRINE
OBSOLETE?"

Texas Democrat, Peter MolyneauX,
editor of The Texas Weekly, deVotes sew
oraI naoes of that journal to a discussion
Of the above subject. As the issue the
Texas editor brings to the fore may De NO.
IN tba next national election, The Times
News is quoting at length from this artlcle.
Mr. MoIvneaux's contribution is also Oh
c,.oat interest and value as a brief hlstorl-
cal record of the Democratic party a''i-
tude to American constitutional govern
ment throughout the greater part OIL tiie
history of this republic.
Mr.. Molyneaux takes the announceo
views of President Roosevelt, made puOllI
following the NRA decision OF the supreme
Court. as a subject for legitimate discus
sion, and says:
Whether President Roosevelt exaggerateS the
ir,nortance of this tissue" not, there can DC ho
question about his opinion of its Importance
Il remains to be seen how the issue Will take form
and in what manner the country Will be gwen Tue
opportunitv to decide it. But one thing STANDS out
unmistakably and that is that President Roosevelt
{ NOW the avowed advocate OF besto"lng upon the
Federal Government immense new powers wmch
:. r. not hitherto possessed. And another thing
that cannot be denied is that President Roosevelt
i the titular head of the Democratic party. ms
r seems to me, is the most important thing re-
veaIed bv President Roosevets talk 10 the eorIe-
spondents: The titular head of the Democratic
marty is now the avowed advocate OF 1nnaaiheh-
taI change in our form OF government a chanse
in the direction of a much greater CONTAMINATION
of mower at Washington and the kind of change
that has been StubbOrnly opposed oy the Oe'o-
cratic party during all of its history.
II was Thomas jefferson himself who defined one
Of the fundamental tenets of the party to be tine
support of the State governments in all their rghS
as the most competent administrations for our do
r,astic concerns. and the surest bulwarks against
anti-repubHcan tendencies and the party has ad-
bared IN that fundamental prncinple' during
more than a century Indeed, it has been largely
because the Democratic party has had such funda-
mental principles that it has endured across the
wears while other parties have risen, had their
little day, and ceased to be. In the first written
platform ever adopted by the Democratic party
that of 1856, first place among its principles IS
accorded to the which President Roosevelt I'M
dOubtedly repudated in his talk to the correspond
ents. 1t is declaration that the Federal Gov
eminent is one of limited power, derived soley
from the Constitution; and the grants OF power
made therein ought to be strictly construed oy all
the departments and agents of the government;
and that it is inexpedient and dangerous TO exer-
else doubtful constitutional powers
Throughout its long history. through victory and
defeat the Democratic party has renamed 1altmui
to this principle, reaffirming it in the party plat
form repeatedly. Some of the party platform dec
arations on the subject in the past nave such d.
rect application to President Roosevelts remarks,
IL, IN them
The Democratic platform of 1880, for example,
declared its opposition to Capitalization and to
that dangerous spirit of encroachment which tends
to consolidate the powers of all departments in
one and thus to create, whatever the form of gov
ernment a real despOtism" And in 1884 the plat
form, in reaffrming the partys support of 'the
reserved rights of the States and the supremacy
of the Federal Government within the limits of
the Constitution" made this significant declara-
ton: "The Democratic party of the Union through
its representatives in national convention assem-
bled, recognizes that, as the nation grows older,
new issues born of time and progress and
old issues perish. But the fundamental principles
OF the Democracy remain and will ever remain
as the best and only security for the continuance
of free government The platform that year fur
Their declared that these principles twill ever form
the true basis of our liberties and can never be
surrendered without destroying the balance of
rights and powers which enables continent to be
developed in peace, and social order to be main
tanned by means of local self-government."
The Democratic platform of 1888 enumerated
among the principles of party faith devotion to
plan of government regulated by written con-
stitution, strictly specifying every granted power
and expressly reserving to the States or people
the entire ungranted residue of power" And then
in 1892, the Democratic platform, after renewing
tba of he rtv do
declaration: eve solemnly declare that the need
of return to these principles of free and popu.
lar government, based on home rule and individual
liberty, was never more urgent than now, wher
the tendency to centralize all power at the Fed
eral capital has become menace to the reserved
rights of the States that strikes at the very roots
of our government under the Constitution, a
framed by the fathers of the Republic
And so Come down to the platform of 1896