The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1935-09-21
NEWSPAPERS OPINION
THIS is NOT REVISION, 1T is WRECklNG
THE CONSTITUTION

| men as Secretary OF commerce NoPeA'
| He is an ilustrious Democrat.
His inheritances and traditions fortify him IN the
basic faith of democracy. He comes from conc
monwealth richly stepped in consttutionalism.
South Carolina affords in history more than its
share of eminent statesmen of yesterday whose
names have been immortalized for their convictions
as to representative government for their stauneh
defense of the American Constitution and for Their
unfiinching loyalty to the principles of democracy
as these leaped out of the mind and heart of the
Founding Fathers.
For his own stout and 1int-lke devotion to con-
stitutiona government, Secretary Roper has earned
in his state and throughout the nation the admlra
ton of those whose own faith is of this order
In the background of which, his views on the
question of amending the Constitution are surprs-
ing.
Thew are more than surprising, they are shock
ing. They would be all of that if they only repre-
scented his own suddenly-formed convictions but
when thew are released vocal of the view of the
present national administration, they are appalling
and startling.
| IF the American people should follow through
with Secretary Roper on the amendments wnlch ne
is proposing they would not revise the Constitu-
! ton: they would wreck It,
| II would not be case of dressing 1t up; 1t
would be a case of dynamiting it out of being.
It is proposed by Secretary Roper that the Con-
stituton be so rewritten that 1.-The federal govern
ment' should be given plenary and undivided au-
thority in times of emergency.
If Secretary Roper honestly believes that this
should be DONE it means that the American eIeeto-
rate must organize it's defenses to see that 1t is not
done.
Such an amendment would cut the heart out Of
the Constitution.
1t would be the equivalent not of repairing the
house, but of burning it down.
Congress should never, emergency or no emery
ency, be given such authority in government If the
crudest principle of representative government IS
to be preserved.
OF course if the people of this country should
be of a mind that in the event of an emergency,
they should set up a monarchy with all of its tor
turous tyrannies against individual rights, that's
another question.
But if they propose to cling to the plain tenets
now undergirding republican form of govern
ment, they will never consent to such a vicious
amendment that.
The Constitution of the United States is writ
ten contract made and soemnly entered into, to
provide for themselves, out of their impulse for
self-government, an inviolate charter with three
basic specifications.
First that the sovereign citizens of this republic
shall be guarded by that instrument in their ind
vidual liberties against the encroachments of any
government local or otherwise That's the Bill of
Rights.
Second, that in their local problems of govern
ment, they shall have the last word against any
mpingements on the part of the federal govern
ment. That's States Rights.
Third, that the divisions of sovereignty between
the executive legislative and judicial with their in
dividual checks and balances to protect and pre-
serve the integrity of each in its separate sphere
shall be involably maintained.
That is the Constitution of the United States in
! all of its basically essential meaning
| The proposition, therefore, of Secretary Roper
is that this Constitution should be so amended that
in an emergency of any sort, none of these three
elemental principles representing the very heart Of
Representative, republican government, could stand
| up. One central government could wipe out every
one of them.
1t could abolish the bill of rights and with it every
individual freedom and personal liberty now guar
anteed by the Constitution.
| 1t could wipe out the jurisdictions of local gov
eminent, city, town, county and state and nothing
would go save the unappealable edict of the Wash
| ington tyrannsts.
1t could consolidate, abridge or eliminate the
separate functions now existent between the ex-
ecutive, judicial and legislative
And when congress should do any or all of these
the Constitution would be left as no more than
dead relic of sacred charter of the govern
ment of a free people.
Even that, is not all in the way of the danger;
involved in the Roper recommendation.
4 1t is in an emergency that the anchorage of
Constitution is the more imperative. 1t is amid tn
exigencies of an abnormal moment in the life of
nation that and steadfast and immovab
rock of political safety is needed Of all times, NJ
emergency is not the time to suspend basic govern
7 ment.
More than that, by what token can we be assure
that American congress will always be so re
liable and nvincbly moral in its convictions as no
to declare an emergency existent when there is nj
: emergency.
1t is conceivable that in normal times, this coun
try might have body of Lawmakers sitting VIII,
could tbe swayed by the influences of specific mi