The Washington times., 1936-07-06

L a n On and
Knox, has gone over TO Thomas
jefferson, bag and baggage. The
Democratic party, again naming
Franklin D. Roosevelt and John
N. Garner, has committed itself
to the governmental theories Of
Alexander Hamilton. The Repub-
lican party is now the party Of
States rights. The Democratic
party is the party of completely
centralized Federal authority.
You will hear much imprisoned
oratory about this issue and that
about relief, the gold standard,
the agricultural problem, foreign
trade, the League of Nations, bal
ancing the budget, a dozen other
issues.
But underlying the whole ma.
tional contest will be this revival
of the old controversy over the
rights of The individual States as
against the power of the Federal
Government.
OLD CONTROVERSY
"The powers not delegated to
the United States by the COnSti-
tuition nor prohibited by it to the
States are reserved to the States
respectively and to the people"
If that sentence from the great
est document that ever came from
the brain of man is not in the
platform of the Republican party
it was an astonishing omission
Perhaps more than any other
paragraph ever written in America
these WORDS preserve the right OF
individual human liberty.
The president of the Oglethorpe
University, Thornwell Jacobs
states the case powerfully and
concisely:
"They were put there in the
rights of abject fear, created by
age-lOng experience, that the
three fatal tyrannies would
sooner or later destroy the right
of private opinion, private as
sembly, private religion and pri-
vate property"
That principle remains as true
today as when it was written
into the Constitution, and yet
the problem is anything but
simple.
How can the Federal Govern
ment assume complete authority
over the support and living con
ditions of it's citizens without
destroying State lines?
If the sovereignty OF the States
be destroyed all local representa-,
ton in the most important mat,
tiers goes with it, and the main
office Of every business in the
United States is Immediately
transferred to Washington.
That is precisely what we are
seeing today under the workings
of the New Deal. We are wit,
Messing the astounding spectacle
of governors and mayors and
officials of high and low degree
running to Washington, hat in
hand, begging for appropriations
to save themselves from their
own follies.
The Federal Government, hav'
ing absorbed the money of Amer
lea, is rapidly absorbing her 4S
States. With this done, the alb,
sorption of private liberty be-
comes a simple thing.
It is rather sad, but our ma,
tional motto seems to have be-
come, "Give me three meals a
day, INSTEAD Of, Give me lib,
erty or give me DEATH"
The most precious boon the
people ever had, to preserve
which the Southern States red
dened the soil and their rivers
with the blood of their sons, has
come to be regarded in mood
which is best expressed by, IF we
can get by with it, it is all
right"
AS we go into this campaign
we see a great tidal wave of pub
Tic demand that Government
should relieve the citizens of the
necessity of thrift, frugality and
work, and guarantee them not
only a living, but leisure. The age,
long sanctions of God and of ma
ture, which punished the lazy and
the thriftleSs, rebuking them with
hunger and suffering, is sup