The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1936-07-30

the beginning of which we had
no part, or that would build a
false peace on the foundation
of armed camps"
Il turn now to the basic princi.
Piles upon which our nation Il
founded. America has always
stood, and now stands, first Of all
for human right, for the life, lib
erty and pursuit Of happiness OF
the great declaration. The prime
needs of men have not changed
since that declaration. though new
means from time to time may be
necessary to meet those needs. But
the great safeguards against tyr
amy and oppression must not be
cast away and lost. They must be
saved that men may live free to
pursue their happiness, safe from
any kind of exploitation.
"One cannot face this occasion
and the prospect flowing from II
without a SOLDERING reflection upon
the beginning, growth, and destiny
Of our nation. Our government was
founded to give life to certain
principles. The people embodied
these basic principles of human
rights in the federal and state con-
situations. Thus, the people them
selves, Of their own free will, will
set up this government. And 1t is
still the government of the people
Any change which the people want
they can have by following the pro-
cedure they themselves laid down.
But for any official or branch
of government to attempt such a
change, without authority from the
people, is to do an unwarranted
and illegal act. IT is a substitution
of personal for constitutional gov
eminent. If added power is needed
the people have set out how that
authority may be had from them
if they wish to give it.
This, in its broad essentials, is
the basic structure of our govern
ment.
Gas our economic life has be-
come more complex and specialized
some need, real or apparent, has
often been urged as an excuse for
a further grant of power from the
people. They have sometimes given
sometimes withheld, the desired
power.
There has now appeared in high
places, however, a new and danger
Gus impulse. This is the impulse to
take away and lodge in the chief
executive, without the peoples con-
sent, the powers which they have
kept in their state governments or
which they have reserved in them
selves.
I'm its ultimate effect upon the
welfare of the whole people, this,
then, Is the most important ques-
ton now before us: shall we con-
tinue to delegate more and more
power to the chief executive or do
we desire to preserve the Ameri-
can form of government? Shall we
continue to recognize that certain
rights reside with the people, that
certain powers are reserved for
the states, and that certain func-
tons are delegated to the federal
government?
Now know that many Of us, at
one time or another, have become
dissatisfied and impatient with the
efforts of our local and state ad-
ministrations to solve our difficult
ties. r.g
cat such time is has seemed to
us that only a larger, more power
full unit of government could meet
the need.
For those who have followed
such line Of reasoning I have the
understanding that comes from ex-
perience. AS young man was at
tracted to the idea of centralizing
in the federal government full
power to correct the abuses grow
ing out of a more complex social
order. When the people rejected
this alternative, I was as disap-
pointed as anyone. But in spite of
this rejection, have lived to see
many of those abuses substantially
corrected by the forty-eight state
legislatures in their fields and by
the federal government in it's field
of interstate commerce.
More recently, as a small indie
pendent oil producer, I saw my in
dustry ask for federal regulation
because of a selfish exploitation of
a natural resource which, once
wasted, cannot be replaced. When