Evening star., 1936-02-24
R|TCH|E POWERFUL
NEW DEAL CRITIC
Opposed "Intense Centrali.
zation" of Power to
the Last.
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

speaking on Ine concentration OF
Governmental Power" at Frederick,
Md, only last Tuesday, Ritchie sharply
criticized certain phases of the New
Deal. which he said would bring about
Intense centralization of government
tai power" and direct economic regi-
mentation."
What course the former Maryland
Governor would have pursued in the
national campaign in the event of the
denomination of President Roosevelt
Gu New Deal platform by the Demo-
cratic National Convention next June
probably will never be known. Whether
he would have taken a walk" with
AL Smith, as the former New York
Governor threatens to do under such
circumstances is question. Ritchie
was a lfe-loug Democrat. He was
also devoted supporter of States
rights under the Constitution.
Friends of the former Maryland
Governor here were taken aback by
his sudden death. He had been among
them in the city only recently, appar-
emily in robust health.
Leaders in both parties spoke highly
of him.
Representative Bankhead, Demo-
cratic leader. said:
While did not always agree with
his views on public questions, re-
garded him as a man of great intel
lect and high public character"
Representative Smell, Republican
leader, said Ritchie was very potent
force in the political affairs of the
country. He was great man in every
respect. His death is great loss to
the sober minded people,"
Ritchie's address last Tuesday at
tacking the New Deal was only one of
series of such speeches which he had
made in recent months. Always he
harped on the efforts made by the
New Dealers to concentrate power in
Washington. 1t was Ritchies boast
that while Governor he kept the States
expenses down and credit up. The
huge spending program of the Roose-
welt administration, with mounting
public debt and huge deficits, met
with the former Governors dis
approval.
Ritchie also was an ardent advocate
of the Constitution, and many of his
addresses in the past have been in
defense of that document as it is writ
ten, with its checks and balances in
the Federal Government. Speaking
at Frederick, he said:
I'm other lands, other constitutes
have come and gone, but through
peace and war. through panic and
plenty, through all the amazing growth
and developments of nearly $50 years,
the American Constitution, including
the fist 10 amendments as really part
of it, has lasted. 1t has been amend
ed, of course, to reflect the result of
the Civil War and in other important
respects, but in its basic and structural
fundamentals it is still unchanged.
Feared Regimentation.
Nov the country is urged to accept
. fundamental changes in it. Whether
one may be disposed favorably to some
of the policies of the New Deal or not,
one must admit that others of its poll
cies involve the theory of direct eco
nomic regimentation and intense CEN
tralization of governmental power.
THE moment you undertake to
regiment or nationalize agriculture. in
dustry and our economic order gen.
orally; the moment you undertake to
manage or plan the lives and enter
prises of the American people, that
moment you introduce into this coun-
try new and different kind of gov
eminent from the one we know and
under which we have prospered for
almost a century and half. What
such new and different kind of govern
ment would be, cannot say. 1t
might ultimately be fascism or Soviet
ism or communism or Nazism or COL
lectivism, or it might be something
else
Ritchie had been dominant figure
in Democracy in Maryland for many
years For Is years he was Governor,
serving four terms. He smashed all
precedent in the matter of reelection
in the State. He was an outstanding
candidate for the presidential nomi-
nation in 1924, at the Madison Square
Garden convention In 1923 he and
other Democratic aspirants for the
presidential honor went along with Al
Smith at the Houston convention.
In 1882 Ritchie was again presented
as presidential candidate. When it
was evident that Roosevelt was to
be the party nominee, after Senator
McAdoo had turned California and
Texas over to the New Yorker, Ritchie,
a good party man, accepted the situa-
tion and threw his Maryland delega-
ton to Roosevelt. He remained en-
tirely regular during the 1892 cam
paign.
Got Little 1884 Support.
When President Roosevelt's New
Deal began to unfold after his inaugu-
ration in March. 1888, Ritchie was
inclined to be critical. Furthermore,
the Roosevelt New Dealers were "off"
Ritchie. There was no real support
among them for Ritchie's reelection
in 1884, and not a little quiet salts
faction when he went down to defeat
before Gov. Nice, although Nice was
Republican.
Ritchie had not given up politics.
His friends frankly said not long be-
fore his death that he was planning
a comeback, and that he had in mind
running for the senatorial nomina-
tion in 1888 against Senator Tydings.
They predicted that he would be
successful in such contest. Ritchie
had resented the attitude of Tydings
during the last campaign, when Ty-
dings opposed his denomination for
Governor and urged Ritchie to be-
come a candidate for the Senate
against former Senator Goldsborough,
Republican.
Ritchie's friends and supporters
insisted, however, that he run for
Governor. They had no desire to
see Mayor Jackson Of Baltimore
succeed to the gubernatorial Office.
Had Ritchie followed his own inclina-
lions he might have taken the sena-
<Nrio1 nomination P,,t ho fo1f that