The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1936-03-17
NEWSPAPERS OPINION
LET US KEEP THE FAITH

dictatorship the fashion of the day in more than
half of Europe from the Ural Mountains to the
Rhine. from the North Sea to the Mediterranean,
and even in our own United States, which we have
long regarded as the strongest citadel of popular
Government there are subversive movements threat
ening to overthrow constitutional liberty
With this in mind it is well to recall the fact
that the first President of the United States and
tho President of the Constitutional government
once indignantly scored proposition to make him
the overload of America.
During the dark days of the Revolution, certain
army officers, including Col. Lewis Nicola, appro-
acbod General Washington with the proposal thai
4 monarchy be established and that he be made the
crowned dictator of new nation. In his reply to
the officers George Washington said:
o.W;th mixture of great surprise and astoniSh-
mont ! have read with attention the sentiments
Won have submitted to my perusal Be assured,
sip no occurrence in the course of the war has
Given mo more painful sensations than your infor-
nation of there being such ideas existing in thu
army, as YOU have expressed, and just view with
adherence and reprehend with severity For the
present the communication of them will rest in ny
own bosom, unless some further agitation OF the
matter shall make disclosure necessary.
duct could have given encouragement IN an adj
dress which to me seems big with the greatest mis-
chiefs that can befall my country. IL l am not
deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not
have found person to whom your schemes are
more iisagreeable. At the same time, IN justice
to nv own feelings | must add that no man pos
sesses more sincere wish TO ample justice done
to the army than | do; and, as far as my powers
and Influence. in a constitutional way extend they
shall be ernployed to the utmost of my abilities TO
effect it. should there by any occasion Let me con-
jure you, then, as you have any regard for you"
country concern for yourself or posterlty, OF re-
sheet for me. TO Danish these thoughts from your
mind. and never communicate as from yourself o.
anyone else, sentiment of the like nature
George Washington was not only the father Of
his country, he the founder OF American con-
Sttuti6nal freedom. More than century and Il
half have passed since this historic pronouncement
of our first great military and civic hero. The
fundamentals of constitutional democracy, which
he played so big part in establishing still stands
firm in the hearts of the great mass OF our citzeh-
ship. Yet this is an age of dictatorship and 1t
behooves every patriotic American to stand guard
against the subversive efforts of Old World prop
uganda
Let us remember that the dictatorship which
comes through communism, and the dictatorship
which arrives through fascism or nazism are both
entirely foreign to our ideals of constitutional
freedom World democracy is now being attacked
from two direction, and both assaults must be re-
peed in America if we are to continue the work
which was initiated by the founding fathers of the
republic.
Although communism and the forms of fasclsm
are apparently as far apart the poles, the chasm
which divides their aims is comparatively narrow
one after all. Alike they would destroy indlVi-
dual initiative, the freedom of the press, and OF
religious worship, substituting national propaganda
for the orderly development of the human mind.
Let it not be forgotten either, that if we would
nreyent a fascist dictatorship from ultimately
Selling the rens of government in America, we
must at the same time check the invasion of the
subversive army of communism. The one feeds on
the other In Germany and Italy, for example, it
was the fear of the approaching red msts OF conf
muniSm which gave fascism its opportunity to grow
and ultimately to seize the rens of government.
The threat of the red shirts gave the black shirts
and the brown their political potentiality When
the people of Italy and Germany persuaded
that they must choose one form of dictatorship or
'
happened in Russia, they turned to fascism.
There is no more room in America today for :"
dictator than there in the days of George
Washington-even less excuse for the adoption OF
this kind of governmental system. The coonlst
might have been moved by fear of the imminent
extinction of new-word nation. But America
has now grown up We are able to stand before
the entire world as an example of what constitu-
! tional democracy can accomplish. We have no
! excuse for changing form of government. Il
such change is made it will be due to our own
ignorance of the past, to our lack of understanding
of what dictatorship really means. e. o..
Let us dedicate future political and civic ef-
forts to the preservation of American constltu
| tional democracy. If.there is one who has weak
ened in the faith, let repeat to him after Wash
ington: "Let me conjure you, you have any
regard for your country, concern for yourself OF
posterity " to Danish these thoughts from your
mind National Republic.