Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1937-09-17

eminent will probably electrocute
these evangels of discord and leave
arbitrary power to take care OF the
implied threat already given. This,
it seems to me, would be the orderly
procedure under constitutional gov
eminent. The advice is given freely
but with little hope. it will be under
stood
Severest Test May Be
Approaching, Many Believe.
Many believe that constitutional
government is approaching its sever
est test. The supposition is that the
intricate and complex problems grow
ing out of modern industrial life can
not be dealt with successfully through
the slow-moving machinery Of con-
stitutional government, But while the
task of government in these extraor-
binary times is very great, the pa
tience, the energy, the resourceful-
ness and the patriotism of these $780,
100000 people are also very great
immeasurable, incalculable. Never has
education been so widespread, never
the means of transmitting knowledge
to all and upon all subjects been so
universal and perfect. Thomas Car
lyle. in his life of Robert Burns, COM
pairing the modern era with former
times, said. Man stands, as 1t were,
in the midst of q boundless arsenal
f11oI with oil ha
pons and engines which mans skill
has been able to devise from earliest
time; and he works accordingly, with
strength borrowed from all past
ages" And while the citizen in these
days stands in the midst of all kinds
of questions calling for greater and
graver responsibility, what reason have
we to suppose that the American
citizen will not be equal to the task?
Certainly there has been no evidence
either of incompetency or unreliability
in these frightful years through which
we have just passed.
There seems to me something de-
cidedly un-American in these doubts
and fears touching the inability of
democracy to cope with the problems
Of modern life. Let's leave these
doubts and fears to those who openly
decry our system of free government
and who hate the very principles
upon which it rests. Why should we
doubt that system of government
which has brought so much of hap
piness to the individual and so much
of power to the Nation? If fate
should be against democracy, it will
be time enough to grapple with that
tragedy when it comes, but let's not
commit the crime of encouraging it.
Under that self-discipline which
national exigencies always suggest
and which great people always
accepts, there is no reason why the
achievements of our Government and
the success of our people in the past
should be anything more than the
prelude to still greater achievements
in the future.
And may say to the youth of this
country, those who will have most
to do in directing the affairs of the
Nation in the near future, that the
more they study the history of our
country the more they will realize
that success in public affairs, as in
all other things, comes, not to those
who doubt, but to those who believe
Those whom this Republic has placed
among her immortas were not
those who staggered through In un-
belief, but those who believed that
what constitutional government had
promised constitutional government
would perform.
People Need Not Surrender
Rights for Necessities.
l. The best illustration OF this pessi-
mistic political philosophy is the
theory so often advanced that per-
sonal liberty has become incompatible
with economic security, that the timt
has come when if the masses would
make sure of shelter and food the,
must surrender freedom. The thing.
to be done, 1t is argued, are so big
so vast, that they must be done b,
the Government and the citizen mus
yield up all discretion, all Judgment
together with most of his ancient
privileges and his personal liberty
II that is true. of course, We begar
wrong $50 years ago. If that is true
Washington and Jefferson wer'
wrong and Mussolini and Hitler ar
right. This theory would write lii
across the Declaration of 1ndepend
ence and obsolete across the Fedora
Constitution.
But the theory itself is false an
has been proven to be false by al
human experience. Personal liberty
the discretion and Judgment Of tn
citizen are not incompatible with, bu
are essential factors in, economi
security In those countries wher
the people have been induced to Civ
up their rights as free men and FIRE
women under the promise Of eco