Evening star., 1937-03-09
NEW DEAL HELPS
KEEP DEMOCRACY
SAFE, BEARD SAYS
Historian Hits DictatoriaI
Governors in Cutting Me.
mortal Lecture.
LA GUARDIA HITS COURT
FOR 'SENILE PHILOSOPHY
Distinguished Audience Crowds
Two Auditoriums for Program
in Memory of Late Senator.

Charles Beard, a leading American
historian, last night told 1000 promi-
nent citizens of Washington that the
New Deal permits democracy the
change necessary to its survival.
Beard, who insisted that the safety
Of American democracy is dependent
upon our avoidance of war, added a
slap at modern dictatorial anti
Democratic Governors:
Those that do not bend, adjust or
adapt, surely perish. Even despotism
is tempered by assassination"
Beard urged mandatory neutral
ity policy to prevent war. He spoke
with Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia OF
Senator La Toilette of Wisconsin and
Senator Norris of Nebraska, in the
first series of the Senator Bronson
Cutting Memorial Lectures, devoted to
the general question of the future of
democracy.
Though not indicated by the pro-
gram, the trend of some of the
La Guardia and Edward F. McGrady,
Assistant Secretary of Labor. was to
show that the survival of democracy
depends upon the Presidents victory
in his present fight to change the
decisions of the judiciary as they affect
social legislation.
Secretary McGrady brought his
hearers at the Temple Auditorium 20
their feet. at the close of the speeches,
by a ringing declaration that the
memory of Senator Cutting would be
best perpetuated if the audience went
out into "the highways and byways"
and campaigned for the President in
his fight against "the judiciary" de-
cisions of which, he indicated, now
block progress.
The attendance at the lectures was
80 much larger than expected that the
crowd was housed in two auditoriums,
the Rialto Theater and the Temple. at
$40 Eighth street, and the speakers
appeared before each group,
Diplomats, Officials Present.
In the throng were diplomats head
ed by Ambassador Lindsay of Great
Britain, officials headed by Secretary
Wallace, and many Senators and Rep
Sesentatives.
The lectures are financed by Mrs.
w. Bayard Cutting, mother of the
Senator from New Mexico who was
killed in an airplane crash in May,
1885, as q more fitting memorial TO
her liberal son than a monument or
statue Harold Laski of London, Eng
land, University will deliver the next
lectures here March "a and Is.
La Guardia, whose recent outburstS
against Hitler brought no reaction
last night other than the absence from
the lectures of the German Ambassa-
dor, DR.. Hans Luther, belabored the
"senile philosophy" of the Supreme
Court and offered this thesis in an
swer to the strict constitutionalists:
1T is for each age to decide what
government shall do or not do. We
are Of one economic fabric. We in
this country all have common prob
lens and we have to legislate and
govern accordingly.
Democracy is dynamic. The min
ute it becomes static, it crumbles and
changes its form. It must be alert
and moving forward all the time.
When we hear people say. That was
never intended by the trainers of the
Constitution how do they know?
Conditions Are Changed.
What we do know is that condi-
tions Of the country as it was when
the Constitution was framed have
changed. Yet, there have been few
constitutional changes. and some of
them would not have been necessary
had it not been for a factor which
retards progress in democracy, and
that Is q court.
Our economic system will be
American, but I do not know what
it will be if the representatives of
the people are prevented from taking
action. If an action is to be con-
strued in the light of senile philoso-
ply, it is difficult to know how to
act. 1t is for the country to say
what is democracy, and not the court" !"
Beard took for his text statement by
Mussolini that democracy is only q
mask for capitalism" and proceeded to
show that democracy developed long
before capitalism and that their aims
have not been the same; in fact are
sometimes divergent.
"At this very hour in the United
States" he said, cit is the spokesmen
of democracy, not of capitalism, who
seek to prevent the added concen-
tration of capitalistic power and estab-
lish a more equitable distribution of
wealth and a greater welfare and Sc
curity for society.
Change Held Necessary.
""The institutions Of democracy pro-
vide for change and depend not upon
the life Of any person or self -consti-
tuted group Of persons. They are
devised to cope with the rise, flow
and alteration of social and economic
systems, with the creation, modif1ca-
ton and adaptation of systems.
THE most lnveterate and greatest
enemy of American democracy is war
It is the duty of Congress to see that
no President, no Secretary of State. no
matter what his merits, shall have
the right to make diplomatic COM
mitments that make war inevitable"
Senator Norris delivered a brief
Grafton on the virtues of Senator Cut
ting, of whom he said:
"A man of wealth, his great heart
beat in unison with the downtrodden
and the oppressed, and those who toll
for their daily bread. All along the
pathway of his life there are emblems
Of his charity, his generosity. his JUS
tice and his mercy"