Askov American., 1940-08-08

enable the President to devote all his
time and energies to the affairs of
the country by obviating the neces-
Sity of spending the first term in
building fences for second term.
A six year term is long enough for
any President. Two four-year terms
killed Wilson and Coolidge, neither
of whom lived long after leaving the
White House, although they were
comparatively young men.
If three terms, why not four, five
and six terms, and finally no cleo
ton at all, as they now have it in
Germany, Italy and Russia?
1t is to be hoped that Senator Burke
will be able to get his resolution
through this Congress so that it may
be submitted to the state legislatures
for ratification next winter.
A Common Error.
A few days ago I read a letter in
one of the Minneapolis papers which
gave to President Roosevelt credit for
the enactment of the Federal Deposit
Insurance act, under which the gov
ernment guarantees all bank deposits
up to $4,000. That is a common
error. Indeed, even Mrs. Roosevelt,
in one of her recent newspaper let
tiers, claimed that the insuring of
bank deposits twas initiated by the
present Administration in Washing
ton" She should have known better
The fact of the matter is that when
the 1888 banking bill was before the
Senate, Senator Arthur H. Vanden-
berg of Michigan, Republican, Of
ferred the guarantee amendment
which was adopted. At that time it
was bitterly opposed by President
Roosevelt and his then secretary of
the treasury, William H. Woodin. This
was testified to by Senator Glass, in
addressing the Senate in 1885, when
he said:
"When it was first proposed to
establish the insurance of deposits
fund, the President of the United
States and his then secretary of the
treasury, Mr.. Woodin, were very en-
phatically and bitterly opposed to it.
They said they would not stand
for it."
On June 2, 1888, when the Federal
Deposit Insurance bill was still in
conference, the President wrote a let
ter to Senator Glass in which he said:
Il must therefore again express to
you my definite feeling that the VAN
denberg amendment must be rejected
in toto, even as revised, and again re-
peat that no modification of this
amendment proposed so far will void
a serious situation"
1t is significant that after the bank
ing act of 1888 was passed, with the
Vandenberg amendment, the Presi-
dent delayed more than go days in
naming the members of the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation. Leo
T. Crowley, appointed by the Presi-
dent as chairman of the F. D. 1. c.,
wrote to Senator Vandenberg on Feb
ruary Is, 1884, Il consider you to be
the Father of the Federal Deposit
Insurance Act"
Mrs. Roosevelt will kindly note.
Change Draft Bill.
The original Burke -Wadsworth
conscription bill called for register
ing all males between the ages of
10 and "a. Yielding to growing an
tagoniSm against the measure, the
Senate Military Affairs committee,
Wednesday of last week, amended the
measure to limit registration to those
between 81 and 81. However, the bill
is still Objectionable to many mem
bers and, l may add, to a consider
able number of our people who be-
1ieve that peace-time conscription and
democracy are incompatible. Present
indications are that the conscription
plan must be further greatly modified
in order to get through Congress.
Military experts are quite gener-
ally agreed that if the Burke-Wads-
passed by Congress it will mean the
end of the National Guard as now
constituted. Many of us feel that in
view of unsettled conditions in the
world the National Guard should be
greatly strengthened, rather than put
out of business. If we adopt the
draft plan it will add a thousand
million dollars to the operating ex-
penses of the government annually.
That large sum, devoted to the de-
velopment of the National Guard
would give us one of the finest fight
ing machines in all the world.
A conscript army can be moved
about at the will of the President,
while the National Guard can only
be modified on the expressed au-
thority of Congress. Maybe that is
why the National Guard is slated for
liquidation.
Funny Work.
When the so-called ship speed-up
bill was sent to the White House for
approval short time ago, it con-
tanned a provision authorizing the
government to take over, or confiscate,
any industry that failed to take war
contracts offered by the government.
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