The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1943-02-18
Former Governor Mike Conner Addresses
Member OF Lexington Rotary Club
Attention Called To
Importance OF Fight
On The Home Front

On The Home Front
81 wish | were as sure that we
are going to win the fight here in
our own country as | am sure that
we are going to win the war on the
fighting 'front.'" said former Cover
nor Mike Conner at a noon luncheon
meeting Of the Lexington Rotary
Club last Friday.
Declaring at the outset that ne
was not going TO deliver a prepared
speech, Gov. Conner said that he was
going to tell his audience the things
he as private citizen had observed
in the past months in his travels
throughout the states of the South
eastern Conference and elsewhere.
He pointed out the steps taken
by dictators in European countries
to bring about their rise to power
and the methods they have used in
order to control and enslave their
peoples after they have attained
power.
The first step used by the dicta-
tors, Gov. Conner said, is to destroy,
as much as possible, the capitalistic
system of private enterprise and in
stall in its place goverment-man-
aged economy. The dictatorship form
OF government, highly centralized,
is absolute, he said. Care is taken
to destroy the courts or make them
function only as moothpiece of the
dictator. The common citizen has
no so-called rights" in court Of
this kind.
A third thing these communists or
bolshevists or socialists (they are
all absolute forms of government
and virtually the same) must do is
to destroy states rights and insti-
tute a centralized government to
perform the functions formerly left
to the states under representative
government. The speaker pointed out
instances of the infringement Of our
! Federal government in our own Sec
~ into mattes ...ien we have al
ways held to be the domain of the
state as an indication of the road
we are travelling.
The speaker said that in the coun-
tries where bolshevism in it's various
forms has supplanted free govern
ment the people have been made to
lose confidence in their form of
govrnment and leaders. He pointed
out how eagefuliy conceived plan
to dscredit the American Congress
has been unaarhed in Washington
where our .ongressmen found re-
Gently that the very funds they had
voted under the a ''blank check" had
been used by an agency which had
as it's main purpose the discrediting
of congress.
In order for the Bolshevists and
their ilk to take over the country
they must destroy its financial sta
bility, Gov. Conner stated. The def
icit under Hoover was from three
fourthe to billion dollars and we
all thought our government was on
the verge of collapse. Since 1882
we have tried the policy of spend
ing our way into prosperity and
now our deficit is hundred billion
dollars and mounting steadily.
AFTER a government gets such a
high debt and taxes are so high that
it is impossible for the citizens to
pay them and maintain their stan
dard of living it is easy to see how
the people can be convinced that
democratic or representative form
of government has failed and de.
mand that the form. OF government
be changed. That can happen here
There is no place in the bolshevis-
tic form Of government for the little
business man, Gov. Conner said
The spirit of of competition, initiative
and private enterprise that has beer
, the means of developing the great
est standard of living of any people
in the world is lost in the ''levelling
process that accompanies the abso
,, lutte form of government.
Pointing out that many represen
tatives of the bureaus that make VI
our government in Washington nov
have actually voiced the opinion
that there is no place for the small
business man in the government, tn
speaker warned that it was time TO
: all of us to wake up to the economi
and social revolution that is bein;
carried on right in the midst Of fight
ing the deadliest war the world ha
ever known. If private enterpris
is destroyed it means the end o
free institutions upon which the lif
of this country is based.
i, The Bolshevistic form of govern
. ment levels all people of all race!
A.. 4