The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-01-22
The Awakening

From farmers to bankers, from work.
men to business men, a majority Of whom
have heretofore been too preoccupied
with making money to think about more
fundamental matters, the people of the
United States are awakening to a great
danger. They are beginning to realize
that freedom may be lost in this nation.
Evidence of the awakening is pouring in
from every side. No one is more impressed
with this new stirring of mass intelligence
than newspaper editors. Their desks are
Swamped with statements, opinions and
warnings of kind that in the past were
uttered only by a handful of statesmen.
Numerous labor leaders have expressed
growing fear of big government, and
warn that labor'S future depends on the
maintenance of individual enterprise.
Not far behind in similar expressions are
the bankers, whose awakening is typlcally
expressed in the remarks of Lee Virgins,
president of the American Bankers Asso-
citation, who happens to be small town
banker and is proud of it. He recently
declared "An equitable tax system that
will make new business possible will do
more to preserve our system of private
enterprise than soldiers bonuses. -" In
his opinion, bankers are always sounding
off about private enterprise, but haven't
done much about it, and he added:
meanwhile, the government has moved
into private banking to an extent that the
public doesn't suspect. The banker is
Just beginning to discover that this is
the road to socializing the banking
system"
The farmers are also discovering the
danger inherent in an expanding govern
ment of men rather than laws. A special
House agriculture committee has charged
that farm families have been held as Writ
ual SerfS on government rehabilitation
projects In Michigan, members OF the
State Farm Bureau have suggested that
a plan be worked out whereby farmers
can insure their own crops and dispense
with government crop insurance. And
farmers all over the country are hotly OPP
posed to the MISUNDERSTANDING princi-
pie of subsidies.
In the front ranks of the New Awaken
ing are the business men. The editor OF
a group of leading business publications
bluntly strikes at provinciality in front
offices with the words: Thinking
straight about problems that are beyond
our personal and immediate status and
our pocketbooks, thinking about prob
lens that involve nationwide buying
power - in other words, the operation
of our entire economic system - in
wolves real self discipline. Yet there is
no other way to safeguard our freedoms
And finally, to those who foollShly rail
at bureaucracy and plead for favors from
government in the same breath, Hatton
Summers of Texas, chairman OF the House
Judiciary Committee, has voiced re-
hinder that should be quoted from one
end of the land to the other: "You people
are the government. The government is
not in Washington. "In our system, the
State provides the only machinery
through which democracy can function.
The Federal organization was never in
tended to do the job. 1t cannot do 1t,
except as a bureaucracy. The people
created the Federal organization to do
Belatively small number OF things: TO
be their agent, not their master" Con-
gresham Summers is to be congratulated.
He is Fastening the Awakening.