The Wilmington morning star., 1944-02-17
By wEsTBROOK PEGLER

WASHINGTON.-Back in the first phase OF
the new DEAL 1 was one of those who believed
the states should be abolished and that the
country then should be cut up into not more
than, say, a dozen departments counties,
in the interest of order, economy and eff
cheney. I offered some rather tasty argu-
ments, for many Of us were out Of temper
with the waste of taxes earned by the sweat
of those who toll in the maintenance of gritty
little political organizations in the minute SUBJ
Division of government, the sloppy indiffer-
ence and vast number Of public job-holders
in the county seats and state capitals, the po-
litical restitution of cities, counties and states
which were handing up their problems and re-
sponsibilities to Washington and the apathy
of states which seemed to want to settle down
to a life of civic equals or as wards of the
national government.
Not having seen, up to then, the practical
operation Of central government as social
worker in the household affairs of the states
and their people, it seemed to me that here
was way to pull the country together and
there was temptation, too, in the fact that
Americans do not regard themselves as citi-
zens of New Jersey or Illinois, but speak one
language and are citizens Of the u S. A. This
change would have required some serious re-
arrangement of the Constitution and might
not have been feasible but seemed desirable
nevertheless. The stupidity of this suggestion
was generously pointed out to me at the time
by many volunteers to whom acknowledgment
is now made the states reassert themselves
in a number of their interests. A New York
state legislator has proposed by resolution an
amendment to the federal Constitution limit
ing the federal taxes on income, inheritance
and gifts to Is per cent; adding that IA states
have asked Congress for a Constitutional con-
vention to consider similar thoughts
In the nasty wrangle over the soldier vote,
the states are rediscovering their existence
and resisting absorption and intimidation and
in rebellion against the outrageous conduct
of the union movement in defiance of the
rights and authority of the states, about a
dozen legislatures have adopted corrective
laws, some of them angrily reactionary in
SPOTS and defiant of federal laws and de-
cisions.
In general, all this is a sign of returning
health and usefulness. The figure proposed
in New York as limitation of the federal
tax is arbitrary and debatable, but the very
proposal is a recognition Of the fact that, in
the absence of any limitation whatever, the
federal government take it all and in
some tax cases, has done So It's tax field is
not defined and it might take first chop of
all the available money and property OF the
citizen within the state and leave nothing for
the state itself or the citizen. It also may
and does, tax business which, after all, exists
in the various states and not in any federal
domain, to the extent of diminishing returns,
to the peril of the industry and commerce
oy which states live.
1t is not fraud upon the soldiers or anyone
else to conduct an election according to the
Constitution and the state laws but, on the
contrary, an election conducted otherwise
would be fraud for votes so cast could not
be counted and would have no weight in the
result In this instance it was men who were
conscious of the existence and status OF the
states as members, not mere wards or de-
tendencies of the union, who faced the sneers
of demagogues to fight for plan which would
validate the soldiers votes.
It remains to be learned whether the fed
eral or state labor laws will prevail within
the states in points of conflict. But the adop-
ton Of these laws, some Of them good and
fair notably the Wisconsin act, represents
lreassertion Of state authority in state affairs
and rejection of the cynicism of the national
labor policy which encouraged violent lnsur-
rection and other atrocities within the states,
to the peril of the people and the stability
at government, and even rewarded the guilty.
| Last month was so balny that it brought re-
ports from many folks who claimed they heard
frogs croaking and crickets chirping June IN
January-with the right sound effects.