| Show Sober Thinking Needed B BATTLE As Recovery Sets Seta In Constitutional P Point o By BURTON KLINE A year or so ago the eng engineers building Boulder dam turned the Colorado Into a couple of t tunnels eIs and thought nothing of it IL As easily eMily as S that could another NIa Niagara ara for ages a killer of at men a despoiler of land and anda a waster of power be sent through a n mountain to be broken to work A leading paper editorially remarked re remarked remarked re- re marked at the time on the mechanical cal ease of ot this and summoned the social social so so- cial engineers who should send the rivers of ot wasted wealth across the theland theland theland land in an Infinitely greater enrIchment enrich ment Precisely this social engineering is Js here coming here coming io so fast that a country in ancient habits a R year ago 1 now races along like a cork on a Cola Colo rado And likes it Some days ago the president demanded demanded de de- de- de of congress 10 billion bUllon dollars for national spending and wha what occurred occurred occurred oc oc- oc- oc to the most excitable nerve Inthe Inthe in inthe the nation the stock exchange The market went up A few days later he asked for tor a cent 60 dollar The market market market mar mar- ket went up So exhilarated with its Us unsuspected vitality is a people a year ago dead on its back and minded to stay there forever SAFETY FIRST NEEDED NEEDED- Much of this thE is U. U of course mere joy at the prospect of ot making money again but absorption in that pursuit recently wrecked us and nd some seme measure meas meas- ure of sober vigilance wo would ld seem t to tobe tobe be in order on the simple ground of safety first To begin with nobody but the future future fu to- ture historian will know for sure whether the recovery act is the parent parent parent par par- ent or merely the companion of the present promise of ot prosperity It may have lave begun of its iu own accord as new U life e sprouts from the ground in spring Or Dr the recovery program may be Its indispensable trellis Anyway the recovery re reo re- re covery spirit i if not ot the recovery recovery mechanism mechanism mech mech- seems to have something to do with the present upswing UPS and if it we want the upward tendency to continue continue con con- it may be as well to look after the sec security rity of the recovery drive It n is not as secure as it it seems Congress Congress Congress Con Con- gress handed the president emergency powers under emergency conditions and not his stiffest enemy will deny that hes he's made full use of them Putting Putting Put Put- ting It bluntly Mr Roosevelt has been beena a Mussolini In all but the title There are times when a democracy must delegate its powers to some one person person person per per- son whom it elects and trusts and this has been such a time A democracy can consist of too many nany minds when only one skilled mind can carl can function NEW ORDER TO STAY In three other countries democracies el des cies s have placed their rI rights in the hands of a single leader who has taken his powers as a permanent pos pos- session Congress has made Mr Roosevelt Roosevelt Roose Roose- velt a. a distinctly temporary custodian ln of popular power and therein lies a difference to be pondered upon No one questions for a minute that a anew anew anew new business and s social cial order has come into being here And no rio one ques ques- ions t for r a moment that the new order orde is to be permanent But the point k it isn't unless isn't-unless unless ss the popular will v ders den We have passed ho no perm permanent laws In two t years more those l lawi wI i will becom become extinct The recovery ae act will come to an automatic clo clote 1 Th thing to be ho decided be er we are to go on with a new lad and business order so far br linked With iti return to prosperity or go back fa to i s sold old that brought disaster r. r It is a question lon not s so easU easily tOli elded It is a question affecting tl e destiny of ot this people And it is so thing that had better be thought or of now t LEGISLATION ONLY TEMPORARY By the t terms nn of the c ri gress was empowered w cd to p the eral legislation known u as the rec v cry ery program only because n emergency emer gency was seen to exist Ev Even to 10 the emergency h had d to lay laYa a burden O on an in- in 11 Commerce commerce before a fiction ex x Isted upon which congress The Tho law as passed fixed for i two years from the date data j of ot passage passage June June 16 1935 St Should thai called so emergency called emergency disappear b before l that time the law be ended d either by a presidential proclamation or by joint resolution of the two hou houses s of ot congress Or congress congress' extend the act t B Butlo 10 do so emergency must continue no one hopes that it wilL thel What then is to be the status o of t th recovery act upon which all aU this up turn seems to depend fc S Most of us believe that the n new w business and social order with bank lug Jig subdued to government oversight and business subdued to codes is here hue without question and here to stay For Fog Fora Foga a while its constitutionality wa was un un der suspicion until this recent w j preme court decision on the Minne Minnesota sota soth mortgage law That seemed t to settle for tor all time the constitutionality of N R A A. t Cj S THE TIlE nE REAL L BATTLE CO COMING NG i It didn't The country is in fora royal battle-royal between those who wa want wari the new deal to stick and those wh who want to 10 see it die with the crisis that bred it Curiously both sides draw their strength from this sam sam-e same deCIsion decision deCI decU sion slon by the supreme court Theli The HM hold the dec decision sion to foreshadow W continued approval of ot N R A from frODl the supreme court court even even to to leg legislation legisla- legisla tion lion for permanent social reformS The conservatives Insist that the de decision deci- deci sion Sian was founded on the fact that th tb the Minnesota legislation Itself was pU pure ly of emergency character and in intended tended to die with the death of the crisis t You dont don't know it but a powerful l force in the country is banding now now to tear down N R A. A If they succeed d with their plans and organization we may have a hidden oligarchy running us all aU or a strong-minded strong pr president taking the power into his hands hand co con 1 or not g Nothing can avert this clash but the instinct and the will of ot the people As to that no less a person than Li Lin coins coin's secretary of state said some som thing He said Thereisa There is a power i er than the constitution of ot the United States That is the will of the people who wrote it it Ati This matter of ot whether th the new so social cial and business order is to endure will come up again and again Moris More Mort is to be said of ot it here This recovery drive is a scaffolding What the permanent permanent per per- manent structure of the country's well being is to be will depend upon the popular will But the permanent structure remains to be built C Copyright McClure Newspaper r 1 I Syndicate j |
