| OCR Text |
Show 'mum CONGRESS GAVE UP POWERS IT SHOULD HAVE RETAINED BACK IN 1917 AND 1918 our senators sena-tors and representatives, under the plea of national emergency, evaded some of the duties of their job and their responsibility by turning over to President Wilson some of the authority au-thority which should have been exercised ex-ercised by congress. The authority transferred to President Wilson at that time has never been recalled and is today wielded by President Roosevelt. During the past eight years, congress con-gress has been abdicating as the law-making part of our American government. Bit by bit our senators sena-tors and representatives have turned over more and more authority and responsibility to President Roosevelt, Roose-velt, until today they have loaded him with authority for the making of nearly all the really important rules, for the administration of the rules he makes, and for their interpretation. inter-pretation. President Roosevelt could not, and did not, grasp these powers and responsibilities. re-sponsibilities. Congress conferred them upon him as an easy way of getting out of the job senators and representatives were paid for doing, and as an easy way of evading their responsibility. KING BUT A SYMBOL, PRESIDENT HAS POWER "I HAVE no authority. I am but a symbol. I am to the British people what your flag is to you Americans, while the President of the United States has more authority than any other man in the world today." That statement was made by King George V to a small group of American Amer-ican newspaper men, of which I was one, in September, 1918. It was in response to a complimentary comment com-ment made to the king by the late Edgar Piper, then editor of the Portland Port-land Oregonian. The statement was true as to the authority of President Wilson. It would be doubly true today if applied to the authority of President Roosevelt. Roose-velt. SOLD OUT TO ME it seems we have sold our birthright of democracy for a mess of relief porridge. And the responsibility lies with a majority of those men, a majority we Americans sent to Washington as senators and representatives. Congress sold us out. JUICY RELIEF EACH of the two or more million soldier boys who are being called to the colors are to drink eight ounces of orange juice every day. Because of that simple edict, there is rejoicing in California, Florida and Texas. Citrus growers have previously been overlooked in the distribution of government subsidies and relief. Now the soldier boys come to their rescue. EACH TO HIS TASTE THE WILDEST wild animal I know is Clyde Beatty, the wild animal ani-mal trainer. Any man who will deliberately de-liberately lock himself in a cage with 40 savage, snarling, fighting African and Bengal cats lions and tigers must be wild. Before Clyde and Harriet Beatty, Clyde's charming little wife, were married, Harriet was a trapeze performer, per-former, but after their marriage, Clyde would not permit her to continue con-tinue any such dangerous vocation. If she insisted on working, it must be at something which would keep her out of harm's way something as mild as animal training. So today to-day Harriet does her own little stunt with elephants, lions and tigers, and Clyde sleeps better at night. ... IT IS GONE BECAUSE of the action of con-gress, con-gress, for better or worse, the United Unit-ed States is today, to all intents and purposes, a totalitarian state with "one man rule." What our future philosophy of government gov-ernment may be, time only will tell. It may be state capitalism, or state socialism, or communism, but the democracy and the American system, sys-tem, under which we have grown great, the democracy provided by the Constitution, is gone. NOT ONE-SIDED FROM June 18, 1940, to January 1, 1941, German blitzkrieging in England Eng-land resulted in the killing of 23.081 English civilians, men, women and children. In a two weeks' scrap in Africa, the Australian Aussies accounted ac-counted for more than four times that number of Italians, who were killed or captured. Evidently it is not an entirely one-sided war. JAPAN HAS HANDS FULL WITH CHINA IF WAR between the United States and Japan should come, it will not be of Japan's making. The little brown brother is not looking for trouble with any major power, at least until some years after he has patched up a peace with China. SERVICE FOR EACH one American who objects ob-jects to serving in the armed forces of the nation for a year, two or more are clamoring for an opportunity oppor-tunity to do so. |
