Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 October 1936 — Page 19
By United Press
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 21.— The text of an address by Gov. Alfred M. Landon at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
last night follows:
Six weeks ago, I went to the East Coast—to Maine—on the eve of the state election. My purpose was to tell the people there, how serious are the issues that face us, Tonight, on the eve of the national election, I come to the Pacific Const for the same purpose. I comz.0 talk about a serious issue— gouse of the power of government, and its threat to our liberty and our independence. The Pacific Coast was settled by men and women who possessed the pioneer qualities of self-reliance, courage, and love of independence. Those who followed possessed the same qualities. In three quarters of a century you have created on the shores of the Pacific a new economic empire. This has been done, and could only have been done, under a government which guaranteed economic freedom, political freedom, and personal liberty. For a century and a half, this freedom and this liberty has been protected under the charter of our orig the Constitution.
~
“REASONING IS WRONG”
Today the usefulness of our Constitution is being questioned. We have been told that it is out of date, that the very freedom it guarantees us, is the cause of our present trouble. In my opinion this reasoning is tragically wrong. The planned society, which is the alternative io representative government, is spreading rapidly throughout the world. We know only too well how it has worked out in actual practice. It has destroyed freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion. It has robbed the people of those great guarantees of personal liberty and human rights that we enjoy under the American system. I do not believe that a temporary depression is adequate reason for changing our whole form of government.
The men who drew our Constitution knew and feared the tyranny of -a centralized government over which they had no control. They were determined that in the creation of this new government that tyranny could never exist. So effective was their . work /that fer a century and a - half the American people have not known the meaning of tyranny, We have forgotten that eternal vigilance is the price of _ liberty. Too many are inclined to " Jaugh at this truth as a horse and * buggy bromide.
We have forgoiten that once the censor forbids us to speak as we please, once the government forbids us to worship as we wish, once _the jailors enter our homes without warrani—it will be too late to protest, We will no longer be free.
George Washington warned us that we should ever be on our guard Against attempts to “undermine what can not be directly oversthrown.” Let us examine the record «of the last four years in the light of that warning This Administration came into power at a time of great national crisis. Unusual powers were granted to the Chief Executive. But when the crisis was over the Administration refused to give up its extraordinary powers. Instead, it asked for more. It seemed obsessed with the idea that it had a mandate to direct and control American business, American agriculture and American e. Recall a few of the things they fried to do. They tried to tell our farmers how much they could plant, and how much they could not plant. They tried to tell our business men how much they could produce and under what conditions they wcould run their business. + They tried to tell labor who could «and who could not represent them in negotiations with their employers.
“
“IT UNDERMINED LIBERTY”
“+ Was this an undermining of our liberties? I think so. And the proof of it is, so many of our fellow citizens rebelled at these tactics, that the Administration was forced to abandon the subterfuge of voluntary co-operation. It cracked the whip on those individuals who refused to be led like sheep. It resented ‘any criticism which recalled what American initiative and free enter-
prise had done for the country. And when the Supreme Court declared its unconstitutional the Administration actually attempted to bring the Supreme Court into disrepute.
of the Administration made stump speeches and issued statements condemning the court. They ridiculed the justices.» They said they were obstructing progress. Even the President joined in this undermining attack on men who were only doing their duty—men sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. The President predicted disaster if his plans were held unconstitutional. They were held unconstitutional. Now he claims credit for the improvement that followed. He says, “We planned it that way.” Fortunately the Supreme Court had the prestige and the integrity to withstand the abuses that were heaped upon it. But for the private citizen it was not so easy. No private citizen likes to be held up to public scorn by public officials. His freedom to criticise, that is his freedom of speech, is bought at a high price, indeed, when the integrity of his motives is questioned by his government. It is little wonder that many fell into line. For those who refused to be silenced by these methods, other intimidations were devised. Business men with government contracts were threatened with cancellation. Business men who wanted contracts were warned that they must toe the line. All business men under the Blue Eagle, were faced with arbitrary enforcements of arbitrary interpretations of arbitrary rules— rules not made by Congress but by some appointed subordinate sitting at a desk in Washington, and fumbling with - the business of the country. But the irony of this abuse of the power of government was that the small business man,sin whose name the government had supposedly acted, was the very man who suffered most. He could not afford to keep a lawyer in Washington to inform him of the latest rules and regulations. He could not compete under the monopolistic conditions laid down by the codes.
“PLAN WAS MILLSTONE”
In short, the whole plan acted as a millstone around the neck of the little fellow, and what did it do for the big fellow? It had the effect of strengthening his position —it fostered monopoly. In this it was a forerunner of this Adminis-, tration’s most recent tax bill—the bill which makes it virtually impossible for the little fellow to accumulate the .reserves necessary ‘to his protection and growth. As I said at Portland, Maine, on Sept. 12, “government must protect the average man against aggressive exploitation by the strong. ... Unless government is constantly on guard to defend competition against abuses, a free enterprise system tends to become an entanglement of vested interests and rigid prices. “But the solution is not to abandon a free enterprise system for a system of government monopolies. “The solution is to free the forces of campetition—to stamp out unfair trade practices and monopoly. This will jallow the American people to resume their steady march of progress.” One way of stamping out unfair trade practices and monopoly was pointed out by Justice Cardozo in his ¢oncurring opinion in the NRA decision of the Supreme Court. The eared justice said: “If codes of fair competition are codes eliminating ‘unfair’ methods of competition ascertained upon inquiry to prevail in one industry or another, there is no unlawful delegation of legislative functions when the President is directed to inquire into such practices and denounce them when discovered. For many years a like power has been committed to the Federal Trade Commission with the approval of this court in a long series of decisions.” This is a very different method,
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fA SNARK A SN ARAN
aa Raat
mittee that is trying to get informa-
2s the learned justice also sald;
from that provided in. the NRA |
codes which were “delegation running riot.”
is refusing to make public the salaries paid and the names on the
evidence that these vast funds have been used to force Representatives and Senators to support Administration measures. There is also unmistakable evidence that they have been used to prevent criticism by officials and representatives of local communities. There is unmistakable evidence that these funds have been used in ‘an attempt to prevent freedom of choice at the polls. Nothing can be more shameful than the way some of these Federal funds have been distributed. , Special groups and special localities have been singled out solely for political reasons. Relief funds pen used in an attempt to fej#e our less fortunate fellow citizér.g to vote for the réturn of this tration to power. Does undermine our freedom? J think so. We all know that under this Administration, the managers of relief have played favorites—they have developed two classes of relief, common and preferred. Let us not forget that abuse of the government's right to spend leads to abuse of the government’s right to borrow. Abuse of the right to borrow is the first step to inflation, and is a diréct threat to all those who by thrift have accumulated savings. An inherent part of government’s power over the purse is the power to tax. When abused it becomes the power to destroy. Many of the so-called revenue measures passed under this Administration were not designed to raise revenue. They were designed to force the nonconformist into line, to threaten him with destructive and punitive taxation. They were an attempt to accomplish indirectly by taxation what could not be accomplished. directly under the constitution,
“POWERS DEFINED”
The powers I have been discussing are for the most part clearly defined by the Constitution or decisions of the Supreme Court. But there is one that has never been clearly defined. I speak of the congressional power of investigation. But even if the letter of the law is not clear, the spirit of the Constitution is unmistakable. No legal hair-splitting can hide the difference between an investigating com-
tion useful in the framing of laws and an investigating committee that is indulging in a {fishing expedition into the private affairs. of private citizens—a committee that is out to get the crooks and a committee that is out to get the critics In the last three and one-half years, congressional investigations have budded and blossomed in unusual rank profusion. No soil of real qr fancied wrong-doing is so poor that it will not sprout a full
oF 4
E it
ir I matter of
) | the investigation.
And recently a Congressional investigation has been carried on for .what seems to be purely political ends. In this case the thinly veiled purpose apparently was to discredit
It is obvious that all investiga-
Congress does have great and wise powers of irivestigation. ; But the existence of the power is no justification for its abuse. And abuse of it is contrary to the spirit of the Bill of Rights, even if it does not transgress the letter of the law. We must look to the spirit of the Constitution if it is to fulfill its great purpose in protecting this people. We must look to the leadership and responsibility of Congress to see that ‘this. spirit remains a living force. In the last three and one-half years, this Administration has led us far from. the spirit of our Constitution. It has led us far from the principles of the American form of government. That this has bean deliberate there can be no doubf. A trusted official and close adviser cf the Chief Executive has expressed in precise terms the processes this Administration is following. He used these words: “We begin with small unnoted chdnges and end by not being able to resist vast and spectacular ones—at which time our systems of theory tumble. unwept into the grave.”
TRACES CONSTITUTION
We have. every reason to believe that this Administration would copsider a return to power an indorsement of its policies. If we are to preserve our American form of government, this Administration must be defeated. Our only safety is to return .to our Constitution, for our Constitution was the product of long experience in the ‘practice of government. It reflects centuries of striving and of suffering by a people determined to be free. When Washington first took his oath of office, the Colony of Virginia already had 182 years of history, and the Colony of Massachusetts 169. JIndeed, the greater nums= ber of the colonies were older than our governmbent now is, under our Constitution, The framers of our Constitution were practical men. They were stern realists who knew
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if we would keep it free set an example before the world of tolerance and peace, we must brook no tampering with our freedom.
QUOTES TEDDY
Let us neyer forget what freedom means. Let us never forget that
high purpose in which this nation was founded and for which we still must strive. Let us remember there is a larger Americanism than the little blueprints of a planned economy, than the disciplined citizenry which this Administration would like to foist upon us. Its foundation is just government—a government that does not abuse its powers at the expense of the liberty
This larger Americanism was de-
| scribed by a great and fearless
President, Theodore Roosevelt. Let me: close by reading what he had to say “The larger Americanism demands that we refuse to be sundered from one another along lines of class or creed or section or national origin; that we judge each American on his merits as a man; that we work for the well-being of our bodily selves, but also for the well-being of our spiritual selves; that we Sider safety, but that we put. honor and duty ahead of safety. Only thus shall we stand erect before the world, high of heart, master of our own souls, fit to be the fathers of a race of free men who shall make and who shall keep this land all that it seemed to the prophetic vision of the mighty men
2 2321 far the same period in 1935.
without freedom there can be no ; security. Let us never forget the}
and independence of the citizen. |
NC REASE ASE NOTED
4-Month Figure Is 3939; Similar 3 35 Total
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