The Naked Capitalist
Page 17
There are just three principles, and in the interest of brevity, I will read them. I can read them quicker than talk them.
“First, a Federal Government, strictly limited in its power, with all other powers except those expressly mentioned reserved to the States and to the people, so as to insure State’s rights, guarantee home rule, and preserve freedom of individual initiative and local control.”
That is simple enough. The difference between the State constitutions and the Federal Constitution is that in the State you can do anything you want to do provided it is not prohibited by the Constitution. But in the Federal Government, according to that government, you can do only that which that Constitution tells you that you can do.
What is the trouble? Congress has overstepped its bounds. It went beyond that Constitutional limitation, and it has enacted laws that not only violate the home rule and the State’s right principle—and who says that? Do I say it? Not at all. That was said by the United States Supreme Court in the last ten or twelve days.
Chorus of Yes-men in Congress
Secondly, the Government, with three independent branches, Congress to make the laws, the Executive to execute them, the Supreme Court, and so forth. You know that.
In the name of Heaven, where is the independence of Congress? Why, they just laid right down. They are flatter on the Congressional floor than the rug on the table here. They surrendered all of their powers to the Executive, and that is the reason why you read in the newspapers references to Congress as the Rubber Stamp Congress.
We all know that the most important bills were drafted by the Brain Trusters, and sent over to Congress and passed by Congress without consideration, without debate and, without meaning any offense at all to my Democratic brethren in Congress, I think I can safely say without 90 percent of them knowing what was in the bills.
That was the meaning of the list that came over, and besides certain bills were “Must.” What does that mean? Speaking for the rank and file of American people we don’t want any executive to tell Congress what it must do, and we don’t want any Congress or the Executive jointly or severally to tell the United States Supreme Court what it must do!
And further than that, we don’t want the United States Supreme Court to tell either of them what they must do.
What we want, and what we insist upon, and what we are going to have is the absolute preservation of this balance of power which is the keystone, the arch upon which the whole theory of democratic government has got to rest. When you rattle that you rattle the whole structure.
Of course, when our forefathers wrote the Constitution of the United States it couldn’t be possible that they had it in their minds that it was going to be all right for all time to come. So they said, “Now, we will provide a manner and method of amending it.”
That is set forth in the document itself, and during our national life we amended it many times.
We amended it once by mistake, and we corrected it. What did we do? We took the amendment out. Fine, that is the way we want to do it, by recourse to the people.
But we don’t want an Administration that takes a shot at it in the dark and that ducks away from it and dodges away from it and tries to put something over contradiction of it upon any theory that there is going to be a great public howl in favor of that something; possibly the United States Supreme Court may be intimidated into a friendly opinion with respect to it.
What I have held all during my public life is that Almighty God is with this country, and He didn’t give us that kind of Supreme Court.
Now this is pretty tough on me to have to go at my own party this way, but I submit that there is a limit to blind loyalty.
As a young man in the Democratic Party, I witnessed the rise and fall of Bryan and Bryanism, and I know exactly what Bryan did to our party. I knew how long it took to build it after he got finished with it. But let me say this to the everlasting credit of Bryan and the men that followed him, they had the nerve and the courage and honesty to put into the platform just what their leaders stood for. And they further put the American people into a position of making an intelligent choice when they went to the polls.
Why, the fact of this whole thing is I speak now not only of the executive but of the legislature at the same time that they promised one set of things; they repudiated that promise, and they launched off on a program of action totally different.
Well, in 25 years of experience I have known both parties to fail to carry out some of the planks in their platform. But this is the first time that I have known a party, upon such a huge scale, not only not to carry out the plank, but to do the directly opposite thing to what they promised.
Suggested Remedies
Now, suggestions, and I make these as a Democrat anxious for the success of my party, and I make them in good faith.
No. 1: I suggest to the members of my party on Capitol Hill here in Washington that they take their minds off the Tuesday that follows the first Monday in November. Just take their minds off it to the end that you may do the right thing and not the expedient thing.
Next, I suggest to them that they dig up the 1932 platform from the grave that they buried it in, read it over, and study it, breathe life into it, and follow it in legislative and executive action, to the end that they make good their promises to the American people when they put forth that platform and the candidate that stood upon it 100 percent. In short, make good!
Next, I suggest to them that they stop compromising with the fundamental principles laid down by Jackson and Jefferson and Cleveland.
Fourth: Stop attempting to alter the form and structure of our Government without recourse to the people themselves as provided in their own Constitution. This country belongs to the people, and it doesn’t belong to any Administration.
Next, I suggest that they read their Oath of Office to support the Constitution of the United States. And I ask them to remember that they took that oath with their hands on the Holy Bible, thereby calling upon God Almighty Himself to witness their solemn promise. It is bad enough to disappoint us.
Washington Or Moscow
Sixth: I suggest that from this moment they resolve to make the Constitution the Civil Bible of the United States, and pay it the same civil respect and reverence that they would religiously pay the Holy Scripture, and I ask them to read from the Holy Scripture the Parable of the Prodigal Son and to follow his example.
Stop! Stop wasting your substance in a foreign land, and come back to your Father’s house.
Now, in conclusion let me give this solemn warning. There can be only one Capitol, Washington or Moscow!
There can be only one atmosphere of government, the clear, pure, fresh air of free America, or the foul breath of Communistic Russia.
There can be only one flag, the Stars and Stripes, or the Red Flag of the Godless Union of the Soviet.
There can be only one National Anthem. The Star Spangled Banner or the Internationale.
There can be only one victor. If the Constitution wins, we win. But if the Constitution—stop. Stop there. The Constitution can’t lose! The fact is, it has already won, but the news has not reached certain ears.
Appendix B
Socialist Norman Thomas Claims Great Victories for Socialism Under Both Democrats and Republicans
Norman Thomas was the Socialist candidate for President in 1928 and for every single election during the next twenty years. However, he never received more than 190,000 votes because he ran on the Socialist ticket and Americans have always despised socialism whenever it was labeled as such. Unfortunately, however, they had never been educated to recognize socialist principles if they bore no label. This made it possible for the last several administrations to restructure the country on socialist lines without the American people realizing it.
By 1953 Norman Thomas was jubilant. He wrote a pamphlet called, Democratic Socialism in which he stated that:
“... here in America more measures once praised or de
nounced as socialist have been adopted than once I should have thought possible short of a socialist victory at the polls.”
Under President Eisenhower, Norman Thomas still found reasons to be jubilant. In the Congressional Record for April 17, 1958 (p. A-3080) Norman Thomas is quoted as saying:
“The United States is making greater strides toward Socialism under Eisenhower than even under Roosevelt, particularly in the fields of Federal spending and welfare legislation.”
By 1962 Norman Thomas summed up the whole situation as follows:
“The difference between Democrats and Republicans is: Democrats have accepted some ideas of Socialism cheerfully, while Republicans have accepted them reluctantly.”1
But whether the various administrations in Washington have been pushing Socialism “cheerfully” or “reluctantly,” the facts clearly support the contention of Dr. Quigley in Tragedy And Hope, that the people of the United States are being rapidly collectivized, their Constitution emasculated, and the groundwork laid to transform the United States into the major industrial power base for a global society of totalitarian socialism.
Chapter Footnotes
<< 1. Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 19, 1962.