Evening star. [volume], March 05, 1937, Page A-5, Image 5

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
Text of President s Victory Dinner Address
THE text of President Roose- <
velt’s address before the ;|
"Victory Banquet” last night
follows:
On this 4th of March, 1937, in
millions of homes, the thoughts of
American families are reverting to
the March 4 of another year. That
day in 1933 represented the death
•f one era and the birth of another.
At that time we faced and met
a grave national crisis. Now we
face another crisis—of a different
kind, but fundamentally even more
grave than that of four years ago.
Tonight I want to begin with you
a discussion of that crisis. I shall
continue that discussion-on Tues
day night in a Nation-wide broad
cast and thereafter, from time to
time, as may be necessary. For I<>
propose to follow my custom of
•peaking frankly to the Nation
concerning our common problems.
I speak at this victory dinner
not only as the head of the Demo
cratic party but as the representa
tive of all Americans who have
faith in political and economic |
democracy.
Our victory was not sectional. It "
did not come from compromises
and bargains. It was the voice
of 27,000,000 voters—from every
part of the land.
The Democratic party, once a
minority party, is today the ma
jority party by the greatest major
ity any party ever had.
Fate Depends on
Making Democracy Work.
It will remain the majority party
so long as it continues to justify
the faith of millions who had al
most lost faith—so long as it con
tinues to make modern democracy
work—so long and no longer We
are celebrating the 1936 victory.
That was not a final victory. It
was a victory whereby our party
won further opportunity to lead in
the solution of the pressing prob
lems that perplex our generation.
Whether we shall celebrate in 1938,
1940 and in 1944, as we celebrate
tonight, will deservedly depend
upon whether the party continues
on Its course and solves those
problems.
And if I have aught to say. it
will continue on its course and It
will solve those problems.
After election day in 1936 some
Of our supporters were uneasy lest
we grasp the excuse of a false era
of good feeling to evade our obli
gations. They were worried by
the evil symptom that the propa
ganda and the epithets of last
Cummer and Fall had died down.
Today, however, those who placed
their confidence in us are reas
•ured. For the tumult and the
shouting have broken forth anew—
and from substantially the same
elements of opposition. This new
roar is the best evidence in the
world that we have begun to keep
our promises; that we have begun
to move against conditions under
which one-third of this Nation is
still ill-nourished, ill-clad, ill
housed.
"Just Begun to r*eht“
SVas Not an Idle Phrase.
We gave warning last November
that we had only just begun to
fight. Did some people really be
lieve we did not mean it? Well—
I meant it, and you meant it.
A few days ago, a distinguished
member of the Congress came to
see me to talk about national prob
lems in general and about the prob
lem of the judiciary in particular.
I said to him:
“John, I want to tell you some
thing that is very personal to me—
something that you have a right to
hear from my own lips. I have a
great ambition in life.”
My friend pricked up his ears.
I went on: “I am by no means
satisfied with having twice been
elected President of the United
States by very large majorities. 1
have an even greater ambition.”
By this time my friend was sit
ting on the edge of his chair.
I continued: “John, my ambition
relates to January 20, 1941.” I
could feel just what horrid
thoughts my friend was thinking.
So in order to relieve his anxiety,
I went on to say: “My great am
bition on January 20, 1941, is to
turn over this desk and chair in
the White House to my successor,
whoever he may be, with the assur
ance that I am at the same time
turning over to him as President, a
Nation intact, a Nation at peace, a
Nation prosperous, a Nation clear
in its knowledge of what powers it
has to serve its own citizens, a Na
tion that is in a position to use
those powers to the full in order to
move forward steadily to meet the
modern needs of humanity—a Na
tion which has thus proved that
the democratic form and methods
of national Government can and
will succeed.
“In these coming years I want to
provide such assurance. I want to
get the Nation as far along the road
of progress as I can. I do not want
to leave it to my successor in the
condition in which Buchanan left
It for Lincoln.”
Ambition Recommended .
To Each and Every American.
My friends, that ambition of mine
for my successor can well be the
■erious ambition of every citizen
who wants his United States to be
handed down intact to his children
and grandchildren.
I spoke in the dead earnestness of
anxiety, I speak to you tonight in
the same earnestness. For no one
who sees as a whole today's picture
of this Nation and the world can
help but feel concern for the future.
To the President of the United
States there come every day thou
sands of messages of appeal, of pro
test, of information and advice,
messages from rich and poor, from
business man and farmer, from fac
tory employe and relief worker,
messages from every comer of our
wide domain.
Those messages reflect the most
striking feature of the life of this
generation—the feature which men
who live mentally In another gen
eration can least understand—the
•ver-accelerating speed with which
social forces now gather headway.
The Issue of slavery, for example,
took at least 40 years—two genera
tiona—of argument, discussion and
PONTIAC
" Sixes & Eights
IMMEDIATE DELIVERY
WE NEED USED CARS
Flood Motor Co.
Direct Factory Dealer
4221 Connecticut Ave.
Swinging into the fight.
Demands united party.
—A. P. and Wide World Photos.
Refreshes inner man.
futile compromise, before it came to
a head in the tragic war between
the States.
But economic freedom for the
wage earner and the farmer and
the small business man will not
wait, like emancipation for 40
years. It will not wait for four
years. It will not wait at all.
Fate of Many Countries
Has Turned on Human Needs.
After the World War, there arose
everywhere insistent demands upon
government that human needs be
met. The unthinking, or those who
dwell in the past, have tried to
block them. The wise who live In
the present have recognized their
innate justice and irresistible pres
sure—and have sought to guide
them.
In some countries a royalist form
of government failed to meet these
demands—and fell. In other coun
tries a parliamentary form of gov
ernment failed to meet these de
mands—and fell. In still other
countries governments have man
aged to hold on, but civil strife has
flared or threats of upheaval per
sist.
Democracy in many lands has
failed for the time being to meet
human needs. People have become
so fed up with futile debate and
party bickerings over methods that
they hive been willing to surrender
democratic processes and principles
in order to get things done. They
have forgotten the lessons of his
tory that the ultimate failures of
dictatorships cost humanity far
more than any temporafy failures
of democracy.
In the United States .democracy
has. not yet failed ana does not
need to fail. And we propose not to
let it fail!
Nevertheless, I cannot tell you
with complete candor that in these
last few years democracy in the
United States has fully succeeded.
Nor can I tell you, under present
circumstances just where American ,
democracy is headed nor just what
it is permitted to do in order to in
sure its continued success and sur
vival. I can only hope.
Three-horse Team
Of U. S. Must Pull Together.
For as yet there is no definite as
surance that the three-horse team
of the American system of Govern
ment will pull together. If three
well-matched horses are put to the
task of plowing up a field where the
going is heavy and the team of
three pull as one the field will be
plowed. If one horse lies down in
the traces or plunges ofT in another
direction, the field will not be
plowed.
What you and I call the prin
ciples of the New Deal did not
originate on the 4th of March,
1933. We think of that date as
their beginning, because it was not
until then that the social demands
they represented broke through the
inertia of many years of failure to
improve our political and economic
processes.
What were those demands and
needs? How far did we succeed in
meeting them? What about them
today?
Ever since the World War the
farmers of America had been beat
ing off ever-mounting disasters.
This administration tried to help
them effectively where no other
administration had dared to take
that risk.
The agricultural adjustment act
testified to our full faith and con
fidence that the very nature of our
major crops makes them articles of
commerce between the States.
The A. A. A. testified also to our
full faith and confidence that the
preservation of sound agriculture is
essential to the general welfare—
that the Congress of the United
States had full constitutional au
thority to solve the national eco
nomic problems of the Nation’s ag
riculture. By overwhelming votes,
the Congress thought so, too!
You know who assumed the power
to veto, and did veto that program.
Cannot Run From Fight on
Advice of Defeatist Lawyers.
In the campaign of 1936, I said:
“Of course, we will continue our ef
forts in behalf of the farmers of
America! With their continued co
’enna.
HARD
COAL! I
Call for particulars re
garding this remarkable
value. Representatives
Wayne OH Burner.
J. Edw. Chapman
COAL FUEL OIL
37 N St. N.W.
operation we will do all in our
power to end the piling up of huge
surpluses which spelled ruinous
prices for their crops. We will per
sist in successful action for better
land use. for reforestation * * * for
better marketing facilities for farm
commodities, for a definite reduc
tion of farm tenancy, for encour
agement of fanner co-operatives,
for crop insurance and a stable food
supply. For all these things ws
have only Just begun to fight.”
Neither individually nor as a
party can we postpone and run
from that fight on advice of de
featist lawyers. But I defy any one
to read the majority opinion in
validating the A. A. A. and tell us
what we can do for agriculture in
this session of the Congress with
any reasonable certainty that what
we do will not be nullified as un
constitutional.
The farmers were not the only
people in distress in 1932. There
were millions of workers in industry
and in commerce who had lost their
jobs, young people who had never
been able to find their first job,
and more millions whose Jobs did
not return them and their families
enough to live on decently.
The Democratic administration
and the Congress made a gallant,
sincere effort to raise wages, to re
duce houft, to abolish child labor,
to eliminate unfair trade practices.
We tried to establish machinery
to adjust the relations between the
employer and employe.
And what happened?
You know who assumed the
power to veto, and did veto that
program.
The railroad retirement act. the
national recovery act and the Guf
fey coal act were successively out
lawed as the child labor statute
had been outlawed 20 years before.
Problems Robbed of Legal
Power ia No Man’s Land.
Soon thereafter the Nation was
told by a judicial pronunclamento
that although the Federal Govern
ment had thus been rendered pow
erless to touch the problem of
hours and wages, the States were
equally helpless; and that it pleased
the "personal economic predilec
tions” of & majority of the court
that we live in a Nation where
there is no legal power anywhere
to deal with its most difficult prob
lems—a no man's land of final fu
tility.
Furthermore, court injunctions
have paralyzed the machinery
which we created by the national
labor relations act to settle great
disputes raging in the Industrial
field, and, indeed, to prevent them
from ever arising. We hope that
this act may yet escape final con
demnation in the highest court.
But so far the attitude and lan
guage of the courts in relation to
many other laws have made the
legality of this act also uncertain,
and have encouraged corporations
to defy rather than obey it.
In the campaign of 1936 you and
I promised this to working men
and women:
"Of course, we will continue to
seek to improve working conditions
for the workers of America—to re
duce hours over-long, to increase
wages that spell starvation, to end
the labor of children, to wipe out
sweatshops. * • • We will provide
1 Day Only!
After 6 PM. Tomorrow
(Sat.) Suitg left from thin
Sale revert to former prices.
I
useful work for the needy unem
ployed. For all these things we
have only just begun to fight.’*
And here again we cannot af
ford, either individualy or as a
party, to postpone or run from that
fight on advice of defeatist lawyers.
Defies Any one to Find
Course Escaping Nullification.
But I defy any one to read the
opinions concerning A. A. A., the
railroad retirement act, the na
tional recovery act, the Guffey coal
act and the New York minimum
wage law, and tell us exactly what,
if anything, we can do for the in
dustrial worker in this session of
the Congress with any reasonable
certainty that what we do will not
be nullified as unconstitutional.
During the course of the last four
years the Nation has been over
whelmed by disasters of flood and
drought.
Modern science knows how to
protect our land and our people
from the recurrence of such catas
trophes, and knows how to produce
as a by-product the blessing of
cheaper electric power. With the
Tennessee Valley Authority we
made a beginning of that kind of
protection on an intelligent region
al basis. With only two of its nine
projected dams completed there
was no flood damage in the valley
of the Tennessee this Winter.
But how can we confidently com
plete that Tennessee Valley
project or extend the idea to the
Ohio and other valleys while the
lowest courts have not hesitated
to paralyze its operations by sweep
ing injunctions?
The Ohio River and the dust
bowl are not conversant with the
habits of the interstate commerce
clause. But we shall never be safe
in our lives, in our property or in
the heritage of our soil until we
have somehow made the inter
state commerce clause conversant
with the habits of the Ohio River
and the dust bowl.
In the campaign of 1936, you
and I and all who supported us did
take cognizance of the Ohio River
and the dust bowl. We said: "Of
course, we will continue our efforts
• • • for drought and flood control
• * *. For these things we have
only Just begun to fight."
Here, too, we cannot afford,
either individually or as a party,
to postpone or run away from that
fight on advice of defeatist lawyers.
Let them try that advice on sweat
ing men piling sandbags on the
levees at Cairo.
But I defy any one to read the
opinions in the T. V. A. case, the
Duke power case and the A. A. A.
case and tell us exactly what we
can do as a National Government
in this session of the Congress to
control flood and drought and gen
erate cheap power with any rea
sonable certainty that what we do
will not be nullified as unconstitu
tional.
Doubts of Future Progress
Must Be Removed to Carry On.
The language of the decisions
already rendered and the wide
spread refusal to obey law incited
by the attitue of the courts create
doubts and difficulties for almost
everything else for which we have
promised to fight—help for the
crippled, for the blind, for the
mothers; insurance for the unem
ployed, security for the aged, pro
tection of the consumer against
monopoly and speculation; protec
tection of the investor; the wiping
out of slums; heaper electricity
for the homes and on the farms of
America. You and I owe it to our
selves individually, as a party and
as a Nation to remove those doubts
and difficulties.
In this fight, as the lawyers
themselves say, time is of the es
sence. In three elections during
the past five years great majorities
have approved what we are trying
to do. TO me, and I am sure to
you, those majorities mean that
the people themselves realize the
increasing urgency that we meet
their needs now. Every delay cre
ates risks of intervening events
which make more and more diffi
cult an intelligent, speedy and
democratic solution of our diffi
culties.
As Chief Executive and as the
head of the Democratic party, I
am unwilling to take those risks—
to the country and to the party—
of postponing one moment beyond
absolute necessity the time when
we can free from legal doubts those
policies which offer a progressive
solution of our problems.
Floods and droughts and agri
cultural surpluses, strikes and in
dustrial confusion and disorder,
cannot be handled forever on ft
catch-as-catch-can basis.
I have another ambition—not so
great an ambition as that which I
have for the country, but an ambi
tion which, as a lifelong Democrat,
I do not believe unworthy. It is an
ambition for the Democratic party.
Required Courage to
Find Ways to Meet Needs.
The party, arid its associates, have
had the imagination to perceive es
sential unity below the surface of
apparent diversity. We can, there
fore, long remain ft natural rallying
point for the co-operative effort of
all of those who truly believe in
political and economic Democracy.
It will take courage to let our
minds be bold and find the ways to
meet the needs of the Nation. But
for our party, now as always, the
counsel of courage Is the counsel
of wisdom.
If we do not have the courage to
lead the American people where
they want to go. some one else will.
Here is one-third of a Nation ill
nourished. ill-clad, Ill-housed—
now!
Here are thousands upon thou
sands of farmers wondering whether
Any one afflicted know*
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Phone today or write Mountain
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MEt. 1062, for booklet.
next year’s prices will meet their
mortgage interest—now!
Here are thousands upon thou
sands of men and women laboring ;
for long hours In factories for in
adequate pay—now!
Here are thousands upon thou
sands of children who should be at
school, working in mines and mills
—now!
Here are strikes more far-reach
ing than we have ever known, cost
ing millions of dollars—now!
Here are Spring floods threaten
ing to roll again down our river val
leys—now!
Here is the dust bowl beginning
to blow again—now!
If we would keep faith with those
who had faith in us, if we would
make Democracy succeed, I say we
must act—nowt
Bad Switch Harasses Policeman.
CINCINNATI OP).—Patrolman Pat
Stull became suspicious when be
passed an open door on his beat and
heard an elevator start. He raced
upstairs and then back down as the
lift shuttled in its shaft, shouting for
the “occupants” to come out. The
elevator started up again. "Come on
out, or I’ll shoot!” Stull shouted.
Other officers came on the seene, ex
plained the elevator was an empty
automatic elevator and a defective
switch was causing the trouble.
LETTERS SUSPECT HELD
Detective Says Man Threatened
Shirley Temple.
HOLLYWOOD, Calif., March 5 UP.
—Adolph Wyman, 26, was taken in
custody yesterday by Detective Lieut.
Charles Hoy who said he was the
suspected writer of letters to Shirley
Temple containing veiled threats and
a claim he was the "spiritual father”
of the child star.
Hoy said residents saw the man
standing for a long time at a poster of
Shirley and called police.
The man was booked on vagrancy
charges.
"Sandy"
of Bond’s!
• 1 ^ * I' ■ » \ '•
$ can't k&ld it
mu/htu/&i,M£ tads
I’m fair bursting wi’ a rare bit o’ gossip!
For two weeks, I've been snoopin’ around the Bond factory,
in Rochester—gettin* an eyeful o’ the new things for Spring.
And have my old optics bulged wi' amazement! You see,
I'd been readin' in the papers that woolens were doin’ some
fancy high-flying. So in my canny way, I figured Bond prices
would be upped, this Spring. But no such thing! In spite o'
changing conditions, I can tell ye that there’ll be no changes
v , at Bond's. There’ll be no increase in Bond prices. There’ll
| b* no decrease in Bond quality. There’ll be no let-down in
Bond service. And this, me lads, should be a bonnie bit o’
newt for all of ye! ★ Speakin’ o’ service —remember to
'charge it' the popular Bond way when ye buy your Spring
clothes. Ye can pay a wee bit at a time—weekly or twicfe
a month. And ye pay not a penny extra for this convenience.
if I’ve always held that the Bond folks had a braw bit o’ Scotch
about them. ’Tis as plain as can be, once you've seen the
grand Spring suits they’re bringing ye, at these thrifty tariffs.
‘25 $30 ’35
two trousers with every suit
1335 F St. N. W«
I