Evening Star Newspaper, March 5, 1937, Page 5

THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, FRIDAY, Text of President's Victory Dinner Address HE 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 Mazch 4 of another year. That day in 1933 represented the geath ©of 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 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. propose to follow my custom of speaking frankly to the Nation. concerning our common problems. I speak at this victory dinner not only as the head of the Demo- eratic 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 80 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 ocur 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 Summer and Fall had died down. Today, however, those who placed their confidence in us are reas- sured. 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 I'icht” ‘Was 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 €ongress 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 satisfled with having twice been elected President of the United States by very large majorities, I 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. 8o 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 canr well be the serious 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 Relp but feel concern for the future. To the Prfis‘:dent of the United States there ome 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 corner 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 ever-accelerating speed with which social forces now gather headway. The issue of slavery, for example, took at least 40 years—two genera- tions—of argument, discussion and — For L.+ Swinging into the fight. 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 gove 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 hdve 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 Statesydemocracy has, not yet failed and 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 off in another direction, the field will not be plowed. What you and I call the prin- ciples of the New Desl 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 agricultursl 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- PONTIAC MMEDIATE DELIVERY WE NEED USED CARS Flood Motor Co. Direct Factory Dealer 4221 Connecticut Ave. Clev. 8400 Call for particulars re- garding this remarkable value, Representatives Wayne Oil Burner. J: Edw. Chapman COAL FUEL OIL Demands united party. —A. P.and Wide World Photos. 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 farmer co-operatives, for crop insurance and a stable food supply. For all these things we have only just begun to fight.” Neither individually nor as a party can we postpcne 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 thelr 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 houfs, 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 in No Man’s Land. Soon thereafter the Nation was told by a judicial pronunciamento 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 a 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 fleld, 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 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. Defles 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- Wwhelmed by disasters of flood and drougnt. 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- Refreshes inner man. 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 aud 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 % catch-as-catch-can basis. I have another ambition—not 80 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, and its associates, have had the imagination to perceive es- sential unity below the surface of apparent diversity. We can, there- fore, long remain & 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, {ll-housed— now! Here are thousands upon thou- sands of farmers wondering whether | Any one afflicted knows ARTHRITIS « .. rheumatism . . . neuritis should be arrested in their earlier stages | «+ . avoid a life of pain and help- lessness. Learn how Mountain Valley Mineral Water from Hot Springs, Ark, can help you . . . control and eliminate uric acid « . . flush out the poisons. Thou- sands of sufferers have benefited . . . you have everything to gain. | Phone today or write Mountain | Valley Water Co., 1405 K St. N.W., | MELt. 1062, for booklet. D. J. KAUFMAN, Inc. 1005 Pa. Ave. 14th and Eye Sts 1744 Pa. Ave. 1 Day Only! After 6 P.M. Tomorrow (Sat.) Suits left from this Sale revert to former prices. 295 Genuine *25 TROPICAL WORSTED. Sudan Cloth and Imported Linen Suits also included. Bunch, WMAI fuesdays Ti0 P M Only One Suit to a Customer! Save $1105 by buying be- fore Saturday, MARCH 5, 1937. 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- ing to roll again down our river val- leys—now! Here is the dust bow] beginning to blow again—now! 1t we would keep faith with those i ) ) / A \\ M ;.,, ? who had faith in us, if we would make Democracy succeed, I say we must act—now! Bad 'Switch Harasses Policeman. CINCINNATI (#).—Patrolman Pat Stull became. suspicious when he passed an open door on his beat and heard an elevator start. He raced upstairs and then back down as the 1ft shuttled in its shaft, shouting for the “occupants” to come out. The eievator started up again. “Come on out, or Il 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. Y “, 7 <38 e f}’/))} \ hy) | *% A—S LETTERS SUSPECT HELD Detective Says Man Threatened Shirley Temple. HOLLYWOOD, Calif., March § (). —Adolph Wyman, 26, was taken in custody yesterday by Detective Lieut. Charles Hoy who sald he was the suspected writer of letters to Shirley Temple containing veiled threats and a claim he was the “spiritual father” of the cbild star. Hoy sald residents saw the man standing for a long time at a poster of Shirley and called police. The man was booked on vagrancy charges. 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 fune* high-flying. So in my canny way, | figured Bond prices would be upped, this Spring. But no such thing! In spite o' changing conditions, | can tell ye that there'll be no changes at Bond's. There'll be no increase in Bond prices. There'll be no decrease in Bond quality. There'll be no let-down in Bond service. And this, me lads, should be a bonnie bit o’ news for all of ye! % Speakin' o' service —remember to ‘charge it’ the popular Bond way when ye buy your Spring clothes. Ye ean pay a wee bit ot a time —weekly or twice a month. And ye pay not a penny extra for this convenience. % 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 fl;ley're bringing ye, at these thrifty tariffs. 25 ‘30 '35 two trousers with every suit CLOTHES 1335 F St. N. W,