PRESIDENT’S SPEECH

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 376, 6 March 1937, Page 6

PRESIDENT’S SPEECH

U.S.A. REFORMS. REMAKING COURT , j Based Appeal On Loyalty To Party. Press Association—Copyright. Washington, March 5. Although he did not mention the Supreme Court by name, President Roosevelt in an address at a Democratic victory dinner opened a series of appeals throughout the nation in support of his judiciary proposals as the quickest and surest way to obey his election mandate and to remedy the conditions under • which a third of the nation is still ill-nourished, ill-clad and ilLhous. ed'. He said that it was his greatest ambition to surrender his office as President to his su'ccessdr in 1941, secure in the knowledge that the hation was intact, peaceful and prosufetons, aware of the existence of his powers to serve the citizens, and In a position to use these powers UnfiamipeCed to meet the modern need's of humanity, thus proving that a demo- : cra’tic form of government could and would succeed. “Slavery took at. least 40 years of argument, dscussion and futile com- ; promise before it came to a head in a tragic Civil War,” continued Mr. i Roosevelt. “But the economic freedom of the wage earner, th-e farmer and the small business man will not ;

wait 40 years, or even four. It will not wait at all. Various forms of government have failed in the world—even democracies have failed for the time being—to meet human needs. Democracy has not failed in the United States, and we propose not to let it fail. I cannot say with candour that democracy in the United States during the past few years has fully succeeded, nor can I tell you just where it is headed. I can only hope, for there is no definite assurance that the three-horse team, namely, the Constitution, Congress and the judiciary, which comprises the American system of government, will pull together, if one horse lies down in the traces, or plunges in another direction, the field will be uniploutghed.” Mr Roosevelt painted a picture of farmers burdened with debt, of men and women labouring in factories with inadequate pay, of children working in mines and mills, of labour strikes costing millions of dollars, of threatening floods and blowing dust. He said that none of these problems could adequately be met While uncertainties continued with regard to the legality of Congressional attempts to remedy them. The speech is considered tantamount to an announcement that no new effort will be mad'e to meet these conditions uiiitii the Supreme Court is brought into better harmony with legislative and executive branches of Congress. Mr. Roosevelt placed the support for his plan to remake the court squarely on the basis of. party loyalty and responsibility, qndi; Yarned the Democrats that if they do not have the courage to lead the American people in the way they wanted to go, someone else would. He said that he would continue the discussion in his fireside chat on March 9 and in subsequent addresses.