AMERICA TO-DAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22670, 6 March 1937, Page 15

AMERICA TO-DAY

CONDITIONS OF PEOPLE NECESSITY FOR REMEDIES PRESIDENT'S PROGRAMME By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Recoived March 5, 6.40 p.m.) WASHINGTON, March 4 Although President Roosevelt did not mention the Supreme Court by name in his address at the Democrats' "victory dinner," he opened a series of broadcast appeals to the nation to support his judiciary I proposals. He said they afforded the quickest and surest way of obej'ing ' his election mandate to remedy the " conditions under which one-third of ! the people were still ill-nourished. • ill-clad, and ill-housed. Mr. Boosevelt said his greatest ambi- ■ tion was to surrender office as President , to his successor in 1941 secure in the knowledge that the nation was intact, ' peaceful and prosperous. He was aware of the existence of his powers to serve ■ the citizens and he was in a position l to uso these powers unhampered to meet the modern needs of humanity, thus providing that a democratic form of government can, and will succeed. Fight for Economic Freedom The slavery question took at least 40 years of argument, discussion and futile compromise before it came to a head in the tragic civil war, but for economic freedom the wage-earner,- the farmer and the small business man would not wait 40 years or even four. They would not wait at all. Various forms of government had failed in the world—even democracies had failed for the time being—to meet human needs. Democracy had not failed in the United Stares and they proposed : not to let it do so. j "I cannot say with candour that I democracy in the United States in the past few years has fully succeeded," said the President. "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' under the American system of government will pull together. If one horse lies down in the traces or plunges in another direction, the field will not be ploughed. ' Urgent Problems for Solution Mr. Roosevelt painted a picture of farmers burdened with debt, of men and women labouring in factories for inadequate pay, of children working in mines and mills, of labour strikes costing millions of dollars, of threatening Qoods and blowing dust. None of these problems could be adequately met while uncertainties continued i'i regard to the legality of the attempts of Congress to remedy them. The speech is considered to be tantamount to an announcement that no new effort will be made to meet these conditions until the Supreme Court has been brought into better harmony with the Legislative and Executive branches of the Government. The President placed support of his plan to re-make the Court squarely on a basis of party loyalty and responsibility. He warned Democrats that if they had not the courage to lead the people of America on the way they wanted them to go some one else would do so. Mr. Roosevelt said he would continue the discussion in a "fireside chat" next Tuesday and in subsequent addresses.