PRESIDENT’S BOLD CHALLENGE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20669, 6 March 1937, Page 17 (Supplement)

PRESIDENT’S BOLD CHALLENGE

SUPPORT OF COURT REFORM ENFORCING ELECTION MANDATE “GREATEST AMBITION IN LIFE” United Press Association —Bv Rnectric Telegraph-Copyright (Received March 5, 5.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, March 5. Although he did not mentjon the Supreme Court by name, President Roosevelt, in an address at the Democratic victory dinner, opened a series of radio appeals throughout the nation in support of judiciary proposals, as the quickest and surest way to obey the election mandate and remedy the conditions under which a third of the nation is still ill-nourished, illclad and ill-housed. President’s Greatest Ambition The President said his greatest ambition was to ( surrender the office of President to his successor in 1941 secure in the knowledge that the nation was intact, peaceful and prosperous, aware of its, existence and powers to serve the citizens and in a position to use these powers unhampered to meet the modern needs of humanity, thus providing a Democratic form of Government .that can and will succeed. Slavery took at least 40 years of argument, discussion and fqtile compromise before it came to a head in the tragic Civil War t but the economic freedom of the wage earner, farmer and small business man would not wait forty years, or even four. It will not wait at all. Various .forms of Government had failed in the. world, and even democracies had failed, for the time being tp pieet human needs. Democracy had not failed in. the United States, and they proposed not to let it fail. Plea for Team Work “I cannot say, .with candour,” added the President, “that Democracy In the United States, during the past few years had fully succeeded, nor can I tell you just where it has headed. I can only hope, for there is no definite assurance that the three-horse team in the American system of Government will pull together. If one horse lies down in the traces or plunges in another direction, the field will go unploughed.” Facing Stern Realities President Roosevelt painted a picture of farmers burdened with debt, men and women labouring in factories, with inadequate pay, children working in mines and mills, labour strikes costing millions of dollars, threatening floods and blowing dust. He said that none of these problems could be adequately met while uncertainties continue, with regard to the legality of the Congressional attempts to remedy them.

The speech is considered tantamount to an announcement that no new effort will be made to meet these conditions. until the Supreme Court is brought into better harmony with the Legislative and executive branches. Appeal for Party Support The President placed the support for the plan to remake the Court, squarely on the basis of party loyalty and responsibility, and warned the Democrats that if they do not have the courage to lead the American people in the way they want to go, someone else will. He said he would continue the discussion in a fireside chat on March 9, and subsequent addresses.