Stating that America under the New Deal is in grave danger of losing its liberal institutions, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. '08, in an address at the Union last night, urged the younger generation of today to fight for the preservation of the nation's democratic heritage.
Two great crises, the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, have tested the strength of American government in the past, he said, and today the policies of the present administration have brought about a third crisis. The tendency of the New Deal to centralize powers in the executive is the cause of the present danger, Roosevelt maintained.
Cites New Deal Usurpation
Expressing sympathy with the present administration's "announced objectives" but disapproval of its methods, the former Governor-general of the Philippines cited the N. R. R., A. A. A., the Supreme Court Bill, and the Reorganization Bill, as examples of New Deal attempts to centralize power unconstitutionally in the executive. "It doesn't make a hill of beans difference, if you go off to the Left or to the Right," he said. "You end up under tyranny."
Stating once again that liberal institutions are in danger, Roosevelt concluded, "Democracy and representative government can be saved by the people. And you are the people."
The open forum held after the speech was transformed from a serious discussion to a state of mild hysteria, when a large bat flew into the Common Room and spent ten hectic minutes circling around the audience before he finally made his escape through an open window.
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