ular vote and the electoral college was facing .
Nebraska, ‘Missouri, Alabama and California, the Congressional elections of its mid-term. In
while the very flourishing Liberty Leagues sepa- those elections it achieved another overwhelm-
rately incorporated in the states of Pennsylvania ing victory. The opposition to it was not effec-
and Delaware are affiliates of our national or- tive. Members of the opposing political party
ganization. In addition there are local units in in both houses of the Congress had voted in
a number of cities. The groundwork is laid for large numbers for the New Deal legislative
the establishment of state divisions elsewhere measures and they were consequently in a posi-
as soon as it may be determined to follow such . tion of embarrassment to wage a political cam-
a course. ‘ paign against those measures.
Last summer the League accepted the invita- q After a momentary start to carry out the
tion of the University of Virginia to sponsor a J economy promises of its platform, this admin-
round table at its Institute of Public Affairs. istration had soon reversed its entire policy
Under the direction of Demarest Lloyd and Wm. and had entered upon an orgy of extravagant '
C. Murphy, Jr., a program of such interest and expenditure of public funds such as knows no
such outstanding excellence was arranged that counterpart in history. One after another,
it held the spotlight of the Charlottesville show. revolutionary measures were sent to the Con-
At Town Halls and Public Forums through- gress with instructions, on the basis of acute
out the country, over the radio and on the plat- emergency, that they must be passed without
form League speakers by the score have won the change, without consideration and without de-
attention of limitless thousands of listeners. To- bate. And the Congress, abdicating its con-
night there is the amazing spectacle of a League stitutional duty, ignoring the functions of its
dinner from which five thousand applicants creation, had yielded to Executive demands. It
have been turned away because of a limitation had done more than that. The legislative arm
of facilities, while a whole nation awaits in of the government had almost ceased to exist,
breathless interest the utterance of a League because it had voluntarily relinquished to the
spokesman. This man holds no office, he sxey. Executive many of the powers which were the .
cises no authority, but is abundantly endowed sacred heritage of its creation.
with the greatest of all gifts, therdivine gift of And so we were witnessing the spectacle of a
common sense and forthright honesty, legislative program which the American people
A year ago your Executive Committee created did not understand and which no one made the
a small administrative committee with full au- q effort to explain to them, being completed, piece
thority to act on all questions. Meetings of the by piece, with the inevitable consequence of an
Administrative Committee are held each Thurs- entire change in the structure of our govern-
day. Its members are diligent in attendance, _, ment and subversion of its two basic concepts, a
untiring in their work. Every League pamphlet viz: (1) the balance of power as between the
has been reviewed and revised by the Admin- Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches
istrative Committee. Save for its cooperation and, (2) the unsurrendered rights of the states.
C the work of the League could scarcely have We were witnessing the creation and the devel-
been carried on. p opment of the most gigantic bureaucracy that
It is perhaps worth while briefly to direct r was ever attempted among a free people. We
attention to the national political situation that Were witnessing the ¢6¤t1`¤liZ3ti011 of every
existed at the time the League was organized in U power conceivable in the hands of the President
the autumn of 1934. An administration which at the expense of the Congress, at the expense
, had received a large majority in both the pop- A 9
8