xt7wwp9t2q46_22 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7wwp9t2q46/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7wwp9t2q46/data/59m61.dao.xml American Liberty League 37 linear feet archival material English University of Kentucky This digital resource may be freely searched and displayed.  Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically.  Physical rights are retained by the owning repository.  Copyright is retained in accordance with U. S. copyright laws.  For information about permissions to reproduce or publish, contact the Special Collections Research Center. Jouett Shouse Collection (American Liberty League Pamphlets), No. 25 "Congress at the Crossroads" Speech of Jouett Shouse At a Luncheon of the American Liberty League Club of New York, March 30, 1935 text No. 25 "Congress at the Crossroads" Speech of Jouett Shouse At a Luncheon of the American Liberty League Club of New York, March 30, 1935 2013 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7wwp9t2q46/data/59m61/59m61_25/Am_Lib_Lg_25_001/Am_Lib_Lg_25_001.pdf section false xt7wwp9t2q46_22 xt7wwp9t2q46 tion which has lain prostrate on its back for ·
four years and you are attempting by these
legislative measures to force down its throat * *
things that it cannot digest without destroy- ~ C
,1,,,, ongress
Is there any man in this room who, if his wife
had been desperately ill of pneumonia and was ll
just getting well, had just thrown off a tempera-   t 0
ture and just begun to regain her strength,
would come to that wife and tell her all of the (3 d
misdeeds of the children during the period of   S
her illness? Is there any man in this room who,
with his wife in that condition, would say to
her, "You have got to prepare yourself to face
this and that and the other burden just as soon * * * I
as you are able to stand on your feet"? After
all isn’t it a mistaken way to approach the re-
sult toward which a nation is striving and on
which a nation is unanimous in its opinion as Speech of
to the need?
I referred to the feet that the Congress of the JQUETT 5H()U5E
United States has begun to rcassert itself. With- ,
out any undue credit to the work that the At a Luncheon of the American Lib-
Liberty League has done may I suggest that crty League Club efNewY0rk,Empire
the eiforts of the limited number of men and State Building, New York City,
the limited number of organizations that have S t d M h 30 1935
been willing to stand up and be counted in this a ur ay° am ’ ’
period where crimination and recrimination B¤>¤d<=¤¤* by ths C°l"
have been so freely bandied back and forth, are umbiu Brvadcasting
responsible largely for giving Congress the System
courage to recognize the functions for which it
was created and for which it stands. And may
I impress upon you, members of the Liberty
League Club of New York, that if each one of gmc
you will constitute himself into a committee to yl"  
help us gather membership you will add I.   Q
mightily to the influence that we can exert with  AQ;  gv
the Congress of the United States towards the 'ffy L9?
preservation of the form of government in
which we believe and towards the re-institution
and the upholding of constitutional principles
m A"‘°“°‘*· AMERICAN LIBERTY LEAGUE
Nalional Headquarters
NATIONAL PRESS BUILDING
 ¤4 j WASHINGTON, D. C.
ir ir
8 Document No. 25

 CONGRESS AT THE CROSSROADS that the Congress of the United States and not
* the President of the United States should write
the laws that govern the people of America.
MR. CHAIRMAN, Members of the New York My observations are not directed either for or
American Liberty League Club and Guests: ' against a political party, they are not directed
I am delighted to have the opportunity to ad- either for or against any individual officeholder.
dress this Club, which, as I understand, repre- The American Liberty League, if it is to ac-
sents in its membership and in its affiliations an complish any part of the purpose for which it
excellent cross section of the great metropolis has been organized, must continue its non-parti-
of America. Its membership, its officers say, is san, unprejudiced course in dealing with legis-
by no means confined to a class of large wealth lative problems. And it is on that basis, it is on
or a single or individual class of any other kind. that basis alone, that I discuss with you today
It has representatives of the professions, it has some of the things that are concerning the Con-
representatives of business, it has representa- gress as it stands at the crossroads.
tives of labor——labor in its truest sense and in A Through both of the Houses there has passed
all of its ramifications, and through the courtesy a bill known as the Works Relief Bill, which
of the Columbia Broadcasting Company I am A assumes to place in the hands of the President
delighted to be permitted to address a wider , of the United States the gigantic sum of $4,880,-
audience over a nationwide radio hookup. 000,000 to be expended practically as he may
The subject which I will assume to discuss see fit. That bill when it passed the House was
is that of Congress at the Crossroads. in much worse shape than it is now when it is
For twenty years it has been my privilege and in conference between the two Houses. Cer-
at times my duty to observe closely at Wash- tain corrections have been made, certain steps
ington what our national legislature was doing, have been taken to make it conform to the deci-
was considering, and sometimes, was failing to sion of the Supreme Court in the Amazon Pe-
do, and to my surprise-—not to my chagrin but troleum case handed down on the 7th of last
to my surprise-—I have found the situation January. But that bill, in the power that it
which confronts us at Washington today a more confers upon the Chief Executive, in the oppor-
confused situation than I have ever observed tunity it places in the hands of a man who is
there before in twenty years, and this surpris- candidate now for reelection as President next
ingly despite the fact that one political party year, is adverse to the best interests of the .
has an overwhelming majority of both houses masses of the American people, and lends itself
of the Congress. if abused to the overt use of federal funds to
,. control political destinies. That bill will be
Congress has been in ses- . . . . .
Congress sion Since a , t 1 law, ID my opinion, w1th1n a week, and there
• ppmmma 6 Y ` thin ou can do about it.
Rcasscrtrns the Ist of January, and ls no g Y
P1‘€1°0g8tiV€S this is approximately the , There is pending before
lst of April, and after Econqmlc the Congress now what is
three months not a single piece of major legis- Security known as the Economic
lation has been enacted. Now, so far as I am P1'0gl'8II1 Security bill. It is a
concerned, I look upon that not as a bad sign tome of almost un-
but as a good and hopeful sign, because I am J counted pages which embraces within its pro- I
happy to pay to the present Congress the tribute » visions four important separate propositions:
of saying that once again in this country we 1. One of them is the establishment of a sys-
have a Congress that is recognizing the fact will of 11l1€mpl0Ym6Ilt iI1S11l‘8I1C€, and
that this Government is divided inte thrgg 2. Second is the establishment of a system of
A parts: Executive, Legislative and Judicial, and old ¤g6 P¤¤¤i0¤8» and
2 3

 3. Third is provision for additional care for America, and the net effect will be necessarily
mothers and children throughout the country, to destroy the investments mounting into hun-
and dreds of millions, even billions, of dollars in the
4. The fourth is the creation of machinery securities of those companies, because if they
whereby the Government of the United States i are compelled to dissolve, as this bill requires,
shall go into the insurance business by permit- there will be no earthly market where the
ting voluntary contributions toward an ultimate securities that comprise their assets can pos-
pension system. sibly be sold and you will have dumped upon
Now speaking for myself and speaking also an unwilling and an unbuying public a mass of
for the Executive Committee of the Liberty securities which it will neither accept nor which
League which controls the policies of that could it digest.
League, as evidenced by the study of this bill Regulation, yes. A little more than a year
which we produced some five or six weeks ago, ago there was presented to the Congress a bill
I have every sympathy with some of the ob- to regulate stock exchanges. I felt about that
jectives that are sought in this legislation. But p bill as I feel about this. The regulation of stock
I submit frankly and candidly that either one exchanges was a necessary thing. The destruc-
of these four propositions attempted to be em-   tion of stock exchanges was contrary to the in-
braced in a blanket measure oifers all of the __ terests of the mass of the American people.
food for thought and for consideration and ac- U Yes, regulation for holding companies wherever
tion that should be put up to the Congress in and whenever that regulation should be ap-
any one piece of legislation. plied, and stringent regulation if you please,
As the friend, if you please, of the objectives but the man and the woman and the institution
sought, I suggest that the whole plan may easily investing their savings in the securities of hold-
be destroyed unless we approach cautiously and ing companies which have been founded on a
carefully the thing that we are attempting to solid basis, which have conducted themselves
do, and I bring to your attention a fact that properly, these people, American citizens, are
was made clear by the President’s own commis- entitled to have their investments defended and
sion in presenting this bill, with its report, that not destroyed by the parent government to
if enacted in the form in which it came to Con- which they give their support.
gress the financial burden upon the treasury of There is now pending an important Banking
the United States with passing time would be- Bill. Some of the provisions are wise and some
come so great as to jeopardize seriously even of them undesirable. But if that bill be en-
their ideas of what expenditures this country acted as it now stands and as the Administration
is capable of making. · seeks to have it enacted it will place the whole
. banking structure of America in political hands.
One of the other pieces , ,
Holding of legislation that is at- I call your attention to the lesson of ·h1story
Company trading marked auch. that without lexception where the banking sys-
. . . . . tem of a nation has been made subservient to
Al)0l1t10D t1on 18 the so-called Util- , , _ _
. . the politics of the nation that banking system
1ty Holding Company , ,
, . . . . . _ has inevitably been destroyed.
Bill. I hold no brief for ut1l1t1es and particu- _
. There are amendments pending now to what
larly I do not attempt to defend some holding   _ _ _
. . . . 1S known as the Agricultural Adjustment Ad-
compan1es that have been organized in this _ _ _ 9 _
country. In their basic organization and in m‘f"St":“‘:f‘ Ajit; what d° they d°‘ Thu
their operations I think they are properly sub- THPIC A’ as It IS mmmouly #ku°wn’ has regu'
ject to the most severe criticism. But this bill, lated tha amount °f wheat that °°u1d bs gmwui
if passed in its present form, will wipc out iu. It has regulated the amount of cotton that could
continently every utility holding company in 1 be grown, and inmdentally, has practically do.
4 5

 stroyed at least for the time being the great ex- 15th or 16th, in which Whaley-Eaton contended
port market for American cotton; it has regu- that the plan of the Government was to dismiss
lated the number of pigs that could be raised; the Belcher appeal, preventing an immediate
it has regulated the pounds of tobacco that ’ decision of the Supreme Court as to the NRA,
could be produced. And what does it now seek and to pass an NRA act which, without any dif-
to do by the Amendments which have been in- ference as to intent or purpose or control by
troduced and are now pending before the Con- the Government over industry, would yet give
gress`? It strives to place under the control of W the Government the opportunity to compel a
one man, the Secretary of Agriculture, every complainant again to go through every process
individual, every corporation that has anything of the courts, with the incidental delay that
whatever to do with the processing of foodstuffs. i necessarily attaches, before there can be any
And through its regulation of the processor in- decision as to the Constitutionality of the funda-
evitably it can extend its control to the indi- mental facts that underlie the NRA. And in
vidual farmer himself whom it dared not at- that connection let me read you an excerpt from
tempt to include within its original provisions.· L an editorial from the Scripps-Howard News-
There is also pending before the Congress a papers that appeared on last Wednesday, a
piece of legislation known as the Wagner Labor syndicate of newspapers that is perhaps the
bill which, if made a part of the statutory law ,p most pronounced defender of the present ad-
of this country, will make it impossible, no mat- _ ministration:
Y6? what labor may desire or labor wants- to “The G0vernment°s apparent intention to avert a
operate, SHVG under tho domination of and in Supreme Court showdown pending an enactment of
connection with the American Federation of Mw NRA1<=sis1¤ti<>¤ may wt be as shrewd strategy
Labor. as it is supposed to be. It encourages the popular
belief that the New Deal is unconstitutional and
There is pending further thereby breaks down both compliance and enforce-
The FUIUTG tha proposed extension mont. Moreover, the procedure gives off an odor oi
of the  A of the National Recovery r deliberate official law dodging which must offend
believers in the orderly processes of government.”
Act commonly known as
the NRA. You have in That, if you please, from one of the foremost
process an investigation of the NRA by the defenders of the Ad¤¤i¤i¤*¤r¤•¤i¤¤·
Finance Committee of the Senate. That has May IQ far a mnmcnn att€mPt with You tv
been going on for Some two or thmc weeks. throw aside all of the discussion as to the wis-
You perhaps have observed in the papers this dem or the unwlsdmn of Pending n"giS1&ti°¤»
week that the Government of the United States, and {imc frankly exactly wnat Inc situation at
acting through the Department of Justice, has Wiashmgiml 1S' Hem Yau navc cnn 0n.l°CtiV6
abandoned the appeal to the Supreme Court of with which we _ar° an agrcndv tnc Adminisuw
the so-called Belcher Case and has refused to tum ann lt? critics nnkcv Inn Objective Of i`€‘
permit the Supreme Court to have the oppor- . covcry lf this uatmn ls tn bs SaVnd· .
tunity to pass upon the Constitutional questions 4 But the Administration,
therein raised with reference to the whole Na- [ Recovery in connection with re-
tional Recovery Administration. Only yester· f Reform and covery, is insisting on
day there was introduced a bill which proposes lj IUV€Stig8ti0l'! two other things, What
to extend and continue the NRA with certain f are they`? One is reform.
changes. I have not analyzed that bill care- The other is investigation. Now, it doesn’t
fully. I call your attention, however, to a state- matter in the least how appealing the reform
ment that was made in the letter of the Whaley- measures may be. It doesn’t matter in the least
Eaton Service, one of the prominent business how necessary in some circumstances further in-
services going out of Washington, dated March vestigation might seem. You have here a na-
6 7