The Augusta Courier

Ominous Storm Warnings Flying Over The United States,

Senator Russell Tells St. Andrews Society Of Savannah

Communism At Home And From Abroad,

National Bankruptcy

The Two Deadly Foes

Senator Richard B. Russell says "ominous storm warnings are now flying over this land in which we live."

In a speech delivered at the annual dinner of the St. Andrews Society of Savannah at the DeSoto Hotel, in Savannah, Georgia, on November 30, 1959, he warned the nation and further said:

They are warnings that can be ignored and disregarded only at grave peril to our freedom, our way of life and our survival as a nation.

Two Great Threats

He listed the two greatest threats to our constitutional government and individual freedom to be:

1. Communist aggression from abroad and at home.

2. Threatened bankruptcy of the nation.

And in this connection, he said:

Our prosperity is a great tribute to the initiative and ingenuity of the American people and to the genius and opportunity of the American free enterprise system. Working together, the people and system have made the United States the richest and most powerful nation in the world.

Heritage As Free Men

But we Americans should never forget that there is another ingredient in our national life that is more valuable and precious than all our material wealth put together. This is our heritage as free men.

That heritage of liberty and freedom didn't just happen. It was won for us through sacrifice of patriots and made secure by the collective and enduring wisdom of the Founding Fathers who gave us a government founded on a written Constitution. It is that Constitution which is the guardian of our liberty, the watchdog of our freedom and the custodian of our sacred rights.

In essence, it is the fountainhead of all our remarkable progress.

But despite our rich heritage and our great progress, ominous storm warnings are now flying over this land in which we live.

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Communism At Home And From Abroad,
National Bankruptcy
The Two Deadly Foes
(Continued from Page 1)

National Bankruptcy

They are warnings that can be ignored and disregarded only at grave peril to our freedom, our way of life and our survival as a nation.

Danger To Freedom

The most obvious danger to our freedom and our security stems from the ever-present threat of Communist aggression from abroad. It is a danger that has been made more awesome by frightening evidence that Russian technology and scientific know-how have pulled ahead of us in the deadly space and missile race.

In recent months, there have been a few hopeful signs that our Russian adversaries wish to bring about an easing of international tensions and a relaxation of cold war pressures. This nation—indeed, all mankind—welcome these signs if they are genuine and sincere.

But it would be a mistake of fatal proportions to accept a few soft words and friendly smiles from Khrushchev and Company as clear proof that the Communist leopard has changed its spots and abandoned its quest of world domination. We must have concrete deeds and specific actions in order to test Khrushchev's sincerity.

Supreme Urgency

It is, therefore, a matter of supreme urgency that the United States continue to maintain a strong and alert defensive system capable of protecting our national security and preserving our freedom.

We must not be lulled into a false sense of security on the flimsy basis of communist propaganda. Particularly must we re-double our efforts to head off Russia's crash program to achieve supremacy in the development of missiles and rockets.

The Communist rulers pay lip-service to peace, but they respect only strength and power. To deal with them on any other basis would be to court national suicide.

Communist Threat

Though the communist threat is grave and pressing, it is by no means the only danger that imperils our nation and our free institutions. There are others that have their origin within our own country and from some of our own people.

One of these is the specter of runaway government spending, an unmanageable public debt, and the general fiscal chaos that is casting a grim shadow over the Federal Government in Washington today.

We now have a stupendous public debt of more than $285 billion—the equivalent of about $1600 for every man, woman and child in the nation.

Next to national defense, interest on the debt alone is the largest single item of federal expenditure.

Operated At Deficit

The Federal establishment has operated at a deficit every year except five since 1930. Though two wars and a depression made some of this unavoidable, a dangerous tendency seems to be developing that accepts deficit financing by the Federal Government as normal and necessary. It most assuredly is neither.

Everyone knows that a private business that consistently operates in the red and sinks deeper and deeper into debt will sooner or later wind up in disaster and ruin. But for some inexplicable reason some people in high places who ought to know better refuse to recognize that the same thing can happen to the Federal Government.

There is, of course, one fundamental difference between fiscal irresponsibility in business and fiscal irresponsibility in the Federal Government. In business, the people who get hurt by fiscal irresponsibility are those directly involved in the venture. But, in government everyone gets hurt.

The terrible toll of foolish spending policies and irresponsible deficit financing in Washington is becoming increasingly evident.

Inflation, High Taxes

It has fostered and fed inflation and cheapened the value of the dollar.

It has resulted in higher and higher taxes and has saddled generations yet unborn with an inherited indebtedness of staggering proportions.

It has put the Federal Government into fields that should be left to private enterprise and extended federal controls over an ever-widening circle of our everyday lives.

It has penalized the provident by robbing them of their savings and inflicted hardships on the aged by depreciating their retirement and pension benefits.

It has deluded the wage earner with illusions of wealth that always vanish in the light of advancing prices.

Economy Injured

And it has seriously weakened the financial underpinning, the stability and the standing of our entire economy.

Yet the spenders go on demanding more and more blood from the American taxpayer. Each session of Congress sees the introduction of a new batch of socialistic spending proposals for raiding the public purse.

This question of fiscal irresponsibility is not a partisan issue. Both of the great political parties have their share of spenders, and both have men who sincerely seek to restore fiscal sanity to the Federal Government.

There is, in fact, as much difference in the political and fiscal views of Senator Goldwater and Senator Javits in the Republican Party as there is between Harry Byrd and Hubert Humphrey in the Democratic Party.

Runaway Spending

During the last session of Congress, a start was made toward bringing the Federal budget into balance and putting a lid on runaway spending.

The Administration, perhaps out of shock over the $13 billion deficit incurred the previous year, submitted a budget to Congress for the current year that was barely balanced at around $77 billion. Congress, I am gratified to report, succeeded in trimming the Administration's estimated expenditures by some $1.8 billion dollars.

The steel strike and other imponderables may spoil the opportunity of achieving a balanced budget in the current year. But at least we are on the right track.

Eternal Truths

"The worst thing in my opinion that could happen is that the white people of the South should stand in opposing factions, with the vast mass of ignorant or purchasable Negro votes between. If the Negroes were skillfully led and leaders would not be lacking—it would give them the balance of power—a thing not to be considered. The Negro would be forever in alliance with that faction which is the most desperate and unscrupulous."

—Henry W. Grady
The Great Editor of
The Atlanta Constitution