Richberg Claims "New Deal" Rescued United States From Fascism, Nazism and That NRA Opposes a Dictatorship

"'The New Deal' Administration has stopped the dangerous trend towards Fascism and Nazism that existed before it came into power," said Donald R. Richberg, General Counsel of the NRA, Mr. Richberg, in a speech to be given tomorrow in room 100 of the Baker Library at the Business School, will go farther into this point and will present many statistics relating to the work of the NRA. "The people of this nation were headed straight for either Fascism or Nazism until the present administration came into power," continued Mr. Richberg. "And if the President should fail to handle the situation befor him, the same trend will make another appearance.

"Before March 4, 1933, there were two factions in this country, the group for state socialism and another for a capitalistic government of the Fascist type. These groups were going around in a circle, and were sure to meet; a meeting that would result in a combination of the extreme Left and the extreme Right, forming state control of industry. Why, even the Conservatives had become so wrought up that their representatives in Congress were demanding a Mussolini; an American dictator. The new administration has taken a course that leads directly away from this circle. The theory of this new course is that the machinery of self government should proceed from the citizen's own industrial life, assisted by a group of people whose policies are integrated with those of the government. Thus the nation as a whole will work for the common good, but the idea of individual effect will be preserved. This is in direct opposition to a dictatorship, and as a matter of fact I do not believe the people of America should fear that such a government will be set up. A dictatorship is not a permanent form of government, and I expect that not one of the dictatorial governments existing today will last even fifty years.

"Lastly, I would like to say that all the claims that the NRA is unconstitutional are groundless. Certain phases may be open to debate, but the law as whole conforms completely with the constitution. As a matter of fact the administration could go much farther then it already has and still be within the bounds of the constitution. The inter-state commerce laws allow much more power and even broader administration that the NRA has already attempted. No careful critic, who has taken the time to really study the act, can say that it is unconstitutional. Leading jurists all over the country, including Professor Thomas Reed Powell of the Harvard Law School, have upheld the legality of the act, and the Florida judge who decided against the government did not claim that the NRA was unconstitutional, he only stated that he thought the administration was attempting to control too much in the especial case which he was judging."