-7-                             
 
 
Samuel Indull's two-billion-dollar holding company col-
 
lapsed and he had hastened away on a flying machine; when
 
other vast corporation values shrunk from three-fourths
 
to nine-tenths of former values, millions of small inves-
 
tors were in desperate straits, there came a national
 
election.  It gave unprecedented majorities in nearly all
 
the States to Franklin Roosevelt- a leader of the party
 
of Thomas Jefferson which had come back to life at a most
 
critical moment.  What could be done?
 
 
The Federal Constitution is a balanced instrument
 
of most limited powers, and all executive functions are
 
subject to legislative and judicial approval.  Only in time
 
of war may a President take prompt and decisive action. 
 
Lincoln violated the Constitution to save the Union, and
 
Wilson sometimes transcended his powers for the obvious
 
common good, though actual violations of the fundamental
 
law were not a part of his practice.  Might men interpret
 
the events of March 1933 as warlike?
 
 
In the chaotic situation, with banks closing their
 
doors everywhere, President Roosevelt acted as if he were
 
in a state of war.  He declared a bank holiday and hastened
 
the assemblying of congress.  Excitement was everywhere as
 
great as in 1917.  Senators and Representatives recognized
 
urge of the hour; but they also felt the pull of the
 
American Legion and the pressure of local demands.  It was
 
a situation which legislators are apt to convert into an
 
impasse, witness the panicky times of Andrew Jackson and
 
Grover Cleveland when all Presidential action was defeated.
 
But Roosevelt had converted his long struggle for recovering
 
 
                                                his