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him. I say probably, because one cannot be sure. Before the last war,when prohibition by constitutional amendment was proposed, itseemed the most fantastic thing in this world. But a little touch ofcrisis—a war crisis—and the thing was done with bewildering swiftness.Then men said repeal was impossible. It would never be possibleto get the assent of thirty-two states. Clarence Darrow, doughtiestanti-dry, said the hope was utterly illusory. Prohibition, he said,would die by the dead-letter route. Then came another crisis—thedepression—and the Eighteenth Amendment vanished almost asswiftly as it came. Crises have a way of dissolving many things—often very old things and sometimes very precious things. Before usnow lies another crisis—a momentous one—as great, at least, andperhaps greater than the Civil War crisis, though in a different way.What will vanish amid its dislocations we cannot say.However, a great deal may be done without constitutional amendment.Here is another point at which we will do well to choose ourwords with caution. The words dictatorship and totalitarianism areused very loosely as perfectly synonymous. This is not so. The totalitariangovernment is one which possesses in itself the total sovereigntyof the nation. In our government that total sovereigntyresides in the people. Only parts of it are delegated through theConstitution to the federal government. A very great part of it—indeed the greatest part—is reserved to the states. And very vitalportions of the sovereignty are delegated neither to federal governmentnor to states but are held wholly by the people.Our government, then, is the antithesis of the totalitarian government.However, it is possible to imagine a parliamentary governmentin which the central government would have practically unlimited ortotal sovereignty. That is true of the English government. TheParliament in England is pretty nearly supreme. It could change theform of government from a monarchy to a republic. It is subject tobeing elected by the people. But even this limitation is not absolute.Members of Parliament are elected for five years..But that term ofoffice is fixed not by a constitution but by an act of Parliament.Parliament can change it from five to seven or to ten. Indeed in thepast Parliament has called off elections and lengthened its life totwelve years once. In this war crisis Parliament by its own vote has229