A GREAT ADVOCATE OF JUSTICE
A Great Advocate of Justice Hillquit, the Lawyer By S. John Block TRIBUTES to memory of Morris Hillquit, the brilliant exponent of Socialist theory, the courageous protagonist of the cause of...
...I join with the host of admiring friends of Morris Hillquit in the commemoration of the first anniversary of his death...
...Master of political strategy though he was, there were others in our movement whose ability along those lines were great...
...What Made Him Great IN tlie year that has passed 6ince * we took final leave of Morris Hillquit the thoughts of those left behind to carry forward the ideals to which he dedicated his life have continually reverted hack .to him...
...But it was not that that accounted for the hold he acquired and retained over men's hearts and souls...
...Th* 'dea of a political philosophy, founded on econonifc science, seems to him something i.ofiw and therefore dangerous...
...The case in question was that of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union against The Cloak, Suit and Skirt Manufacturers' Protective Association and others, decided by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York...
...This was Morris Hillquit's great service...
...The hjghesrf political aim of the average American citizen is to voje For a "good man" on Election $ay...
...They were, by common consent, masterpieces of clarity...
...In court lawyers and judges listened to Morris Hillquit intently, fascinated by his brilliant presentation of facts, the correctness of his exposition of existing law and .the logic of his arguments when contending for the recognition of new legal principles to fit new conditions...
...Morris Hillquit, the and abundantly the function it had Socialist lawyer, the labor lawyer, the lawyer who fought for free speech and freedom of the press, was also a lawyer who successfully coped with intricate problems of business law, the law of corporations, the law of wills and banking law...
...His keen intellect, his skillful examination and cross-examination Of constitutional law aroused the admiration not only of those who •rare in sympathy with his causa but also of those hundreds of Bepublicnas and Democrats, members of the Legislature and others, who crowded the Assembly Chamber at Albany during the six weeks of the historic trial...
...In times of doubt and uncertainty and misgiving, the figure of Morris Hillquit rises before us...
...We know the path along which he sought to direct its destiny...
...As time carries us on a little further from the date when he passed away we can more adequately appreciate the value of his service to mankind...
...In each special field there were otjtert who acquired renown but did vet exercise the influence As dji...
...Among others, unacquainted with him, he was known by reputation as a fighter for the rights of Labor, and a cliannpion of the common man and woman...
...On the first anniversary of his death our memory is refreshed regarding his sterling qualities and his lovable character...
...The trial of the five Socialist Assemblymen was a mere pretense of legal procedure, but it gave Morris Hillquit an opportunity to make a truly great address which embodied a defense of the fundamental American right of the people to choose their own legislative representatives and a crystal-clear exposition of the Socialist program...
...He was an eloquent speaker...
...A Great Advocate of Justice Hillquit, the Lawyer By S. John Block TRIBUTES to memory of Morris Hillquit, the brilliant exponent of Socialist theory, the courageous protagonist of the cause of labor, would be incomplete without reference to bis achievements as an outstanding member of the legal profession...
...There was Ben Hanford, the printer, whose fiery eloquence inspired Hundreds of thou...
...Not only aa a friend and as • fellow Socialist but also as a fellow lawyer it was a source of keen Pleasure to me to be associated at mes with Morris Hillquit in matters in which we had a common interest, the most notable being the celebrated trial of the five New York Socialist Assemblymen in 1820, on specious and grotesque charges of "disloyalty," which the Assembly was without constitutional jurisdiction to try...
...We had no doubt as to where he would have stood on the issues that now confront the party...
...What was it that gave him this power...
...His works will retain their authoritative place among the classics of American Socialist literature until Socialism is established and probably long after that happy time...
...If the United States today is an experimental field for a New Radicalism, it is because men like Morris Hillquit deepened and enlarged the sense of social justice half a century ago, when the land was being prepared and no harvest was in sight...
...In the various political contests in which he was engaged, either as a candidate or as official of committees in charge of campaigns, he directed the strategy of the struggles...
...Although he iwas always deeply moved by his efraat sympathy for the workers, Sever, however, did his ability to reason dearly desert him, never did he resort to invective, never qld he misrepresent fa.ct or law...
...W«» >t his writings...
...Then he can be led into the Socialist camp through his feelings, his sense of wrong...
...He was in thought and in action a lawyer of today whose course was always illuminated by the shining torch of tomorrow...
...There have been many trying days during that year when we sought to solve the problems that confronted us, problems which began to develop during his closing years...
...sands of workers in the pioneering days of our movement- There wer* countless others who had risen from the ranks of the working class, untutored in the arts and sciences but conscious of their wrongs and able to voice the aspirations of the workers...
...None of them carried the conviction in their writings that Morris Hillquit's writing carried...
...Because what the others each possessed individually he combined in one person, and combined them in (he rarest degree...
...He knew the political history of our country, the mainsprings by which masses of people are welded together for the achievement of,, political aims...
...Contrary to the traditions of our people, which he felt could and would not be changed, even if we were to try, he repeatedly took the leadership in eliminating from our movement the elements which he had felt were attempting to lead our movement either underground, or away from the main currents of democratic activity...
...The remedy of the injunction, sb often resorted to by employers to Curb the activities of labor unions and their members during strikes, at last became a boomerang Morris Hillquit's abilities as a lawyer in cases involving the rights of labor are known to many...
...to subserve...
...He was truly a friend of I^abor and was held in high esteem and high regard by all the men and women of Labor who were privileged to meet him, and with whom he was acquainted...
...As a labor lawyer, Morris Hillquit was quite naturally without a peer, for he brought to his work Cs such not only his fine talent and equipment as a lawyer but in addition his unswerving devotion to the cause of the Working men and forking women for whom he appeared in courts of law or before hoards of arbitration...
...Not ao many perhaps know of his success in other phases of the law...
...Was it his eloquence...
...Clearly and distinctly he expounded the principles of Socialism and wrote its American history...
...His noble deeds and his fine services will live after him...
...The masses of the people sustained a great loss when Morris Hillquit died...
...But our movement has had other great writers...
...Yet it was not alone his-writing...
...Morris Hillquit's Monument ly E. H. Thomas A MERICA has produced three great Socialists...
...Novelists who attained renown in literature drifted into our movement and sought te express, in the literary style that had made them famous in literature, the ideals of the working class, the hopes that would rekindle in them the spirit of revolt and triumph over sordiness and squalor...
...Victor L. Berger was the great leader, Eugene V. Debs the great orator and Morris Hillquit the great philosopher of the American Socialist movement...
...Such men as Morris Hillquit live in the hearts of the people whom ha served...
...They expressed with the same conciseness and forcefulness the thought that he would express on the platform...
...Worse than that— it is foreign, un-American...
...ships and knew bow to translate to them in simple, unconventional but forceful and effective words the ideals towards which they must work to obtain their freedom from economic and political oppression...
...But none of them exercised ths power and the influence of Morris Hillquit...
...To these ardent newcomers and in faot to older Socialists, Comrade Hillquit performed an incalculable service...
...We could almost hear him reduce the vexing problems, belabored and confused by the discussion which preceded it, to its simplest terms and make those who were in the opposition realize the futility of the proposals for which they had been contending...
...Was it his political sagaeity that singled him out for leadership...
...It will be his philosophy and his ideals that will continue to dominate the movement, even though he Is no longer with us...
...A notable incident of his achievement in a controversy without legal precedent was his successful establishment of the principle that a labor union may by injunction restrain an association ot employers from violating a contract made with the union...
...He could look dowja into the anxious faces of those who had experienced his earlier hard...
...Even the Assembly Judiciary Committee and its counsel, attentive to every word of Morris Hillquit's summing up, must have realized that they were in the presence of a lawyer of extraordinary intellect...
...A FIGHTER FOR LABOR By William Green President, American Federation of Labor MR...
...Above all—and the life's work of Morris Hillquit would be distinguished, for this reason alone, even • if there were not many others that should make it imperishable in the...
...With his inspiration to lead us on, we shall build our movement until it stands aa the monument of the effort, the briUianoe, the devotipn and the faith that he gave to it and to us...
...But there often comas a time when his emotions are stirred...
...The early death of Morris Hillquit deprived the American Socialist movement of a gerat leader and took the legal profession one of its finest minds...
...In bis early years bp experienced the hardships of the sweatshops...
...We see him, cool, dispassionate, with an eloquence that carried con...
...He will none of it...
...He may not know just what Socialism is but, anyway, he is ready to fight for it...
...He /pas, after all, a lawyer functioning •nd earning his living in an era ft which Socialism is still a theory pud a hope...
...viction and a logic that was devastating...
...We know the goal which he envisioned, the goal of which in the forty years he served and led the Socialist Party of America he had never lost sight, frequently changing the tactics by which he thought it would have to be reached, but never wavering, never faltering, never doubting that at the end of the road upon which he was leading us was the cooperative commonwealth...
...MORRIS HILLQUIT died one year ago...
...This ardor is not very useful until it is educated...
...Our movement has produced able orators, proletarians, like Eugene V. Debs, the greatest orator of them all, who left the cab of the railway locomotive to become the eloquent champion of the oppressed and downtrodden...
...The minds of comrades that he helped to train and form and enlighten, these are Comrade Hillquit's best monuments...
...history of Socialism and the labor movement—he refused, Jn all the years he led the movement, to depart one jota from the fundamental idea that Socialism must be won through a change in the hearts and minds of the people, and not by force...
...He knew the practical workings of political machines, the issues upon which people were rallied to support them...
Vol. 17 • October 1934 • No. 80
