The Costitution - Static or Dynamic Document?
Louis Waldman The Costitution — Static or Dynamic Document? Capitalism Seeks to Survive by Legal HypodermicsSocialism Pictured in Framework of Constitution IV ¦Kg* present crisis, our...
...The statement of repudiation is as follows: "Repudiate Indorsement" "The undersigned candidates individually and collectively desire to repudiate the unsolicited indorsement of the Communist party and do hereby notify the party that we want none of its votes...
...The critics have found no fault . with the assertion of the Committee that an oil embargo, if applied by the League States, "would bring Italy to its knees within three to three and a half months...
...But we have developed and changed it' little less radically than the English have done their unwritten customary constitution...
...It has Hpsssod to meet a variety of situations that have arisen in our esaotry during the past 150 years...
...In case of a rigid oil boycott proclaimed by the aiagoe, Mussolini could get all the oil he needs from this American repdMic...
...And even an eminently conservative lawyer, commenting on the Constitution, has said: "* * * the court, in interpreting the constitution, may and does, positively amend or change it * * * The fact that we have a written constitution is an accident of our history...
...In view of the thoroughgoing democratic Socialist position taken by the Milwaukee Socialists, it is difficult to explain their support of the Thomas-"Militant" faction within the Socialist Party that favors admission of splinter Communists...
...Butin'IffM the picture seems to be a different one...
...All of them, headed by Mayor Hoan and City Attorney Raskin, have been indorsed by the recently formed Farmer-Labor Federation of Wisconsin...
...CTe be continued) Hoan Rejects Communist Aid THE Socialist and Farmer.JLabor -* candidates in Milwaukee, headed by Mayor Daniel W. Hoan, do riot want the indorsement or the votes of the Communist Party, they unanimously declared in a statement decisively rejecting an olive branch proffered by the Communists...
...For the words of the Constitution which invoke the legal judgment are usually so unrestrained by their intrinsic meaning or by their history or by prion decision that they leave the individual justice free, if indeed they do not-compel him to gather meaning not from reading the Constitution but from reading life...
...of the law enacted to forward it, the courts •re both incompetent and unauthorized to deal...
...Unable to get into the Federation or Socialist Party through the front door, the Communists are now trying to edge through the back door by an indorsement unwanted and unwelcorned by Socialist and Federation candidates...
...Is there any wonder the international labor movement has looked with so much misgivings to the present meeting of the League's Coordination Committee...
...With American oil magnates playing the role of active strikebreakers, even an oil and tanker embargo may prove as ineffective as the ammunition, credit, and general export embargo previously declared...
...fijr Soviet Exports <~l»1—The sale of Soviet ou to Italy declined from 7,000,000 barrels ia 1933 to 1,350,000 barrels ifl-the first 10 months of 19S8...
...Whatever is left is probably directed to the war danger zone in Siberia where the prospective demand is great and the local supply is either small or might be, ia case of hostilities, cut off by J span...
...The personnel of the court is, therefore, of great importance in a discussion of whether or not Socialism would contravene the Constitution...
...The JHp before us must be eonjjlPeed in the light of our whole Pjierlence and not merely in that Fwhat was said a hundred : *w»sg rrtvore IP great clauses of the Con^H^tiea** will, therefore, be given interpretation which social Biffity requires, and which the PPjJMf our time" demands...
...e)ia killed when Congress, under the pressure of a powerful oil tobby, had rushed through tha extjMfisr of the Neutrality Bill to*3sMs3L tially the same form' as k in force now...
...With the election of Socialist public officials, this point of view would be increasingly reflected in the courts...
...In reality the delay was only an attempt to induce President Roosevelt to exercise more effective pressure on our oil exporters...
...It was 22,006,OOP tons in the year 1932 and it reached 25,000,000 tons in the yoar'>lost ended...
...Spokesmen of groups which usually are "opposed to Wall Street" are in this case acting not much differently than the professional press agents of the oil corporations...
...After being released, they were seised by s gang nesr police headquarters and severely flogged...
...The dress pattern makers of Local 31 of the I.L.G.W.U...
...The New- t&rk Nation of last week is authority for the assertion that "our was of oil to Italian Africa" shoiNpia increase of 14,600...
...The fact that sanction1st nations, including the Soviet Union, are willing to forego all oil exports to Italy and require from the United States only a telfUmitation to the level of 1934 was interpreted as adding insult to inThe Isolationists It would, however, be entirely unfair to assume that the oil interests and their "yes"-men in Congress were the only ones to find fault with the Committee's findings...
...The pattern makers are conducting an energetic strike through mass demonstrations in front of factory buildings in the garment center...
...Our oil sales to Italy amounted to $337,000 is October 1934 and reached $1,188,000 in October 1935, an increase of over 300ri...
...The toj...
...The technique of judicial decision affords the Court paths by which to avoid unpleasant precedents...
...As to Italy, our export there was quite negligible before the Ethiei Plan Wac In fact, so insignificant was it that the Oil Sanctions Committee could easily afford u> be magnanimous and permit American oil exports on its former "normal level" even though all tedgue nations, including Soviet Russia^ will not be permitted to:_hg$ | single gallon of oil...
...In order fully bV Ogpreciate this change one must have in mind the following facts...
...Her OH is being shipped almost exclusively in English and American tankers...
...Neither was I reluctant to criticize their "realistic" attitude toward the hloody dictatorship of Italy, Turkey and Germany...
...To begin with, they did not enjoy the undiplomatic language of -;| the Committee's report and they objected to its claim that "the success or failure of any League of Nations oil sanctions igainst Italy depends on the policy the United ! States adopts...
...Capitalism Seeks to Survive by Legal HypodermicsSocialism Pictured in Framework of Constitution IV ¦Kg* present crisis, our govern* swnts—state, national and local __kave sought to restore order out1 jf^jkeir by a policy of artificial Bjjflthr and by huge governmental gjsenditures for the relief of the gaeniployed and for the aid of inSly...
...And1 again the court said: "The court has repeatedly .sustained curtailment of enjoyment of private property, hi tile publie interest...
...Freedom of Judges To interpret We cannot shut our eyes to the many decisions in which the Court ¦has so construed the Constitution as to impede social progress...
...No leas an authority on the Constitution and the court than its present Chief Justice declared: "We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is...
...This impression was strengthened when a reliable and Soviet-friendly newspaper, the New York Times, has found it possible to decorate one of jts oil stories with the significant headline, "Huge Soviet Sales of Oil Help Italy" (Times, February 5th...
...Soviet Policy And let there be no misunderstanding...
...Shoemaker subsequently succumbed as the result of his injuries...
...The Socialists hare made this an outstanding issue...
...That this fear of European Socialists was justified was proven by the evident impotence of the League's Coordination Committee since ' it mot, and adjourned, on March 2. The new delay was ostensibly in order to give Mussolini and Selassie sufficient time for a reply to a new pesee offer...
...By its very conception," declares Professor Frankfurter, "the Constitution has ample resources within itself to meet the changing needs of successive generations . . . what is interpreted depends on who interprets...
...numbering over one thousand and constituting practically the whole trade in New York, have walked out, demanding recognition and a collective agreement providing for a 35-hour week, an $85 minimum weekly rate and a provision that no employer be permitted to make patterns...
...Thus, in effect, is the freedom which is lost through one decision as constantly regained in the next...
...This country is Venezuela, at present the largest oil exporter in the world...
...Times without number we have said that the legislature is primarily the judge of the necessity of such an enactment, that every possible pi iBiiiiisgiow ia in favor of its validity, and that though the court may hold views inconsistent with-the wisdom of the law, it may not be annulled unless palpably in excess of legislative power...
...No effort should be spared...
...For outside of the United States there is only one .oil country of importance which could supply Italy with sufficient oil for her war necessities...
...She is not a member of the League, the also does not show any intention of joining it or supporting any sanctions...
...But, on the great economic questions yet to come before the Court, there are ample alternative principles of construction and alternative lines of precedent...
...The Communist party among other reasons because of its doctrine of dictatorship and advocacy of force and violence has not only always been excluded by the Socialist Party but has also been excluded at every turn by the newly organized Farmer-Labor Progressive Federation...
...2—Soviet exports of oil for the 11-month period were lW^Bi tons in 1935 as against 569,463 tone in 1934...
...Shoemaker, a former Socialist, was arrested on Nov...
...Venezuela has no tankers to spare for this purpose...
...Justice Roberts, who wrote these lines in the New York Milk ease, and Chief Justice Hughes who concurred in them should nave failed to follow these very principles' when they deserted their colleagues, Justices Stone, Brandon and Cardoso, in the AAA case and joined.the four conservative justices in killing the act...
...JNF this court . . . 'we must JMsa' that they have called IB* afe • being the development ?which would not have been wsesarn completely by the most , 'J|**d of its begetters...
...They come from the League of Nations and our support of them would presume there exists some sort of cooperation with non-American nations in a collective effort to preserve international peace...
...Defense counsel asked for a change of venue on the ground that t he people in the community were not qualified to sit on the jury because their passions had been aroused by newspapers and civic organizations which have been demanding a vigorous prosecution...
...The most important of them springs from the fact that the Soviet Union has now ia active service about 350,000 tractors, oyer 30,000 harvesting combines, a very large fleet of aeroplanes and oil driven boats that were not there in 1932...
...From an outline of general principles, it has grown dato-a body of social policies based -of numerous interpretations...
...regards private property...
...All he would require is a sufficient number of oil...
...This result hss been reached through the medium of judicial decision, save in the case of the three amendments following our civil war and designed to perpetuate its results...
...Here are a few illustrations...
...An obnoxious idea to our isolationists — both bourgeois and other kindThere are those, finally, who do not relish the idea that the United States will be blamed if the plan to proclaim an oil boycott fails...
...ft represented considerably over wM of all the imported oil...
...cannot and will not accept the doctrine - that, the Constitution yslsjili in the way of progress...
...Even the largest European consumer ot foreign oil—Great Britain —is getting only 12% of her oil from the States...
...Professor Morris R. Cohen, quotes Dean Wigmore as saying that "a judge may decide almost any question any way and still be supported by an array of cases...
...Professor Maurice Finkelstein writes: "But by this time it should be .evident that it is not a question of what the Constitution and the precedents permit the court to do—the Constitution and the precedents permit the court to do- practically everything it pleases...
...16 of the League Covenant...
...It is larger now Kj...
...j| Socialism is, as Socialists contend, a natural outgrowth of the competitive system, giving rise to collective or cooperative enterprise, can it be said that the Constitution will stand in the way of this natural development...
...If by - ttSstatisaiiit that what the Ceaathstien meant at the time of JJSiSsstiiu it means today, it is ¦ *nt«nisi CO say that the great classes of the Constitution must St eeained to the interpretation Uladi the f ranters, with the condtosat sad outlook of their tto*, weald have placed upon dwe* She statement carries its rajra refutation...
...The Milwaukee Socialists have designated Socialist candidates to run in the" forthcoming primaries...
...Similarly Professor Corwin writes: "In brief, alternative principles of construction and alternative lines of precedent constantly vest the court with a freedom virtually legislative in scope ia cheesing the values .which it shall promote through its reading of the Constitution...
...jj Social is ts maintain that the alterKp to social chaos is a program ¦ socialization looking toward the removal of the basic evils of private ownership and management of our economic affairs...
...Evidently this "normal level" was too small in comparison with the quantity that could be sold and the profits that could be realized at the present juncture...
...The United States, a country with the largest oil production and oil consumption in the world, is exporting to Europe but a small part of its products...
...The fciililiiliiin itself is not a static mroment...
...There are others who are opposed to our 1 adopting the oil sanctions because of their origin...
...Q»r federal debt has grown from $16,026,086,00 on December $t, 1938, to $27,188,021,000 on November 1, 1934...
...And the debs of states, govern - H&land their subdivisions is estimated at from $18,000,000,000 to 180,000,000,000...
...When the conclusions of the oil experts were published there was some hope that our present Neutrality Act might be amended so as to include, in addition to other munition and war m*»*rf't^;jflpt right to declare an embargo on oil and oil tankers...
...As to the Soviet contribution, tn the Italian oil stock it was, in the past, extremely large...
...A critical attitude toward the Stalin regime must not, however, blind us to the real role of the Soviet Union in the problem of sanctions...
...There are those, for instance, who are opposed "on principle" to anything that smells with limitation of "our rights to the freedom of the seas" and "our rights to carry on normal commerce with belligerent nations," even aggressive nations...
...Tortured Construction Of Ceswrfretioe It is one of the great anomalies of our times that Mr...
...On April 7 a referendum on a public power plant will be held...
...I base this assumption, among other things, upon the more accentuated decrease of Soviet oil deliveries to Italy in the last ttelf of 1935...
...The course Of decision in this court exhibits a firm adherence to these principles...
...To the last category belong a num| ber of our own comrades who from I conviction or habit, are inclined to | question anything that might be | taken as favorable to the League or Moscow...
...But as vague as this news item was, many of our comrades were ready to accept its implication...
...y a-!** 3—In the last month foe- which figures are available—in November 1935—the Soviet sales amounted to only 25,000 barrels, a dsenne of nearly 95% in comparison with the monthly average of 1964...
...It can readily be teen that this attempt to keep our Ssrial order alive by the use of SafSldin mil ii cannot succeed, as these huge governmental expenditure* cannot be continued much HjjpT without bringing our federal, state and local governments to a financial impasse, resulting in HE greater chaos and confusion...
...to the achievement of a production for use social order solely by democratic and peaceful methods...
...they expired...
...30th, together with S. Rogers end E. F. i'aulnot...
...With three "key-countries"—Japan, Germany and the United States—outside of the League, there can hardly be a question of internationally applied diplomatic sanctions, or boycot, as authorized by the 1921 interpretation of Art...
...No wonder Justice Stone, in his dissenting opinion in the AAA case complained that the majority of the court were resorting to a "tortured construction of the Constitution.'* In a growing society, the basic instrument of its organization— the Constitution—must inevitably be changing and growing, and its changes and growth are measured by the social concepts of the nine men who constitute the Supreme Court...
...Wall Street i hankers and war profiteers \ in general were not pleased by | the report of the Oil Sanctions I Committee of the League of I Nations...
...Joseph Shoemaker, took place before Criminal Court Judge W. Raleigh Petteway...
...This evergrowing neat of oil driven vehicles devour all -the oil the Soviet Union possesses...
...It was to guard •gaiast each a narrow concepts, tkat Chief Justice Marshall sjtered the memorable warning': J - most never forget that it is a ceastitotion we are expound** • . . a constitution intended IJBMSjiSjre for ages to come, and, .ggseaneatly, to be adapted to jfefrs.* . . . When we are dealing jHK'the words of a Constitution...
...A further study of our* bVSx* ports show, however, that h rocketed sky high since the appearance of League sanctions and, is still on the upgrade...
...The Soviet oil production is gfbwjfcjt very "rapidly...
...It is decreasing instead of increasing...
...If, fljppee, the "vision of our time," BE the people in their wisdom, jBJP**-- *fle'r legislative bodies, economic policies deemed by ¦JR*** promote the public wel*V the "great clauses of the Conwriii not stand in their P^'ysaffirmation of this doctrine 5**~0sen made by the Supreme iJP^V* far-reaching decision ^spegwith the powers of governIffiS...
...the war debt peak of $26.fggTOl.OOO on August 31, 1919...
...But these are eeaejott whose content and meaning eatttfe with the economic and soeisl facts poured into them...
...What was the relative position of the Soviet and the United States oil in this Italian import...
...Our war profiteers must be stopped in their nefarious work of adding oil explosives to a new war confl ago ration...
...HUg tits most conservative legal sntaorities will desire to tarn oar Constitution into a straitjacket...
...It may disappear even without oil sanctions being adopted, by the League...
...Of the other 88% bar colonies and Dominions furnish 5-6%, Iran (Persia) 19%, Ronmania, Dutch Colonies and the Soviet Union (together) 24% and the little American republic, Venezuela—10...
...In i#f...
...They were ready to blame the Soviet Union for a possible failure of effective sanctions and were willing to gloss over the fact that such an attitude would whitewash our own munition and oil dealers...
...In none of the seven conclusions of the oil experts could our dollar patriots find cause for praise...
...The same date forces* one to suspect that the Soviet oil trust cancelled its individual safes-eontracts with Italy as fast so...
...What are the actual facts and what is, or should be, the attitude of American Socialists toward the whole problem of sanctions and the Soviet Union...
...Defense Loses First Round in Tampa Trial TAMPA, Fla.—The first preliminary skirmish preceding the trial of eleven men, including the former police chief and several police officers, indicted for the murder of...
...The "Old Guard" in New York State has known that Wisconsin Socialists reject Communists in their own state and for that reason has been unable to understand their different policy in other states...
...But they felt outraged by the blunt assertion that such a result will be possible only if the United States were to limit its oil export to Italy to the normal, pre-war, level of 1934...
...A Bock-Door Entry" "This Federation, like the Socialist Party and sensible liberal groups everywhere, is committed unequivocally to championship of democracy...
...Such an indorsement can only serve the interest of Tory candidates of the capitalist press, of bankers and big business, and of the so-called law and order leagues —of all the forces anxious to raise the moss-backed 'red scare' as a weapon against constructive liberalism and labor in this city...
...We charge that it is a political trick in line with the malicious tactics the Communists have always displayed against the Socialist Party...
...Since the British Government can easily fores such an embargo on its oil shippers It follows again that the success of such an embargo depends on the attitude the United States Government shall take toward h. Such an embargo is worthless without a guarantee that our oil corporations will be forced to give up their "right" to furnish Mussolini or his agents with oil tankers for his Venezuelan oil imports...
...No exception was pfliinrtSaQ for open aggressors and violators of the Kellogg Peace Pact this (Continued on Page Three) \ountry inaugurated and signed...
...It was, therefore, natural fey the League's oil experts to abeam that an oil embargo against Italy to be effective must also include % tanker embargo...
...All available data pofirc^ts) the conclusion that of the 330OJOO0 tons of oil imported by Italy* to 1935, Soviet oil did not exceed 6-7...
...I am not now and never was an apologist for the Bolshevist rulers of the Soviet Union and their anti-socialist methods of "building Socialism in one country...
...Bat the greatest cost is not Measurable in dollars and cents tat in the tragedy of human waste gad the moral degradation involved ^unemployment...
...Jndge Petteway denied the motion, but reserved the right to suspend proceedings if it should later develop that it was impossible to have a fair trial here...
...HI*' Own resources are not adequate for the task...
...Patternmakers On Picket Line Workers who earn as high as $200 a week want a union and are fighting for recognition...
...JM j - recent decision, and in the face of grave apprehension and earning from a minority of its "¦embers, the Supreme Court, ¦pssWag through Chief Justice reiterated its opposition mdpsvshaitjacket doctrine of the fhsstituUon in the following lan"It is as answer to say that S^HKale ased was not apprehended » century age, or to in-, sejt that what the prevision of '•§» Hjjslilallua meant to the vines of that day it mast mean' 4* the vision of oar time...
...Aside from the circumstances," •said Professor Corwin, "that embarrassing holdings may be occasionally e x pi a i n e d away plausibly as having been 'obiter,' the court always has at hand the immensely important power to manipulate the differentiating facts of each fresh situation With a view to "distinguishing if from the previous cases...
...Mark Khinoy Moscow, Washington and Oil Sanctions Against Fascist Italy Fact and Fiction About American and Soviet Oil ExpertsWho is to Blame for Sanction's Delay-and Why?1 QUR oil magnates...
...Neverthless, this increase of 3,000,000 tons in three years did not result in an increase of the Soviet oil exports to Italy or to any other foreign country...
...For the same three years which saw such an extension of Soviefoil production saw also a 50% reduction of Soviet oil exports...
...The report of the League experts showed that Italy purchased abroad in 1934 3,000,000 tons of oil and in 1935—considerably more, 3,800,000 tons...
...Opposing Sffflftfockef There is nothing in the Constitttite specifically forbidding Sotiekua and social and labor legis•lfls.1V opposition to Socialist ' ^PfB*s.oft constitutional grounds is msair based on the "due pmOMS* eJnsje, the "equal protec¦^Ht and the* provision sgaiestie* impairment of the oblitatioesf a-oontract...
...There are many causes for this strange phenomenon...
...fte Supreme Court: I jgL*?k the wisdom of the pol¦ adapted, with the adequacy y^ooliffabiftty...
...This shows that Soviet oil export to Italy is rapidly donlitdng and is fast reaching the vanishing point...
...The real question is the economic bias of a majority of the members of the court, which is the only thread that allows the historian to guide his way through the tortuous labyrinth of its decisions...
...it is dynamic and jksagesbie...
...tankers...
...And it is oar doty, as Socialists and defenders of international pace, to help in this task...
...The story itself did not contain anything more substantial than a report of an Italian purchase of 400,000 barrels at Batum, Soviet Russia...
...They base their doubts on a number of news items coming seemingly from trustworthy sources to the effect that the "Soviet Union is flooding Italy with its oil...
...However, I this pressure will hardly come unless stimulated by an aroused public opinion...
...Venexoelian Oil American oil and American tankers...
Vol. 19 • March 1936 • No. 10
