The Constitutional Crisis And Nation's Vital Needs
The Constitutional Crisis And Nation's Vital Needs PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN BURNING ISSUE CONFRONTING THE PEOPLE AS RESULT OF RECENT DECISIONS OF SUPREME COURTPROBLEM ANALYZED FROM VIEWPOINTS OF...
...Sweden has made tremendous progress along the road of social reconstruction by peaceful, orderly and democratic means...
...Yellow Ticket...
...Yet, this rule hae been honored more by its breach than by its enforcement...
...There is nothing in the first | ten Amendments to the Constitut i o n , which embody the guarantees ! o f civil liberties, that make them i conditional upon the acceptance by , the American people of needless 'hardship, suffering and poverty...
...And state capitalism, he says, is essentially fascism...
...He then referred to the "bitter bread" the people were compelled to eat in Italy, Russia and Germany...
...But this is only a theory, which may or may not be true...
...Io America that dictator wQL probably . not call himself taaeht He, like Mr...
...These decisions, particularly the one on A . A . A . have far-reaching implications...
...Ruling Judicial Views The conservative leaders seek to f r i g h t e n the American people against the adoption cf a program o. social and labor legislation byasserting that such program would ccntravene the Constitution and would mean the destruction of civil liberties...
...As a matter of fact, liberty and freedom cannot long exist without social and labor legislation...
...I t may be argued that such a policy, can exist where there is no written Constitution like in Eng1 land, but does not apply to a writi ten Constitution like that in the United States...
...Davis points are illustrations of the truth of my statement...
...W a t e r e d Melons Assistant Counsel William T. Harris told the Legislative Utility Investigation Committee that the gas and electric companies in New York State are "watered" to the amount of $225,000,000...
...The logical conclusion of Thomas' analysis of the situation is that Roosevelt constitutes a greater danger than Smith, that the Roosevelt administration is more dangerous than the Liberty League...
...yellow pens, yellow press...
...But our dissatisfaction cannot be with the fact that Roosevelt is introducing "state capitalism...
...But," he continued, " i f liberty cannot be eaten, without it all bread is bitter...
...The times are too serious for any one who purports to be a spokesman of Socialism to engage in irresponsible oratorical adventures and cater to the emotional and the ignorant...
...The second school of thought— the sociological school—holds the Constitution to be the basic law of an ever-changing, ever-growing society...
...And there they have ! not a Supreme Court which claims j to be the special keeper of the : Constitution...
...Few, very few workers, farmers and middle class folk will take seriously any such interpretation...
...Roosevelt in hw saUres* to Congress, will thank Twriiftii Bet privately he will rejoice in tbavweakness of our opposition to tyranny...
...Absolutely Relative Recent calculations by Dr...
...with as liberal intentions as ppitalism and his Democratic Sneagues of the South p e r m i t . . .. Today Mr...
...They utilize any slogan r™" ^ey believe will serve their 2J*Canda, oven when they know If*-* is without justification, that * * based on falsehood...
...Democracy and freedom are not inconsistent with social change...
...State Capitalism Thinking Socialists in all countries have learned the great and all-important lesson of the terrible experiences of the toiling masses in the past twenty years...
...But the kind of c r i t i c i sm Thomas is directing against Roosevelt can only have the opposite effect of driving him to the right, into the arms of the Smiths, the duPonts and Raskobs, who were once his friends and admirers...
...question may be asked: g a t is the purpose of Thomas' •Werieal prophecies about the H » a g of fascism...
...Would rhyme the lowly loses* With that intrepid publicist— The mighty Jcuett Shousf...
...Then follows eminent bankers and magnates of big industry...
...But that'is not true either...
...Butler TeDs Young Republicans—and a shady past it is...
...not beer, shaken by the undeniable setback received from the recent Supreme Court decisions...
...To Socialists, labor- legislation- and sccial legislation fall into one pattern...
...Socialism proposes to solve the social, economic and political problems of our current capitalist civilization by a well directed program of social and labor legislation...
...If the good doctor faced the constant fear of losing his job and earned a wage insufficient to keep his family properly fed and clothed, he could understand why the employees sttf...
...Davis must know...
...For the Communists 2*fjBnr is now a cry designed to i P j * the crowd into rushing to 5rf e a n i P - And it matters not to whether the^cry is well z^yd...
...It is clear that Thomas himself feels that, there is no adequate foundation for his theory that fascism is on its way to America...
...I t was Hathaway, now the respectable editor of the "Dally Worker...
...The spirit of Lincoln whispered ironically, "all men are born free and equal," as it passed over Scottsboro Wednesday night...
...The Socialist program for socialization was set-forth in the 1932 platform of the Socialist Part}- of America as follows;— Socialist Program "1...
...We want to separate Roosevelt and his loyal followers from the reactionary groups in their party...
...The extreme radicals say "do not try the peaceful, orderly and parliamentary way of obtaining vital social changes because the Constitution stands in the way...
...Consider the utterances rabove...
...The association of ideas brhfcas this libelous thought goes something like this—prostitution: yellow ticket, yellow ticket...
...Time was * « n they shouted "fascism is ««ssmg" because they wanted it ~*°tn« as soon as possible...
...Dr...
...it hardens the arteries and softens the brain...
...Any real danger of fascism comes from the hungry and homeless in the streets of onr cities, from impoverished farmers and the ruined elements of the middle class...
...Public ownership and democratic control of our mines, forests, oil and power resources...
...Thomas characterizes the New Deal as "state capitalism...
...In the IJr^t part he replied to Al Smith jad* others who try to make the country believe that Roosevelt jjra Socialist and that the New Deal was stolen from the Socialist platform...
...I do not mean that Mr...
...In a series of epoch-making decisions, the Supreme Court has brought the nation to a constitutional crisis...
...Social Legislation Social legislation is that body of law which deals with the whole field of social and political reform...
...Nature has a way of balancing things...
...The N I R A , the Farm Mortgage Moratorium Act, the Railroad Pension Act, the Agrieub tural Adjustment Act have all been stricken down as unconstitutional...
...t B e general tone of his ||*ftsa one deduces that the •"•try is • not far removed from naefarr...
...E. T. Weir, an eminent steel magnate who led the fight for company unionism, is listed with a big contribution and a generous loan to maintain his "liberty...
...The lesson is that it is stupid and dangerous to lump all who are not Socialists into one mass, to condemn them all and to fight all of them with the same weapons and bitterness...
...Into the understanding of the American Constitution enters not only a knowledge of the original document and its judicial decisions, but also the social and economic thought of the times...
...The editor of the Herald-Tribune complains about the "strike rash" that is breaking out all over the country...
...Can it be said that where three justices like Cardozo, Brandeis and Stone believe a law perfectly constitutional while six justices think otherwise, there is not reasonable doubt as to the unconstitutionality of the statute...
...j The second doctrine that the I existence of civil liberties is incon! sistent with social and labor Iegis! lation has been proven to be false, i as men like Mr...
...Under the forms of democracy we have not preserved liberty...
...Their "liberty" rests upon the suppression of the claims of the working class to a better life and emancipation from industrial degradation...
...This means that the legislation sponsored by Roosevelt, and opposed so bitterly by Smith and the Liberty League, is "paring the road" to a fascist dictatorship...
...a periodical published by the Amalgamated Clothing Worker* of America...
...They glorify an interpretation of the Constitution which sets up as supreme the laissez fairc doctrine in our economic and industrial life, a doctrine which no longer works in the machine and power age...
...This implies that •teien.lt is a fascist But immedjttely after making this assertion Thomas retreats, saying he does not mean to'isuggest that Roosevelt is a fascist or can become a fascist, and shortly thereafter he jumps JMa more in the other direction sad says that fascism is already •War ting itself in states controlled K i b e Democratic Party...
...I credit Jur...
...There are t w o s c h o o l s of thought in the interpretation of the American Constitution...
...Thomas may assert a thousand times that Roosevelt's New Deal is fascism, but the miners know that the Guffey Bill has saved their union and averted a strike that might have been disastrous for their organization...
...Socialization of our credit and currency system and the establishment of a unified banking system, beginning with the complete governmental acquisition of the Federal Reserve Banks and the extension o f the services of the Postal Savings Banks to cover a 11 departments of the banking business and the transference of this department of the post office to a government-owned banking corporation...
...By their criticism of Roosevelt, Socialists soak to push him further to the left, in the direction of organized labor, progressive farmers and the needy elements of the middle class...
...By Louis Waldman L I N C O L N ' S Birthday is an appropriate day to commence my discussion on the Constitution...
...The two greatest and most powerful capitalist countries, England and the United States, are in a much sounder condition, from a general economic point of view, than they were a year or two ago...
...Alfred P. Sloan of the motors empire is equally generous and is equally against the free organization of workers in his empire...
...Here will be found the representatives of oil and steel, of munitions commodities...
...Labor and social legislation spring from a common reed, animated by a common impulse, seeking a common objective...
...But there is more affirmative evidence that civil liberties and j social and labor legislation are not j inconsistent...
...LAUGHTER on the LEFT Ode to the Liberty Leoaue Only a wicked Socialist...
...As a matter of fact, generally ' speaking, the destruction of civil : liberties goes hand in hand with the destruction of labor and social legislation...
...This school believes that the Constitution is a living document changing and adapting itself to the growth, the life and the needs of the nation...
...Those who want to keep it will soon find that out of war or out of the fresh economic collapse inevitable- when business prosperity is so spotty, so temporary, SP Insecure as it is today, will come the confusion to which capitalism's |nal answer must be the fascist dictator...
...Tipping the Scales At the Harvard College Observatory...
...The Constitutional Crisis And Nation's Vital Needs PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN BURNING ISSUE CONFRONTING THE PEOPLE AS RESULT OF RECENT DECISIONS OF SUPREME COURTPROBLEM ANALYZED FROM VIEWPOINTS OF SOCIALISM AND LABOR (Thi* is the first of a series of articles dealing with the outstanding problem, now confronting the American, people in the domain of government and democratic control...
...Allison's figures should make an interesting text for an editorial in "Advance...
...It is that body of law which regulates the relationship of capital and labor...
...these elements judge the New ©ear on the bashr of their own experience, not on somebody's theories...
...but it looks like cakes of ice to this pedestrian...
...It ultimately seeks to turn all vital services into public services arid to socialize c r e d i t , transportation, trade and basic industries...
...To the extent to which this has been accomplished, the fascist danger has not been increased but diminished...
...The American Constitution consists n o t o n l y of the document adopted in 1787 and the twentyone amendments to it subsequently made, but of a large body of judicial decisions which by interpretation has poured not only legal but economic and social content into the constitutional framework...
...Socialism aims to abolish the profit system in modern business and substitute for it 3 planned economy for the production and distribution of wealth on the basis of social need...
...This view is held particularly by the two extremist groups in our country—the extreme conservatives and the extreme radicals...
...He himself V;aot quite sure he is right on ttis point...
...All the gentlemen whom I have named want somehow to keep the profit system...
...Either the nudist movement is making tremendous headway or some of us are wearing pretty shitty trousers and overworked overcoats...
...Socialists have learned to differentiate between various bourgeois groups and parties and to utilize one group against another in the interest of the great masses...
...The New Deal has diminished the numbers of the hungry and the homeless, of the desperate and the impoverished, of the ruined and the embittered...
...This week's prize for silly sallies is shared by J. P. Morgan for his Xew Theory of the Leisure Clan, and Bernard Shaw for his flip remarks down in Miami...
...and the program leading to Socialism could not be realized under the Constitution of the United States...
...I t is the same Clarence Hathaway, whose contemptible conduct ensraged every Socialist, that Norman Thomas now addresses as "dear comrade...
...After reading both Einstein's and Silberstein's comments on the theory- w e suspect that Gertrude Stein is their ghostwriter...
...The extreme conservatives say "you dare not enact social and labor legislation and attempt vital social changes because the Constitution forbids it...
...Second, that the enjoyment of civil liberties and their preservation is inconsistent with the adoption of a program of social and labor legislation looking to the social control of the blind economic forces let loose by an unbridled capitalism...
...Ludwig Silberstein of the University of Toronto have some^ what upset Albert Einstein's celebrated theory...
...1924 presidential candidate on the Democratic ticke...
...But organized labor and Socialists in common with the great body of the American people have faith in democratic methods and are confident that social legislation and a new economic system based on social justice can be instituted under the Constitution...
...Indeed, in Switzerland they have a federal system of government comparable to ours...
...There is no certain evidence to support this theory...
...I Some people are of the opinion I that social and labor legi^latior...
...I,< Sa-' F.nvcis~o, Dr...
...RJis false and ridiculous to term afcssevelt a Socialist, as his capitalist and reactionary opponents are doing...
...These fallacies may be stated thus: Two Fallacies First, that the Constitution requires that if the American people want to preserve civil liberties they must be prepared to starve and must suffer the dread of unemployment and insecurity...
...He is an outstanding lawyer and represents some of the most powerful financial and economic interests in the country, including the House of Morgan...
...The operation of these p u b l i c l y owned industries by b o a r d s of administration on which the wage-worker, the consumer and the technician are adequately represented: the recognition in esch industry of the principles of collective bargaining and civil service...
...The majority as well as the minority see the legal principles enunciated by them against a background of social and political philosophy as different as are the principles of reaction and progress...
...The very dictatorships to which Mr...
...who led his Communis* hooligans in a shameful, riotous, counter - revolutionary demonstration that desecrated that dignified memorial to the workingmen and women who fell in the siege of Karl Marxhof, who profaned the solemn memorial dedicated to the martyrdom of Kallomon Wallisch, who prevented a large collection being taken to aid Comrade Deuteeh and his comrades who fought and bled in the Rmgstrasee barricades...
...Willy Hearst Tad that's how an illegitimate gag i* born...
...We win not advance the cause of Socialism by competing with the Communists in hysteria and demagogy...
...Neither of these statements are i true...
...In the second jjrV Thomas tried to prove that the New Deal leads to fascism, afcd that Roosevelt, willingly Of unwillingly, is transforming Washington into another Berlin...
...Against this fascist peril and its Siamese twin, the menace of war, there is no protection in the New Deal, no protection in the Republican Party, atsi than no protection in the Liberty League...
...This position rests on two fallacies, oft repeated by spokesmen for our capitalists and financiers...
...Our cause can be advanced only by a serious and constructive approach to the problems confronting the people and the part which Socialists should play in their solution...
...This confidence ha...
...Certainly, Socialists cannot be satisfied with the New Deal...
...Labor legislation which heretofore in the United States was principally protective in character, is now recognized as resting on much broader grounds...
...The firs: is a monstrous doctrine f o f constitutional interpretation, and | a libel on the American Constitu! tion...
...Thomas said: "It is not Moscow as a rival to Washington that you should fear, but Berlin...
...Primary Views Mr...
...G. WAllison of the Edison Electryt institute capped a lecture on "Undt*production" with these statistic*: "Only one pair of trousers for erery three men...
...Whatever the reasons advanced as legal grounds for the Court's decisions, it is obvious from a study of the eases involving social legislation that not the legal but the economic and social views of the judges determine the result...
...Referring to the unemployed, he made this astounding statement: " I know it has been said that the hungry cannot eat the Constitution and that it is useless to speak of liberty to those who are starving...
...This school makes a religion out of private property and worships at its shrine...
...s Nuts to You, Doctor Dr...
...Coafnsed TMasnaq As already indicated, Thomas' ideas concerning the fascist danger ia the United States are rather weak and uncertain...
...We want to widen the gulf between Roosevelt and Smith, between the New Deal and the Liberty League...
...On the great questions of constitutional law, the Court has frequently been divided, sometimes as closely as five to four...
...Naturally, a Socialist administration would have tried to do more and would have approached the entire social and economic problem confronting the nation from a more fundamental point of view...
...This avenue is the safety valve of our democracy...
...They are not two distinct bodies of law, but are rather like a "seamless web...
...Smith and friends of the Liberty League want fascism...
...Criticism of * the type in which Thomas engages can only serve re strengthen the reaction and to create that condition which would really drive the nation in the direction of fascism...
...Yet in both of these countries social and labor legislation have gone hand in hand with the preservation and extension of civil liberties...
...Tallow Pretr $435,000 Bail Set for Ten m Heads of Prostitution Ring: . ! « * • mediately the name of William Randolph Hearst comes to mind...
...It covers not only humanitarian and welfare legislation, but also the entire range of state action looking to a solution of the social and political problems of the times...
...It is also false and ridiculous to compare the New Ileal with the Socialist platform...
...one woven right into the other...
...fer "mild mental aberrations...
...The Austrian Anniversary The second anniversary of the heroic struggle of the Austrian workers against a ruthless fascism recalls the ghastly behavior of Clarence Hathaway and his Communist shock troops at the Madison Square Garden memorial meeting for our martyred comrades who died defending Socialist Vienna...
...Labor and Socialism...
...The duPont dynasty ruling the feudal barony of Delaware heads the list...
...It seeks to set up standards of employment, of wages, of hours, of collective bargaining and of other incidents of employment...
...There always remains the avenue of amendment...
...Forget Past...
...The conservative position was summed up in a recent address by Mr...
...That must account for the increased water consumption recently announced by the Department of Water, Gas and Electricity...
...Not since the fateful days of President Lincoln's administration has the nation been so stirred by the Constitution and the Supreme Court...
...Well, he can go and scratch himself with a broken bottle, as the boys gay on the picket line...
...They are bound together in a web of corporation and financial relations and, constitute a large section of the Xmerican ruling class...
...Robert N. McMurray, psychologist, pictured daffiness at a high point among the country's office and factory workers...
...N'o Socialist will disagree with the first part of Thomas' speech...
...Constitutional law, therefore, must be sought in hundreds of decisions, consisting of thousands of pages of judicial reasoning and law making...
...John W. Davis...
...One does not agree another, one weakens the First, Thomas .declares that the New Deal leads not to Moscow to Berlin...
...Sorman Thomas repeats the old Cefenunist argument that fascism W inevitable, that it can be averted f Y by the immediate introduction . Socialism...
...It was on this basis that the convention of the United Mine Workers has just indorsed Roosevelt's New Deal and condemned the Liberty League...
...Thomas bases his argument upon the old Communist theory (which the Communists themselves have largely abandoned) that capitalism has actually collapsed, and regards fascism as the only means of its salvation...
...One school of thought—that represented by American conservatism — believes the Constitution to be the embodiment of the basic law of a static society...
...Our complaint against Roosevelt is that he is too slow, that he is not firm enough, that he does not approach the nation's problems from a more radical social point of view...
...They imperil some of the other measures vital to labor now before the Court...
...not even Mr...
...They * * e v * d that fascism would make y workers more revolutionary, g* when they realised that fas2*JnT> did not lead to revolution, changed their tune and raised "•fascist bugaboo as an instru**** of their propaganda for the rj**d front...
...Which goes to prove that even the theory ofrelativity is only relative...
...It would be well to have more of his "state capitalism," more public works, more government control over finance and industry, more social legislation, more laws for the protection of the workers...
...But, Serge will have to go some to beat a few of the stars at the Metropolitan...
...Justice Cardozo, speaking for a minority, consisting of himself, Justices Brandeis and Stone, only yesterday in the Mayflower "Farms case declared: "To say that the statute is not void beyond a reasonable doubt is to say that it is valid...
...B u t this cannot be said of the «eond part of the speech, wherein fbomas argues that the New Deal leads to fascism...
...Hoover threatened "grass in the streets...
...My discussion of the Constitution and the cases will be from the standpoint of this school of thought The Fascist Danger And the New Deal Wherein Socialist* Differ from Roosevelt and Why— Some Comment on a Recent Speech by Norman Thomas By Harry Rogoff MPHE recent radio address de* jwered by Norman Thomas aghasted of two parts...
...This part of the address is marked by uncertainty and wabbling of thought...
...Theories and Experience The great mass of workers, farmers and middle class people who toil for a living in one way or another will judge the Roosevelt administration not on the basis of Thomas' theories concerning fascism and the collapse of capitalism, but on the basis of their own experiences and observations...
...public utilities dealing with light and power, transportation and communication and of all other basic industries...
...Siren die crisis of war or economic collapse and we, unless we awake, will accept dictatorship by rtoieoee...
...It proposes to set up p u b l ic agencies, democratically controlled, for the operation of this public business...
...Such doctrine was farthest from j the thoughts of those brave pioneers who fought for these ten ! Amendments...
...Thomas used to say WaJ fascism was already here, that gpssuirt was introducing fascism, l l t n o w Thomas is a little less IHMetic and postpones the coming yThscism until another war or ^pressior., He does not say how *j*g we may have to wait, but S3...
...In Switzerland and in France they have written Constitutions...
...It can't be a very sound hypethesis of one or two of the dozen men who understood it shot if full of hole...
...Progress and liberty march side by side in tfrese democratic coun• tries...
...He defended the present social system as a great "success," and argued that the Constitution should guarantee its continuance...
...Hoover does not want rism...
...The world is gradually recovering from the crisis...
...The same may be said about the feeling of millions of farmers who were saved from bankruptcy by the legislation of the New Deal, and of millions of unemployed who have been taken out of the bread lines and soup kitchens by the New Deal's relief measures, however inadequate they seem to a Socialist...
...one overcoat for every eleven men were manufwetared in the United States l«ft year...
...Ben Belsky The Price of "Liberty" the American Liberty League covering the period from August 15, 1934, to and including December 31, 1935...
...In this statement the three justices sinrply reiterated a well established doctrine...
...j Experience Abroad In England, labor and social legislation have not weakened or • destroyed the civil liberties of the ! British people...
...Serge I. Gaposchin announced the discovery of "29 Canis Majoris," the heaviest star known to astronomy...
...We understand " the attitude of the Commn•j*s en this subject...
...Korman Thomas proves this quite wall...
...Roosefrit himself is a fascist...
...Roosevelt does not want fascism...
...Safeguards are to be thrown around these agencies to prevent political bureaucracy and excessive centralization...
...Some passages in this part ef bis address are particularly well |hrased and pointed...
Vol. 19 • February 1936 • No. 7
