We Are of the Same Human Stuff" as the Men of Valley Forge
Hayes, Dorsha
We Are of the Same Human Stuff" as the Men of Valley Forge By Dorsha Hayes 4»rfror of "Tee dme-ica. r»r*»er" IWANT to speak to my brother; to my brother whom I know as well as I will ever...
...Hardship and sacrifice are small things today...
...W*0 implement this policy, a special labor ™ relations staff has been established in the Labor Division of the Office of Production Management...
...You read this and you hear that and someone tells you something else, and all the while time is running fast and there's a monster over in Europe who's got the- habit of moving in on other people and destroying them, and what'll we do, what 11 we believe, what can we do...
...for you, when it let jcB.;|t>.o'n working alongside of other men...
...It is few well-nigh: universally recognized- that judges "make," sot merely "interpret," the laws...
...Not just big that way, no, but big because the idea was big, a country where freedom was the law and there was a brotherhood of man...
...The conviction of Norris, in the Scottsboro trial, for alleged rape of white women, was reversed by Hughes on the ground that Negroes had been arbitrarily and regularly excluded from the jury...
...On July 1st of this year the learned and positive Chief Justice went into ^voluntary retirement after eleven years of' •noted 'service...
...Adequate housing facilities should be made available for employees...
...teen leading officers Of AFofL, CIO, and the 2*^oed Brotherhoods comprise a Labor Policy ?*u»ry Committee which meets regularly, to "ap formulate and execute all national pro«**»» relating to labor and defense...
...And when the State of Missouri established a law school f»r whites and excluded Negroes, Hughes boldly asserted that this was a violation of the Constitutional guarantee of the equal protection of the laws...
...They were not won by people who were jfraid of being beaten...
...Hughes was...
...And maybe Hitler is right, he says, fere's a lot that's wrong in this country, pjpjrty, inequality-of opportunity, injustice, grift...
...Yes, it's like that now...
...There should also be compliance with state and local statutes affecting labor relations, hours of work, wages, workmen's compensation, safety, sanitation, etc...
...In the Senate the nomination was vigorously opposed by the liberals of the day...
...This statute was thrown out by Hughes as the embodiment of censorship and violation of freedom of the press...
...But our country has proved what it can do...
...We've done a lot under this set-up we call democracy...
...Take a look back and see the great progress we have made in every field...
...To hoid otherwise, the Chief Justice declared, "is to place those rights at the mercy of administrative officials and seriously to im(Continned on Page Six) Union Men Get Larger Share in Government, Help Set National Defense Labor Policy By George Q. Lynch Member, Labor Policy 4eVfsory Committee...
...On July 1, that resignation officially terminated Hughes's service on the top bench of the land...
...Department of Labor...
...Judge Levy was a special Assistant Attorney General of the State of New York in 1937 and a Justice of the Municipal Court of the City of New York in 1938...
...Brown, Shields and Ellington, obtained by means of a confession exacted after they had been beaten almost to the point of death, was reversed toy Hughes...
...At the same time, they are usually able to impart to employers, new in the experience of collective bargaining, confidence in labor's good faith and group intelligence...
...We have come a long way, lighting, our little lamps, sew torch kindling another, escaping out of the black, primordial terror...
...HoW will it be if the darkness falls and we cry out, "Are you there, John Bull...
...Brother, let us get to work, you and I along with all other men who think as men...
...It is well aware of the gravity of the world crisis, and is prepared to go all-out to assure our nation the defense it needs...
...When Herbert Hoover appointed him the entire liberal and progressive world arose in voluble and substantiated criticism of Hughes's conservatism and associations...
...the murder convictions of the Negro sharecroppers...
...There is so much to do, sortnuch...
...W| will not count pennies...
...and get no answer...
...If so, do nothing and let Hitler win...
...These factors have been far more serious than the comparatively small number of strikes, in delaying defense production...
...If we have been able to make progress in the past, what's going to stop us now...
...Maybe it seems hard to think straight but it really isn't...
...this brother rho grew tall alongside of me, who ate the food I ate, who walked over the same fields and down the same streets, who sat under the same teaChers and read out of the same history tools...
...Do we believe that force and cruelty and ignorance are best?—that books should be burned and men should be beaten, and knowledge and truth shall go down before propaganda ? If so, do nothingl and let Hitler win...
...It is peculiarly unfortunate, therefore, that the whole of labor should receive a blank eye in some quarters because of the disruptiveand subversive activities of a Communist minority which has wormed its way into the lendership of some unions...
...Hurry hurry do something, do anything, do nothing, but quick, make up your mind quick, make up somebody else's mind quick, quick, hurry, danger, danger...
...It's funny, isn't it, the way people of other countries want to come here...
...stamped in a journal of liberal opinion as a "fixed, set, intolerant mentality, closed on various issues and deadly conservative...
...Do we believe in that...
...The position adopted by Hughes in the Mississippi "torture-trials" reveals his inspired determination to be the guardian of the persecuted Negro...
...this brother who now tells me this good juih j> of ours is all wrong...
...We will do the thing we^know ia right and do it bravely...
...All you can do is try to steer and hope you'll stay on the road, That's what it's like...
...There is no conflict between their activity and the conciliation service of the U.S...
...the efforts ef the New Deal to equalize the weapons in industrial fieri etas a< between management and trade-unionism...
...Hardship and sacrifice will cost , lot, he says, and for what...
...Some give every indication of fearing Industry expansion more than they fear foreign aggression...
...frptJeJeet, Potternmoken Leo one, AFL THIS battle of British labor is the battle of . American labor...
...most been forgotten since President Roosevelt's appointees have turned the high court into a progressive force...
...Labor resents this obvious shirking on the part of some employers...
...If so, do nothing and let Hitler win...
...In an early case, he decided that a Negro on trial for the murder of a white man was entitled to inquire of prospective jurors whether they were racially prejudiced...
...Hitler is strong he says, Hitler is powerful, we cannot hope to win...
...Ito not shame us by fear-talk, defeattalk, money-talk...
...We will not dare to be afraid...
...We are of the same human stuff as they...
...That policy is: "All work carried on as part of the...
...And not just big in size, not just the tall buildings going up into the sky, and the deep-mines going dowp into the earth, and the railroads, the .highways, streaming over the earth...
...It consists of 13 representatives from AFofL and OIO, together with advisers from management...
...For the unusually small number of strikes since the defense emergency began, the great majority of American labor Unions and the government's sound policy of collective bargaining and voluntary settlement of grievances share the credit The small number of strikes that have occurred have been much less serious than has been pictured by the opponents of labor...
...Small, and yet proud, fine things when free men, willing a better world to come, make choice of them...
...Brother, do not talk the language that pleases Hitler...
...His is the dark primordial chaos of a caveman's world, brute-level...
...He is attorney for a number of labor unions and housing cooperatives, and is prominent in the American Labor Party...
...With striking consistency, the court under the leadership of its Chief Justice, hamstrung the powers of administrative bodies, established to streamline executive, legislative and judicial functions in a working democracy...
...We Americans built a government founded on the great idea of freedom...
...the age-old struggle between capital and la'bor...
...Senators Borah and Wheeler, who led the opposition forces, argued that America would now be judicially crushed under the heel of an economic dictator, out of Wall Street...
...not counted too high a price to give for a strcng, free country, nobly planned...
...They were good, simple men who did the thing they knew was right and did it bravely...
...The general labor policy which they formulated last September, soon after the committee was established, has -been incorporated into the fundamental • defense policy of the nation...
...For the cause of the harassed Negro, Hughes spoke unhesitatingly, and vehemently...
...He frets ovOT taxation...
...Because we do need you...
...Washington did not say, "Well only fight if we are sure to win...
...This, and no less, js labor's stake in the *»ld crisis...
...Yqu say it doesn't...
...Whether or not the "Russia First" crowd be(Centinned on Page Six) JLeqa/ Paradox* i \s ----SHAPING the social, industrial and economic life of important segments of the nation, the Supreme Court has alwwtnat k.nn f rr r*t * n** , 1--Dv._IJ._a T">_____1., ____• «___1____.______1...
...Every little workshop can and must be an arsenal of democracy...
...This is not thefirst time our country has faced danger...
...For instance: Just what do we believe in...
...How can this be...
...When all the lights are oat we will be alone in the night, alone with the monstrous forces of unreason...
...Adequate provision should be made for the -health and safety of employees...
...How can , nan forget the...
...Sure we have faults and I know them...
...It grows dark...
...Coal miners, as any schoolboy knows, cannot make battleships or airplanes...
...r»r*»er" IWANT to speak to my brother...
...Some editorial writers and congressmen, long on fancy and short on common sense, have taken the figures of the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the number of man-hours Inst because of strikes, and from them computed the number of battleships or airplanes that might have been built if this time had not been lost by these workers...
...With characteristic passion for liberty, Hughes invalidated a city ordinance which forbade distribution of handbills unless prior consent of the city manager was obtained—such an ordinance, in his view, smacked of restraint of a free press, which Hughes fought always to protect...
...Now, right now...
...These are experienced men who have won their leadership the hard way...
...The Communists, at least until June 22, served nrrfe"*Nazi* in the same manner as football players who run interference to help the ball carrier...
...The speeding up of production has brought many new problems, and made old ones worse...
...BROTHER, things are happening fast today ¦* and there's a lot of jabbering going on and sometimes it's hard to think straight...
...Get the fundamentals clear in your head and the rest is easy...
...We must act now, br else...
...e reject their counsel...
...It's like being in a car...
...Supported by a noisy and reckless group in Congress, they seem more intent in imposing shackles on loyal Americans than in defeating Hitler...
...to my brother who new talks ,oth words I do not understand...
...Our heritage can shape the world to come...
...Bot now, you and I who have shared the past see different {futures...
...Labor is fulfilling its...
...No other period of rapid industrial expansion in the history of our nation has occurred with comparatively so little industrial trouble...
...With reason, we have, built a world whose laws we know, a world where man can hope to be the master of his fate, a world where wilful acts of man's desiring roughly shape a kind of consequence and there can be talk of cause, effect, the doing, the result, man speaking to man, sharing the gain, understanding, communicating...
...Do we believe we would be better off to become slaves, to never again say, T will do this,' but only, 'Yes, Master...
...The now famous 8t Joseph Stockyards case, in which Hughes wrote for the majority, established the precedent that findnngs of fact made by administrative agencies, where constitutional rights are at stake, are subject to judicial review...
...And in the recent Hague case, Hughes concurred in holding that the right peaceably to assemble and to distribute literature was a prerogative granted to all citrons, and it gjou-i not.be, abridged on the ground that such, an assembly jnight provoke riot and disturbance...
...What they did, we can do...
...In disagreement with *he Chief Justice...
...How will it be with us then, knowing what we might have done...
...There are still some employers who hope to pervert the defense effort into an all-out attack upon labor's hard-won rights...
...Ob, brother, you have forgotten so many things...
...The basic things, the important things are simple...
...however, the only accomplishment to his credit...
...But maybe no one has found one yet...
...The lights must not go out...
...Sure we've got faults, plenty of tnem, bad ones too...
...Too loved America when you and I ran over the sweet smelling green fields and flung ourselves down to rest in the shade of the big elm tree...
...Few man have exerted as much influence on the present court as did Chief Justice Hughes who tendered his resignation to the President last month...
...v .' OUT it is in the materialistic field—the monopolistic control *^ of industry...
...On many occasions, the effect of his early channeled training was mirrored in narrow view-pointed decisions...
...Labor has been patient in the face of grievances...
...Even when he was liberal in other respects he retained the irresistible fear of what he termed "bureaucratic" government...
...That recommendation was unanimously adopted by the Defense Commission, which submitted the statement to the President...
...As experienced negotiators, the representatives of the Labor Division of the OPM are able to give advice to workers involved in industrial disputes...
...He talks of the cost of defense, the cost of planes and battleships and men...
...Assigned promptly to trouble zones, they have been aWe in the great majority of instances to accomplish the double function of redressing particular grievances while keeping the wheels of defense turning...
...LISTEN, brother: All you have loved in America, all that has ever made you proud of being an American, all your rights as an American citizen, were not won...
...Shortly thereafter, Hughes declared unconstitutional the California "Red Flag Statute," which made it a felony to display any flag as a symbol of opposition to organized government, holding that the statute's vagueness subjected it to interpretations which might unwdrrarrtedry _rMle'<ffvifliberfies...
...Hughes in Supreme Court Ruled For Civil Liberties and Social Change By Judge Matthew M. levy ZA-DE ago the average citizen would have said that fSupreme Court of the United States, as the cornerthe judicial branch of our government, and in the pf its coordinate function in our federal system, is opposed to "interpret" the .laws.- Bu» the «areer"of3dharles Hans Hughes as Chief Justice of the United States has more accurately oriented the popular view of the judiciary...
...We reject their fallacious economics based on the assumption that «r standard of living will not be debased by conquest of-the remainder of the world...
...the attempted utilization by the New Deal of administrative maebioerg as an integral tribunal in the economic betterment of the forgotten man —it is in this field that his years of experience as an attorney for big business and as a conservative statesman could not fail to leave their imprint on Hughes' personality...
...If ^ win, then we shall have the chance to build ¦^better society on the foundations of liberty w Security...
...But now the lights are going oat...
...to my brother whom I know as well as I will ever know any pgjgsn being...
...I don't say that's the way we Want it...
...Don't you know what you are doing...
...A year ago some of these industrialists conducted a sitdown strike against the United States government...
...jjRTAlN it is that Hughes did not present a reactionary V outlook when he established himself, through numerous decisions, as the protector of civil liberties in our democracy...
...The simple, fundamental things that we have believed ir- are the things that we can hold to now...
...For maximum production we need the construction of new plants in steel and other basic industries, and it means utilizing all available plant capacity, even the smallest, now at hand...
...Lincoln did not say, "Maybe we are wrong.1' These men* did not calculate their chances of winning, they did not count the price of victory...
...i f&6ng, be says, to even attempt to defend yyjf...
...Maybe Hitler is right, he says, and we ueed a new way...
...The Minnesota "gag law" had provided for the issuance of injunctions to restrain the publication of malicious or scandalous matter, unless the publisher could prove the truth, the good faith, and the justifiable ends, of what he published...
...Sure, all of us, working together, making America big...
...ou are doing Hitler's work for him...
...Not of calculations and of costs, but of the fundamental things...
...You forget that in this war ideas are weapons, powerful Weapons...
...defense program should comply with the Federal statutory provisions affecting labor ^wherever such provisions are applicable...
...f You ought to remember that...
...They have shown extreme reluctance to farm out the manufacture of defense materials, even though smaller plants, without the resources to make a complete product, stand idle or only partially used...
...Germany'built its vast military machine by sub-dividing the industrial process into its smallest component parts, an« parceling out manufacture to every work bench that could be found...
...responsr"wy...
...This-is not the first time our country has faced confusion...
...They stay simple do matter how complex all the surface things become...
...They refused to expand their plant capacity until they had won substantial concessions relating to amortization and tax policy...
...Are you coming...
...We are going ahead, not backward...
...We can still cry" °ut to other men and get an answer...
...The past is a prologue...
...If so, do nothing and let Hitler win...
...Even now, when our production must be lifted to peaks undreamed of a few years ago, some of the great industrialists are still adhering to "business-a4-usual...
...Yes, ana.yon loved America in dark days, in the depression, when your, government stood by joj', when it made wgr...
...You and I stood together in the long lines waiting for the reS-earned pay check...
...Labor is capably represented in government Henries dealing with every phase* of defense...
...When he resigned the liberals saw a loss to the bench...
...You point out our faults...
...Jefferson did not say, "The cost of liberty will run too high...
...His viporous comment Was that "the'faek and tBtture chamber may not be substituted for the witness stand...
...Ninety-nine per cent of American labor is staunchly patriotic...
...Some of them have presumed to give advice to the labor movement...
...We, the people of America, And who are the people of America...
...Brandeis declared that the decision making judicially renewable the findings of a bearing commissioner in a longshoremai.'g aecident Case wrruld "gravely hamper the effective administration" of the longshoremen's Compensation Act...
...How could you forget them...
...We are not less intelligent than the signers of the Constitution...
...by counting .the opts...
...Outstanding also in his career was his unswerving devotion to the rights of ¦ minorities, especially the Negro...
...For the first time since 1930 the Supreme Court was without the bearded, dignified Charles Evans Hughes...
...Think big...
...When the State of Oregon"convicted DeJonge, without proof of an unlawful or criminal purpose, for mere participation in a meeting held under the auspices of the Communist Party, Hughes held that the conviction was a violation, of the right of free assembly guaranteed by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment...
...Well, can we correct our faults — make progress...
...For that we owe it our loyalty, our faith and our courage...
...You are one of us...
...I bow, I was with you on WPA...
...Thus they add up the hours lost because of a coal miners' strike and tell us the answer ia minus two battleships...
...The lights are not yet all out...
...Not a bit hard when you go back to fundamentals...
...We have come a long way, lighting our little lamps...
...It is axiomatic that one cannot add oranges and elephants...
...More than that nc one* can ask of any country...
...Don't...
...the Chief Justice Emeritus is entitled to admiration and esteem...
...I know this country, the length and breadth of it and the ups and downs . But when yon and I talk about our faults let's get this straight— the thing that counts to us is whether or not these faults can be corrected...
...The ekler LaFollette declared that "the President is loading down the federal judiciary with men whose economic viewpoint is that of the-great aggregations of capital...
...the governmental power of taxation...
...Isrly in his career as Chief Justice, he dissented from a Wjority of the court, which denied citizenship to an applicant who stated he would refuse to bear arms unless he conislered the war morally justified...
...Hitler is nightmare...
...I • • • DUT if we do not believe these things, if we do still believe in the right of worship of God, in the freedom of mankind, in the brotherhood of man, and in the standards of decent, moral conduct, trusting to go forward by the light of twth and knowledge," then we will act and we will act now...
...I don't Say everything's perfect here, but why should I? Is there a country on earth where things are perfect...
...We gladly accept the job.of provio%g *» adequate and continuous supply of man* for(the neeHed production' oi_J^ arm* 'Wm the day that President Roosevelt launched ~ •J* defense program, labor has had n higher ¦"•ceAhaa ever before in the councils of our •ation...
...An old tree, you said, maybe it stood there when Washington's ragged, barefooted ,nny went limping over the countryside, worn and harrassed...
...You'd think ' they'd pick some other country to get into, wouldn't you...
...When you talk the language that pleases Hitler you are using a weapon against your own country...
...Roosevelt deemed it of such .significance that he, in turn, transmitted it to Congress as a special message...
...The halls of Congress have rung with reckless and fantastic statements that collapse from their own inherent falsities...
...You loved America when you took your place among other nsen, working- alongside of them, doing your job...
...Do we believe that the right of worship should be destroyed and that ideas of good and evil, moral and unmoral, humane'and inhumane .have no meaning for us...
...The change in philosophy and social approach is reviewed in the accompanying article, in which Judge Matthew M. Levy analyzes Hughes's decisions and contributions to American Judicial history...
...What else have we been doing since this country was begun...
...that the Constitution, in important aspects, is not an immutable tablet of commandments, but- it is what the judges of each generation say it U; and that the Supreme Court actually does, though somewhat reluctantly, follow the election ''returns.,' In 1930, President Hoover appointed Charles Evans Hughes Chief- Justice of the United States...
...It is manifestly unfair to indict the labor movement by such statistical distortions...
...We are not less brave than the men of Lexington...
...Workers should not be discriminated against because of age, sex, race or color...
...Do we believe the brotherhood of man is bunk?—that it is right for Fritz to rule and Fritz alone, while you and I and Vaslav and Olaf and Demetrius go into the fields to labor, serving no higher purpose than a sweating farm horse, forgettirrg all of man's dreams, hopes, ambitions, while our friend Israel is set apart to be tortured to death...
...England, under a rain of bombs, has learned this lesson, and now makes extensive use of the "bits and pieces" system of production...
...Why, Pat and Tony and lice and Alp ho rise and Vaslav and Olaf and Black Sammy...
...We've proved the set-up works...
...A struggle against tyranny Mywhere is the cause of free men everywhere, '^here are timid souls, who ask us to close our ¦inds and our hearts to the consequences of this titanic struggle, who tell us that America c*n live at peace and in security no matter *ho wins this war...
...thing that he has loved...
...But in our dreams we remember man's ancient horror of the night when the un. known was monstrous terror-stuff and ignorance bred demons and a poor shivering wretch crouched down to -moan his incantations in some black cave, alone and helpless...
...So long' as democracy exists and men are free to govern themselves, progress can be made...
...How accurate were the fears then exposed, that Hughes' political and professional career and background would rivet a reactionary hide-bound Constitution upon a new industrial America seeking to cope with •rent economic frontiers...
...This applies to the Walsh-Healey Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act,' the National Labor Relations Act, etc...
...Britain, and the British labor movement in Particular, stands between us and the most ^solute enemy democracy has ever faced...
...Their work is supplementary and of great value...
...This cannot happen ,to mankind...
...Nightmare will rale...
...that's going lickety-split and you can't stop it...
...Some perfect country...
...Yon ought to remember what made this 'country, who it was fashioned, who it was preserved,' what dreams . went into the building and what struggle...
...You'loved America when you scat into the proud city with its hard-built spires, and yen saw for yourself the epitome of industry and labor, all new-shining...
...We made freedom the law of the land...
...Work with us now when we need you...
...Hardship and sacrifice were...
...This was not...
...IT is remarkable that there have been so few * strikes...
...Too many American industrialists want to monopolize defense production...
...For his successful struggle to give a larger measure of democratic civil rights to all...
...Take a look about you and see the great progress that remains to be made...
...I say that's the way it is, aad if you don't like it you've got just one to blame for it and that's Hitler...
Vol. 24 • July 1941 • No. 29
