THE REACTIONARY RAID ON CONGRESS
The Reactionary Raid On Congress ONE hundred and forty-four years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote into the Declaration of Independence the principles upon which the American Government was...
...The selection of Mr...
...And we can not have reduction of armaments until we have established the principle that no democratic government should send battleships and armies to foreign lands to protect the exploiting privileges of a handful of its citizens...
...Root if the choice would not appear untimely in view of the Treaty situation in this country * * * "Mr...
...It is provided in Article 423 that the Court shall decide "any question, or dispute, relating to the operation of this part of the present Treaty, or of any subsequent convention concluded by the members in pursuance of the provisions of this part of the present treaty...
...In 1916, Mr...
...To find any laws approaching in severity the laws proposed for muzzling the press and limiting free speech and free press in this country, we must go back to the Stuarts of England and Bourbons of France...
...We favor such legislation as may be needful and helpful, in promoting direct cooperation and eliminating waste, speculation and excessive profits between producer and consumer, as offering some measure of relief from the oppressive and intolerable economic conditions under which the farmer, the wage earner, and people generally suffer at this time...
...The excuse offered for sedition laws, wholesale deportations of aliens, the unseating of representatives elected by the people and other forms of witch-hunting lately manifested in the United States is the old plea that the people are not fit to govern themselves...
...Root's neighbors In the state of New York have had experience with Mr...
...Nine years ago Senator La Follette was operated upon by the Doctors Mayo for the removal of gall stones...
...THE RAILROAD BILL—The Cummins bill passed the Senate, the Esch Bill passed the House, the Conference Committee agreed upon a compromise Bill...
...The New York "World," administration organ, describes the Graham Bill as "the most amazing combination of proscription and tyranny ever presented to a free people in the form of a statute...
...The President, in his capacity as leader of his party has, however, committed himself to the principle of compulsory military training...
...The expenses of the present year of peace, it has been estimated, will be approximately $11,000,000,000, or ten times the annual pre-war expense...
...The legislation already passed at this session, and that now pending in Congress, which menaces real democracy, may be listed as follows: THE SEDITION BILLS—these consist of the Sterling Bill, passed by the Senate...
...That operation was entirely successful but the gall sac was not taken out...
...The recent collapse of the illegal and inhuman Russian policy—into which our own country was led, in violation of our traditions, and our Constitution—by the secret machinations of diplomats at Paris, should be an object lesson to the American people...
...to change those agents or the organization of them in form or function whenever they please...
...Root, the recognized foe of all progressive legislation designed to benefit American labor, thus becomes America's representative on the Commission of the League of Nations, which will organize and define the powers of the League "Supreme Court...
...From 1907 to 1911, Germany appropriated each year $200,000,000 for her military establishment...
...as free to transact their common concerns by any agents they think proper...
...XVII...
...Underlying all these is the supreme issue: SHALL THE GOVERNMENT SERVE THE INTERESTS OF THE FEW OR THE INTERESTS OF THE MANY...
...We favor repeal of the Esch-Cummins railroad law, by which the people are forced to guarantee railroad profit, while such railroads are privately owned, and declare for the ultimate public ownership of railroads, and the gradual acquisition of stock yard terminals, large packing plants, and all other natural resources, the private ownership of which is the basis of private monopoly...
...How strangely Jefferson's words contrast with the demands of the Department of Justice and frightened members of Congress for laws to protect the people from "radicalism" and the Government from "change...
...Monopoly wants conscription in time of peace because the adoption of such a policy would mean the death of the old conceptions of democracy and individual liberty...
...and hold him for three years liable to call for actual service whenever any emergency may be declared to, exist...
...The American people know that for a quarter of a century Elihu Root has Platform of La FoUette Progressive Republican Candidates For Presidential Delegates In Wisconsin I. We favor the immediate conclusion of peace and resumption of trade with all countries...
...Aside from the bankers and traders who have selfish interests at stake, there are many good men and women who fa-vor the League of Nations, relying mainly on the hope that the League will actually "promote International co-operation" and "achieve International peace and security...
...It is a matter of common knowledge in Washington that were it not for the approaching elections, Congress would pass each of the other measures above referred to by large majorities...
...Big Business demanded, and has secured the passage of, the conference report on the Cummins-Esch Bill...
...The Allied blockade of Russia, unauthorized by any American legal enactment, and the control of the economic life of the Central Powers—as a result of which thousands are starving in Austria and in Germany—form but a feeble prophecy of the power to be exercised by the Council of the League of Nations...
...The enactment of this legislation is a challenge to the people and unless the voters of this country have decided to accept the 'Dictatorship" of Wall Street the members of Congress and United States Senators who voted for this bill will find it an important issue in their next campaign...
...After his retirement from eight years in the presidency Jefferson said: "I am not among those who fear the people...
...He declared that he "never had a feeling politically" which did not spring from the Declaration of Independence...
...The only precedent in federal legislation for the sedition measure is the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798...
...When zealous agents of the Government arrest suspected "radicals" without warrant, hold them without prompt trial, deny them access to counsel, and admission to bail, and when the courts inflict upon them excessive fines and cruel and unusual punishments and sustain statutes which violate the organized law, we have shorn the Bill of Rights of its sanctity as a shield to every American citizen...
...It is admitted that the return of the roads to private hands will result in an increase in rates of about $700,000,-000...
...VIII We oppose the exile of any person lawfully admitted to this country, except for crime fixed by law, and then only upon trial and conviction by jury...
...Riot, assault and battery and disorderly conduct are set down as sedition, and contempt of court is made a felony...
...We demand that taxes be laid upon wealth in proportion to ability to pay, in such manner as will prevent such tax burdens being shifted to the backs of the poor, in higher prices and increased cost of living...
...The people can defeat the passage of the Sedition Bills and the Military Appropriation Bill, by making themselves heard at the Capitol...
...The Reactionary Raid On Congress ONE hundred and forty-four years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote into the Declaration of Independence the principles upon which the American Government was established:—equality of opportunity, self-government, and the inalienable right of every man to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...
...The foremost defender of these principles since Jefferson was Abraham Lincoln...
...We demand the abolition of injunctions in labor disputes...
...Root's handiwork, because they knew instinctively, that the public interest would not thrive under its operation...
...These recommendations blast the hope that the League will end war and militarism...
...V. We favor the repeal of the Espionage and Sedition Act, and denounce the attempt to write such laws into the permanent statutes of the country...
...The maximum penalty provided in the Sedition Law of that year was a fine of $5,000 and imprisonment for FIVE YEARS...
...Root with greater accuracy, and with more regard to their own proper interests, than it can be gauged by even the most astute diplomats of the Old World...
...It is well known that Mr...
...In the latter days of the Revolutionary War he wrote: "Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone...
...Elsewhere in Part XIII, a world legislature, with power to initiate measures having to do with the regulations of hours of work, minimum wage scales, child and woman labor, sickness and old age insurance, regulation of the labor supply, and prevention of unemployment, is established...
...It would make us a party to the enslavement of Egypt and Indian, the rape of China, and the ruthless oppression of Ireland...
...To date the Commission has completed the valuation of only three roads finally and tentatively of only fifty-six, the largest being the Kansas City Southern...
...Altho the bill remained in conference for weeks it was passed bearing the unmistakable finger print of Wall Street on most of its provisions...
...We would favor a League for Peace, composed of ell the nations of the world, provided they were mutually pledged by binding covenants, with proper guarantees, to abolish compulsory military service, and, provided further, that the several nations mutually bind themselves to a speedy disarmament, reducing the land and naval forces of each nation to the strict requirements of a purely police and patrol service...
...The government should, in conjunction with Canada, take immediate action to give the Northwestern states an outlet to the ocean for cargoes, without change in bulk, thus making the primary markets on the great lakes equal to those of New York...
...In January he went to the Mayos and was examined by them...
...His Majesty the King of Spain...
...With such a law in force" The "World" correctly states, "political controversy as always carried on in this country, labor strikes as usually conducted, challenges of laws believed to be unconstitutional, and heated disputes between vociferous individuals may easily be brought under its drag-net clauses...
...served Special Privilege in the courts, in the Senate, and in the councils of his party...
...La Follette TIE large number of inquiries coming to the Magazine concerning Senator La Follette's health has prompted us to take this means of advising his friends and the public of the actual situation...
...The reported selection of Mr...
...The Imperial German Criminal Code of 1870, signed by Bismarck, contained a sedition clause which the Iron Chancellor and the former Kaiser applied vigorously in order to exterminate Socialism in Germany...
...The prince of American reactionaries is named the guardian of "Labor's Charter...
...Part XIII of the Treaty has been called by President Wilson "Labor's Charter," and on the strength of it many workers have given their support to the League...
...This operation would have been had at once but for the influenza epidemic...
...Taxpayer are required to furnish a return to the tune of six per cent...
...It is likely that the cause of world democracy and world peace will be advanced by a League at whose seat a Root and a Morgan will be found cheek by jowl...
...III...
...In 1904 he wrote: "To open the doors of truth, and to fortify the habit of testing everything by reason, are the most effectual manacles we can rivet on the hands of our successors to prevent their manacling the people with their own consent...
...Root as a constitution builder...
...The Court may also give an advisory opinion upon any dispute, or question, referred to it by the Council, or the Assembly...
...His Majesty the Emperor of Japan J His Majesty the King of Italy...
...The Davey Bill also provides for the deportation of aliens and naturalized citizens convicted under the act...
...The great problem before the people today is not sedition laws, military training, or railroad legislation...
...Hardly less radical than the sedition bills in its departure from American principles and tradition is the pending Wads-worth-Kahn Military Appropriations Bill...
...Whether the League Covenant is adopted, or rejected, we can not have peace in the world until armaments are reduced, and the people are given a referendum vote on war...
...We demand the immediate restoration of free speech, free press, peaceable assembly, and all civil rights and liberties guaranteed by the constitution...
...THE MILITARY APPROPRIATIONS BILL—reported favorably to both Houses of Congress...
...Root may go to Geneva, and he will there meet congenial representatives sent from other lands...
...The farmers, labor, and the mass of the consumers will pay an added tax of four or five billions a year in the form of increased freight rates, as a result of this legislation...
...In 1903, the late Czar Nicholas II proclaimed the Penal Code of the Imperial Russian Government, with a maximum penalty for sedition, of imprisoment for EIGHT YEARS...
...It is thus seen," says Senator McKel-lar, a member of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, "that we are going to spend a sum more than four times as much as Germany ever spent in peace times for her great military system, and more than seven times as much as she ever spent in any year of peace, except that one when she was preparing for war...
...We denounce the alarming usurpation of legislative power, by the federal courts, as subversive of democracy, and we favor such amendments to the constitution, and thereupon, the enactment of such statutes as may be necessary, to provide for the election of all federal judges, for fixed terms not exceeding ten years, by direct vote of the people...
...The Court may, under Article 418, "affirm, vary, or reverse any of the findings, or recommendations" of a Commission of Inquiry appointed to investigate any dispute between nations on labor questions, and shall "indicate the measures, if any, of an economic character which it considers to be appropriate, and which other Governments would be justified in adopting against the defaulting Government...
...Root has been recognized in Europe as the very foremost of American international jurists...
...In 1799, one year before his election to the Presidency, Jefferson wrote to El-bridge Gerry: "I am for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution, to silence by force and not by reason, the complaints or critic-isms, just or unjust, of our citizens THE REACTIONARY RAID against the conduct of their agents...
...The vote of 106 to 17 by which the Democrats in the House rejected compulsory military training indicates that public sentiment is aroused against the pending Bill...
...The six per cent guarantee on all classes of railroad securities for a period of two years is still one of the main provisions of the bill...
...Root presided over the convention which wrote a new organic law for the state of New York...
...and the republics of France and Brazil...
...The Conference bill which has passed both Houses, has been signed by the President, and is now the law, returns the railroads to the private owners with a guaranty of 6 per cent profit on all securities (including billions of watered stock...
...They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom...
...It is the most ambitiously audacious and expensive military proposal in all history...
...And again: "I consider the people who constitute a society or nation as the source of all authority in that nation...
...If the people but hold fast to their best reliance: free speech, a free press, and the right of election, resisting every encroachment made upon these fundamental liberties, they can restore representative government in the United States...
...The voters of New York knew Mr...
...Far more important, however, are the powers granted to the Court in the so-called "Labor Section," known as Part XIII of the Treaty...
...Root, and his associates, are to write the fundamental law...
...The Graham, Sterling and Davey Sedition bills are ostensibly aimed at persons seeking the overthrow or "change" of the Government "by force...
...Jefferson stated the fundamental objections to laws of repression when ha said: "The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government and to protect its free expression should be our first object...
...The Bill provides for a standing army of 300,000 officers and men, and for the conscription of every American boy of 18 years for compulsory military training...
...Sitting in Europe, three thousand miles from American shores, these men will decide questions or peace and war, and determine the economic conditions affecting the lives of every people under the sun...
...During the Treaty debate at the close of the last session and in the railroad bill fight just before the holidays the Senator was under excessive strain which coupled with an attack of influenza caused a recurrence of the old gall stone trouble...
...We demand economy in government, to replace the extravagance run riot under the present administration...
...The law also provides that the Interstate Commerce Commission shall immediately fix the value of all the railroad lines of the country in order that this guaranteed return of six per cent may be maintained...
...Root by eight diplomats of foreign nations, sitting on the League Council, as this country's representative on the commission which will draft the constitution of the "Supreme Court of the World...
...The people must elect representatives definitely pledged against this measure in order to prevent its passage by either of the parties which may be successful in the November elections...
...His Majesty the King of Greece...
...Monopoly seeks the destruction of free speech and a free press because it knows that it cannot stand the light of free discussion...
...The Doctors advised him to return home and do only a very moderate amount of work in order that he might be in the best possible condition for the operation which they firmly believe will restore him to his usual vigor and health...
...the Graham Bill, reported favorably by the House Judiciary Committee...
...The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories...
...We favor such amendments to the Constitution, and thereupon the enactment of such statutes as may be necessary to extend the initiative, and the referendum, to national legislation, and the recall to Representatives in Congress and United States Senators...
...The cost of the Bill to the tax-payer is estimated at from $500,-000,000 to $1,500,000,000 per annum...
...The suggestion may smack of lese ma-jeste, but it must be said that the American people have already taken the measure of Mr...
...Article 416 provides that "The decision of the Permanent Court of International Justice, in regard to a complaint, or matter, which has been referred to it * * * shall be final...
...Meanwhile, friends and enemies alike of the League—tired of militarism and war—stand aghast while cabinet officers and members of Congress, devout adherents of the League, demand staggering appropriations for huge navies, a standing army of half a million men, and universal military training...
...Root by the Council of the League at once raises the question: What are the principal functions of the Permanent Court of International Justice, for which Mr...
...Monopoly demanded the Cummins-Esch bill because it knows that continued control of transportation by the government will undermine monopoly power...
...Since that time the Mayo Clinic has found it necessary to perform another operation in a large majority of such cases to remove the gall sac which tends to infect...
...We favor paying the soldiers of the late war a sufficient sum to make their war wages equal to at least civilian pay, and- this as a matter of right, and not as charity, ot bonus...
...and the Davey Bill, drafted and endorsed by Attorney-General Palmer...
...It is not a party issue...
...Precedents have been set and court decisions rendered within the last three years, which will remain a lasting curse to the people of this country...
...The bill was signed by President Wilson on February 28th in spite of the protest of the two million railroad employees, the American Society of Equity and the Farmers' National Council...
...Jefferson rightly contended that the rulers of the people, not the people themselves, must be watched...
...XVIII...
...She had authorized an expenditure of $210,000,000 for 1914, the year of the outbreak of the war...
...subject him to four months of compulsory military training when he has reached the age of 18 years...
...The dispatch announced that the League Council, meeting this month in London, will launch the Permanent Court of International Justice, and has already selected a commission of "seven or eight of the most eminent jurists in the world" to draft a constitution for the Court...
...This subject is now under negotiation with the viewpoint expressed by other nations that they very much desire to name Mr...
...Root, are the diplomatic agents of His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India...
...Recognizing the "irrepressible conflict" between Special Privilege and the rights of the people, Monopoly is demanding of Congress laws which will sacrifice the political system inherited from Jefferson and Lincoln in order to maintain, unimpaired, the economic system inherited from Harriman, Hill, and the elder Morgan...
...Let no man think that we can deny civil liberty to others and retain it for ourselves...
...XVI...
...The Railroad Fight THE Cummins-Esch railroad bill has become a law...
...Diplomats sent to Geneva, by the United States, and the other members of the League, will be constantly subjected to the influence of international bankers and monopolists like Morgan—who, by the way, is now in Europe on a world mission for the Steel Trust—and other great aggregations of capital whose interests have become international...
...When this principle is accepted, the United States will cease to consider seriously the sending of American boys to Mexico to protect the Rockefeller, Morgan, Guggenheim interests, just as Great Britain will no longer tax the people of the United Kingdom and the Dominions, in order to maintain a cruel and despotic government over the exploited millions of India, Egypt, and Asia Minor...
...The past quarter of a century in the United States has witnessed a steady undermining of representative government, as conceived by Jefferson and Lincoln...
...His Majesty the King of Belgium...
...Not only labor, but farmers, manufacturers, business men will be touched vitally by the control the League will exert over markets, transport, raw materials...
...The Davey Bill, drawn by Attorney General Palmer, provides: "Whoever with the intent to levy war against the United States, or to cause the change, overthrow, or destruction of the Government or of any of the laws of authority thereof, or to cause the overthrow or destruction of all forms of law or organized government, or to oppose, prevent, hinder, delay the execution of any law of the United States, or the free performance by the United States Government, or any one of its officers, agents, or employees, of its or his public duty, commits, or attempts, or threatens to commit, any act of force against any person or any property, or any act of terrorism, hate, revenge, or injury against the person or property of any officer, agent, or employee of the United States, shall be deemed guilty of sedition, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding $10,000, or by imprisonment for a period not exceeding twenty years, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court...
...Let the people compare the American brand of militarism to the militarism of Prussia which the war destroyed...
...In 1912 she spent $230,000,000 and in 1913, the year before the war, $360,000,000...
...Director-General Hines estimates this advance in rates will increase the cost of living to the consumers from three to four billions per annum...
...We oppose all legislation conferring upon the Postmaster General, or any other governmental agency, the power to deny the mailing privilege to any person, without Jndici-cial hearing, and the right of appeal...
...The Associated Press, on January 27, sent out a dispatch which must have chilled the ardor of every sincere advocate of the League who is at heart a believer in democracy...
...What do the American people think of the selection of Mr...
...It is no secret that the private owners who have so lately been condemning the extravagance of Government operation through an insidious propaganda will now demand a rate increase aggregating more than $700,000,000 a year, which, according to the estimates of the Interstate Commerce Commission, will be three and a half billions by the time it reaches the consuming public...
...This principle will be established, not by a League of Nations, functioning through statesmen of the Root stamp, but by the action of the American people in assuming control of their own Government, and fashioning its foreign, as well as its domestic, policies in their own interests...
...Jefferson and Lincoln spent their lives demonstrating the falsity of this doctrine...
...We are opposed to the League of Nations as a standing menace to peace, and we denounce the Treaty as a violation of the pledges made to the world and a betrayal of the honor of this nation...
...Te entire plan it is estimated will cost $1,500,000,-000 a year...
...They pronounced him in excellent physical condition except for the gall bladder trouble but were very positive in their advice favoring an operation for its removal...
...We pledge the people that, if elected as delegates to the National Republican Convention, we will use our best efforts to promote these principles and nominate candidates in sympathy with them...
...We favor a platform for the republican party, embracing these principles, and a candidate for president whose public record is a guaranty that he is in full accord therewith...
...We oppose compulsory military service in time of peace...
...X. We favor laws permitting labor and farm organizations, for the purpose of collective bargaining, in industry, trade and commerce...
...These bills limit free speech, free press, and free assemblage, carrying penalties of heavy fines, imprisonment, deportation, and in the case of the Graham Bill, the penalty of DEATH...
...This movement, rising among the people, uniting the real producers, the farmer and the laborer, and the consumer, is the real hope of democracy in the United States today...
...The maximum penalty for sedition under the Kaiser was imprisonment for FIVE YEARS...
...This book value reaches the staggering sum of $19,000,000,000, upon which you Mr...
...We denounce the use of our soldiers in countries with which we are not at war, and we favor the speedy reduction of world armaments...
...Monopoly—in full control of the production, transportation and sale of the necessities of life—is giving tangible proof that it cannot exist side by side with political freedom...
...The issue is not dead, however, and the American people will discover to their despair that the measure is the most clever piece of legislative plundering ever perpetrated upon an over burdened people...
...We favor other laws liberally recognizing the patriotic devotion of our soldiers in all our wars...
...FRED L. HOLMES, Managing Editor...
...We favor a deep waterway from the great lakes to the sea...
...In addition to this force, which will supply 1,000,000 trained soldiers each year, the bill provides for a standing army of 300,000 officers and men...
...They rejected the constitution, regarded as Mr...
...It calls sharply to mind the fatal defect of the League: namely, that by reason of the purely appointive character of its membership, it will inevitably become a preserve for able but reactionary statesmen, who, like Mr...
...Elihu Root MANY good American citizens doubtless rejoiced on February 9 when the United States Senate voted to reconsider its rejection of the Treaty with Germany...
...Root, have been retired from public life in this country...
...The continued rise in the cost of living, and the utter failure of the Government to keep its promises to reduce the burdens on the mass of the people have caused a reaction throughout the country...
...XIII...
...This document, upon being submitted to a referendum, was promptly rejected by an overwhelming majority...
...Within the last generation, the power of organized wealth, combining under every known form of monopoly, has come between the people and their government...
...And these drastic laws are brought forward in the United States after the people have given proof of their loyalty by raising billions in taxes, putting 5,000,000 men under arms, bearing doubled living costs, and giving unlimited powers to the Administration, in a war "to make the world safe for democracy...
...The Permanent Court of International Justice is the court of last resort in all disputes arising between members of the League on matters pertaining to labor, or to economic questions growing out of labor legislation...
...Root would not be selected to represent the American people in any national capacity, if a choice were left to the people,but with the power of selection resting in the League itself, or, at best, in the reigning monarchs,or executive departments, of the respective nations, Mr...
...Root to represent this country in the first important activity of the League should set the friends of the Treaty to thinking...
...XII...
...We have here definitions of treason unknown to the Constitution...
...Therefore since the Commission is required to fix the value at once they must accept the book value of the roads with all the water and fictitious capital included...
...The undeniable evidences that our former allies are only awaiting the entrance of the United States into the League to transfer to the American taxpayer the burden of $10,000,000,000 borrowed from our treasury, by using all its power to effect the cancellation of the Allied debt, should likewise cause the people to pause...
...The acceptance of this principle will undermine imperialism: the cause of war...
...The members of the Council, who have thus tentatively selected Mr...
...The dispatch continues: "Elihu Root, former Secretary of State in the United States, is known to have been selected as the American member of the Commission, but it is not yet certain that the Council will feel free to make the actual appointment in advance of America's ratification of the Treaty...
...Whoever makes, displays, writes, prints, or circulates any sign, word, speech, picture, design, argument or teaching which advises, advocates, teaches, or justifies any act of sedition, as heretofore defined * * * shall be punished by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or by both...
...A program of legislation is now pending in Congress which, if enacted into law, strikes at the very life of our democratic institutions...
...Root as a corporation lawyer, with his principal clients in offices in Wall Street...
...XIX...
...We condemn the system that permits 18,000 millionaires to be produced from war profits,—one millionaire for every three American soldiers killed in France...
...But they will only succeed in postponing passage until after November, 1920, unless they drive from office the men recognized as sponsors for this legislation...
...Article 14 of the League Covenant provides that the Court "shall be competent to hear and determine any dispute of an international character which the parties thereto submit to...
...XIV...
...ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE, JR...
...They know that he has consistently opposed every piece of progressive legislation presented during his public service, and that, in his capacity as a retained attorney, he has employed his legal talents to protect corporate wealth from just taxation, and to aid it in undermining democracy for more than half a century...
...After a war to end militarism, the people are asked to conscript in time of peace every boy born on American soil...
Vol. 12 • March 1920 • No. 3
