New Britain herald., 1917-08-21
DRAFT LAW UPHELD
 BY GEORGIA JUDGE
Opinion Dis6resses to Defend
 Sending Troops to Europe

Mount Airy, Ga., Aug. 21.-In deny ing a writ of habeas corpus to two slackers who refused to register, Unit | ed States Judge Emory Speer of the Southern District of Georgia yester- day upheld in toto the constitutionali-
 ty of the selective draft law
 The language of the opinion, the first rendered on the subject is most unusual in that the judge not only de- parts from judicial phrases to make a fiery defence of the plan to send American troops abroad, but also as
 serts that the nation has a right to use
 every man and every energy ito de- feat the migration to its soil of mighty
 nations or ferocious warriors whose
 barbarous inhumanity for three years
 has surpassed all others since the
 death of Attila, the scourge of God.'
 The attorney for the slackers was
 Tom Watson. whose paper has been carrying on a campaign against the law which has caused trouble all over the country.
 Judges Opinion.
 The petitioners, now imprisoned in
 Georgia, contend that the act violated the Thirteenth Amendment prohibit ,, ing slavery. The opinion says ITO agree to this contention we must conclude that the soldier is a slave. Nothing could be more ab- l horrent to the truth, nothing more de- l grading to that indispensable and gal lant body of citizens trained in arms to whose manhood, skill and courage is and must be committed the task of maintaining the very existence of the nation and all that it's people hold
 dear. The Grand Army of the Repub- 1 lie and the Confederate Veterans are not maintained to preserve the tradi- tions of slavery. Nations do not pen- sion slaves to commemorate their va Tor r
 l "The sole additional ground of the ] petition is that by the common law it 1 was the right of petitioners to remain
 within the realm and that this right i should now be held to relieve them from military service beyond the bor- l ders of the United States.
 "The reply is that the common law, 1 that is the immemorial English com 1 mon law, cannot prevail as to the 1 United States or it's people against the 1 explicit provision of an act of Con- i gress. Nor has a court of the United
 States power to declare an act of Con- 1 gress invalid because it is 1nimical to i the common law. The touchstone for SuCn JuQ1C1al power IS LIe COHSllCuClOn l and nothing else.
 Ut remains to be determined wheth-
 CT the Constitution has conferred au- | thority on Congress to enact this law. | Clause Il of Article I, Section 8 of 1 the Constitution empowers Congress | to raise and support armies. This 1 power is plenary. It is not restricted l in any manner. Congress may sum- i mon to it's army thus authorized every 1 citizen of the United States Since it
 may summon all it may summon any. 1 Service Abroad.
 l There rema aims to be considered the l contention that Congress cannot em- ploy the national army to be created by virtue of this legislation in foreign
 lands beyond the seas. If this is l tent. Then must it's people indeed suf- fer in their own homes, in their cities
 and on their farms all the horrors of
 invasive war.
 Was this contention maintainable, 1 the misguided men who for their per" l sonal case advance it might all too l late discover their fatal error. They
 would discover it in the flaming home. steads, in the devastated fields in mur- | dered brethren, in outraged wives and
 daughters; in their lands, their fac-
 tories. their merchandise, their stock
 their all, coolly appropriated by the 1 conqueror; homeless, landless and