Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-01-13
DANGER OF SNAP JUDGMENTS
IN DEALINGS WITH RADICALS
Is Sharply Contrasted With Case of
Victor Berger at Washington

Is Sharply Contrasted With Case of
Victor Berger at Washington
THE action of the New York Assembly
= in suspcnding five Socialist members,
pending the determination of their
qualifications and eligibility to their re-
spective seats" is not surprising to those
who have been following the progress of
the campaign for the suppression of free
thought and free speech in America.
1t is the logical outcome of the extreme
anti-sedition legislation, accomplished
already in some states and urged upon
Congress by Attorney General Palmer.
The offense of the suspended New York
assemblymen is that they are Socialists,
that they believe in a social revolution be-
cause they are convinced that our polti-
cal and economic system is not the best.
So far as is known, no other crime is
charged against them. When the judiciary
committee of the Assembly meets in
Albany tomorrow to consider their case
other accusations may be made, accusa-
tions which WILL if sustained, make them
ineligible to seat in the state Legis-
lature. But at present they stand accused
of nothing more serious than of belonging
to a political party whose tenets are
offensive to the majority of the Assembly
which ordered their suspension. If, as
now seems likely, former Justice Hughes
appears in their defense their rights will
be most convincingly stated.
There is very sharp distinction be-
tween the case of Victor Berger, whom
the national House of Representatives has
twice refused to seat after the voters in
his Milwaukee district had twice elected
him, and the case of the New York
assemblymen.
Berger Was convicted of the crime of
giving aid and comfort to the enemy in
time of war, and on February 20, 1919,
was sentenced toimprisonment for twenty
years. A writ of error was granted and
he was admitted to S25 900 bail, pending
final determination of the case.
There is no dispute of the charge that
he gave aid and comfort to the enemy. He
admits it, and he insists that if he had to
do it over again he would follow the same
course
Now, the federal constitution provides
that the Senate and the House of Repre-
sentatves are the sole judges Of the cleo
ton and qualification of their members.
which means that they alone may decide
whether the members have the constitu-
tiOnal qualifications and whether the
members have been elected in accordance
with the proper forms of law. 1t does not
mean that a Republican House may de-
eide that a Republican, who has polled
10000 votes, is elected over a Democrat
who has polled $4,000. Nor does it mean
that the House of Representatives may
seat member who is only twenty-one
years old.
Certain qualifications are fixed in the
constitution and each house must exer-
else its power subject to the limitation
fixed by the constitution itself. One Of
the qualifications is that member must
be at least twenty-five years old. Another
is that mo person shall be a senator or
representative in Congress
who having previously taken an oath as
member of Congress to sup
port the constitution of the United States
shall have engaged in insurrection or re-
bellon against the same, or given aid or
comfort to the enemies thereof"
SO long as Berger, who once took the
oath, is under conviction of having given
aid and comfort to the enemy of the
United States it would seem that the
House of Representatives has no power to
seat him, however many times the voters
of the Fifth Wisconsin district may re-
elect him. And he would not be eligible
even after he had served his sentence,
unless Congress, not the House alone but
the Senate as well, should, by a two
thirds vote, remove his disability.
1t should be noted tn the House re-
fused to seat Berger, not because he is a
Socialist but because of the crime of
which he has been convicted. He has sat
in the House as Socialist, taking his seat
in 1911 with no objection from any one.
And in 1915 and 1917 Meyer London, of
New YORK, elected twice as a Socialist,
was twice allowed to take his seat with
out question. The right of a district to
send whom it chooses to Congress, pro-
vided the candidate is legally eligible, is
unquestioned. On it rests the virtue of
representative government,
The New York Assembly, however, has
acted as though a Socialist we're prima
facie criminal and must prove his inno-
CfIce DeIOIe ne Is pellllLLtt 10 take MS
seat in the Legislature. If this assump-
ton be allowed, no unconyicted man
whose political views are abhorent to the
party in control of a legislative body has
any assurance that he will be permitted
to take his seat, no matter by how large
a majority he may have been elected
If belief in socialism make a man in
eligible then belief in the referendum
would disqualifS man, for the consti-
tuition guarantees to each state a republi-
can form of government, and the refer
endum is an expedient of democracy; that
is. rule of the people without the in
tervention of republican representative
institutions.
A strong protectonist majority in Con-
gress might unseat every free trader on
the charge that the advocacy of free trade
involved an attack upon the foundations