The New York herald., 1920-01-29
FRANCE PROTESTS
SOCIALISTS CASE
Maryland Senator in Message
to Citizens Freedom Meet
ing DeploreS Ousting.
WARNS ABOUT INTOLERANCE
Expulsion of ASsemblymen Should
Have Been Impossible Under Con-
stitution, He Writes.
(SpeciaI Despatch to the Herald }

Special Despatch to the HerdldJ
WASHINGTON, D. c.. Wenesday.-In a
letter sent tonight TO John Mlholland,
chairman of the Citizens Freedom meeting
ing Madison Square Garden, New York,
Senator France, Republican or Maryland,
protests against the exclusion from the
New York Assembly of five Socialists.
Senator France was to have spoken at the
meeting, bur was prevented by Illness.
THE tides of intolerance are running
swift and dangerous" declared Senator
France
Here is the letter -
Il regret that illness prevents my speak
ine at the meeting to protest against the
exclusion of duly elected Socialist Repre-
Sentatives from the New York Legisla =
turc.
we arc in a serious situation. The tides
of intolerance are running swift and dan
gerous. The skies are overcast with the
storm clouds of confusion and doubt. The
breakers are perilously near, and this
great republic is being carried toward the
rocks by amateur helmsmen who refuse to
look at the compass and who seem to have
q contempt for the chart.
Let those who love freedom return to
the faith of their fathers. and take up the
defence of the constitution of the country
against the insidous enemies who as
sail II.
Tyranny Impossible in United states.
Our constitution is so framed that. so
long as its duly elected officers revere and
obey it, all forms of tyranny in America,
either the tyranny OF the few over the
many or of the many over the few. remain
impossible. Never before has the supreme
value OF the federal constitution been more
evident
Without a violation of the spirit and of
the letter of the constitution the invasion
Of Russia by American troops and the
Keeping of those troops upon Russian soil
in the absence of declaration of war by
The Congress would have been impossible.
Without a violation or the spirit and of
the letter of the constitution the bounding
OF American citizens by federal agents
acting. under federal statutes to prosecute
them for words only as distinguished from
overacts against the government would
be impossible. Congress is under a per-
manent constitutional mandate to make no
law abridgtng the freedom of speech or
OF the press or of the right of the people
pcaceably to assemble and petition the
government for the redress Of their
grievances.
Without a violation of the spirit and of
the letter of the constitution the sentenc-
Ing ana holding in prison under n federal
statute OF political prisoners, who have
been sentenced for. words only, as dis
tinguished from violence or direct incita-
ton to violence against the government
would be impossible.
Guarantees Republican Rule.
In my judgment without n violation of
the spirit and of the letter of the constitIl-
ton the exclusion of the Socialists duly
and legally elected TO the New York Leg
islature should have been impossible, since
.i,ne Gnited States under Section our of
.ffucle -Four guarantees to every State in
me Union Republican form OF govern
i,en,,b,,dse is inconeeivable to me that a
nialntalned If ma jority can exclude from
LEGISLATURE legally elected members ~
majority party whose tenets NAV be
ulstasteful TO il.
unless 1t be perverted, our constitu-
ZION prevents tyranny and the people
shouiu rally to its deefnce against all men
VINO attack or pervert Il.
Lincoln said. The peopla of these
United States are the rigbtf,lI masters Of
poth congress and the courts, not TO over
throw the constitution. but TO overtbrow
the men who pervert it"
IN a statement accompanying conies ~
tne letter made public here senator
rance said 1t was not true that the Now
ork meeting is n Socialist meeting hut
that 1t is made up of loyal citizens of the
country INC
1T seems to me that at this time there
- nut one acid test of loyalty" said the
statement rs the man truly loyal to
that liberty which we so long enioyed in
America before the war, and to the CON
s'itution OF the United States the f1nda-
mental law of the land. which guarantees
to rs, that liberty? If that test is fairIv
applied | feel that many men in public
lite, and many Of our best jntenfioned
c,tlzens VIII find themselves failing far